Kanatte Cemetery

Kanatte Cemetery, also known locally as Borella Cemetery, is Colombo's main burial ground and crematorium.

Kanatte Cemetery
Borella Cemetery
Captain Henry Pedris' tomb at Kanatte Cemetery
Details
Established1866 (1866)
Location
509 Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Borella, Colombo
CountrySri Lanka
Coordinates6.90794°N 79.87748°E / 6.90794; 79.87748
TypeBritish military of WWI (closed)
British military of WWII (closed)
General (open)
Owned byColombo Municipal Council
Size19.3 ha (48 acres)
No. of graves120,000+ (363 war graves)[1]
Find a GraveKanatte Cemetery
Borella Cemetery

It is located at the intersection of Elvitigala Mawatha (Narahenpita Road), Bauddhaloka Mawatha (Bullers Road) and D. S. Senanayake Mawatha (Baseline Road).

The 19.3 ha (48 acres) cemetery is owned and operated by the Colombo Municipal Council and contains a Commonwealth War Graves Plot with a number of additional war graves dispersed around the site.[2] The war graves include those of a German soldier, a German merchant seaman, a German interned civilian and an Austrian nursing sister. There are over 60 World War I Commonwealth servicemen and nearly 300 World War II Commonwealth servicemen buried here.

The cemetery was established in 1866 and is the main place of burial for all religions and nationalities, with separate sections for Hindus, Buddhists, Shintos, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and non-denominational Christians.[3][4] The first burial was in May 1866,[5] prior to this most British burials occurred at the Galle Face Burial Grounds, an area near the current Presidential Secretariat building.[6] In the 1920s, those graves were exhumed and the remains were interred at Kanatte.[6]

The cemetery's most famous Westerner interred at the cemetery is British-born science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008).[7]

See also

References
  1. CWGC: Colombo (Kanatte) Cemetery
  2. "Borella cemetery hikes burial fees". The Daily Mirror. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  3. Chanaka, G. A.; Perera, K. (29 September 2013). "Who Goes There?". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  4. Dishan, Joseph (6 January 2019). "Beauty in the garden of eternal rest". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  5. Uragoda, C. G. (1987). A History of Medicine in Sri Lanka from the earliest times to 1948. Sri Lanka Medical Association. p. 157.
  6. Raheem, Ismeth; Colin-Thomé, Percy (2000). Images of British Ceylon: Nineteenth Century Photography of Sri Lanka. Times Editions. p. 117.
  7. "Borella Kanatte General Cemetery". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
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