Do you know where you live?
A guide to describing locations in Sri Lanka
Addresses, Provinces and Districts
The president of Sri Lanka lives at, 01 Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 01
[For those who don’t read Sinhala, “Janadhipathi Mawatha” means “President Avenue”].
“Colombo 01” denotes the “Colombo Fort” neighbourhood of Colombo, and is part of the Colombo District, which is, itself, part of the Western Province, one of Sri Lanka’s 9 provinces.
But there are other ways of describing where the president lives.
Post Codes
“Colombo 01” can be alternatively referred to by the post code “00100”. These five-digit post codes were first introduced in 1997.
[I couldn’t find an official list of Sri Lankan Post Codes. The most comprehensive list had 64 unique post codes in the Colombo District.]
Hence, the president lives in the 00100 post code area.
Local Government Divisions
After the central government, and provincial governments, local governments are the third and lowest level of government in Sri Lanka, and were introduced in the 13th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka in 1987.
