About the neighborhood
Suburb in Western Province, Sri Lanka
Pettah (Sinhala: පිටකොටුව (Piṭakoṭuwa), Tamil: புறக்கோட்டை (Puṟakkōṭṭai)) is a neighbourhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka, located east of the city centre Fort, and behind the Colombo Port. The Pettah neighborhood is famous for the Pettah Market, a series of open air night pasars and markets. It is one of Sri Lanka's busiest commercial areas, where a huge number of wholesale and retail shops, buildings, commercial institutions and other organisations are located.
The main market segment is designed like a gigantic crossword puzzle, where one may traverse through the entire markets from dawn till dusk, but not completely cover every part of it.
Pettah is derived from Tamil: Pettai, an Anglo-Indian word used to indicate a suburb outside a fort. Today, the Sinhala phrase, pita-kotuwa (outside the fort) conveniently describes the same place.
Demographics
Pettah is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic area. Moors, Bohras and Memons are the predominant ethnic group found within Pettah, however an average number of Sinhalese and Tamil populations also exist. There are also various other minorities, such as Burghers, Malays and others. Religions include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and various other religions and beliefs to a lesser extent.
Buildings and landmarks
Notable landmarks in the neighborhood include:
Wolvendaal Church
Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque
Kayman's Gate
Former Colombo Town Hall
Colombo Dutch Museum
Sammangodu Sri Kathirvelayutha Swami Kovil
Old Town Hall Market
Federation of Self Employees Market
Manning Market
Pettah Floating Market
Cross Street Bazaars
Central Bus Station
Khan Clock Tower
References
Look up pettah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Encyclopedic content adapted from the Wikipedia article on Pettah, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
