Peraliya
place in Southern Province, Sri Lanka
Peraliya is a small coastal village situated in Hikkaduwa, Galle District in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka.
The village could be reached from Colombo in three hours; it is located around Temple Road off the 95 km mark of Galle Road.
The village was devastated by the tsunami at around 9.26 am on December 26, 2004 following the Indian Ocean earthquake. An express train from Colombo towards Galle swept away killing at least 1,700 passengers. The village had lost 500 of its people, and 200 have gone missing.
“Peraliya” enters the record as place in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peraliya, place and Southern can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Peraliya” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peraliya, place and Southern provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20987456. Authority coordinates are 6.147, 80.110. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Peraliya”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Peraliya primary sources, Peraliya archive and Peraliya research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peraliya”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Peraliya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.