What is "jaffna"

Jaffna most often refers to Jaffna city, the capital of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka.

Jaffna may also refer to:

• Jaffna Municipal Council, the local authority for the city of Jaffna
• Jaffna District, the northernmost district of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka
• Jaffna Electoral District, a multi-member electoral district of Sri Lanka
• Jaffna Electoral District (1947–1989), a former single-member electoral district of Sri Lanka
• Jaffna Peninsula, the geographic location of most of Jaffna District
• Jaffna kingdom, a kingdom in northern Sri Lanka 8th-16th century
• Jaffna Tamil (disambiguation)
• Jaffna Diocese (disambiguation), Roman Catholic diocese for Jaffna
• University of Jaffna
• Jaffna Hindu College, primary to high school
• Jaffna Youth Congress, which was the first of Sri Lanka's Youth Leagues
• Little Jaffna (disambiguation)

Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th largest city. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb, Nallur served as the capital of the four centuries-long medieval Jaffna kingdom. Prior to the Sri Lankan civil war, it was Sri Lanka's second most populated city after the commercial capital Colombo. The 1980s insurgent uprising led to extensive damage, expulsion of part of the population, and military occupation. Since the end of civil war in 2009, refugees and internally displaced people have started to return to their homes and government and private sector reconstruction has begun.

Historically, Jaffna has been a contested city. It was made into a colonial port town during the Portuguese occupation of the Jaffna peninsula in 1619. The Dutch, took it from the Portuguese, only to lose it to the British in 1796. After Sri Lanka gained independence 1948, the political relationship between the minority Sri Lankan Tamils and majority Sinhalese worsened and after the Black July pogrom, civil war erupted in 1983. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) occupied Jaffna in 1986. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) briefly occupied the city in 1987. The LTTE again occupied the city from 1989 until 1995, when the Sri Lankan military gained control.

The majority of the city’s population are Sri Lankan Tamils, although there was a significant number of Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Tamils and other ethnic groups present in the city prior to the civil war. Most Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus followed by Christians, Muslims and a small Buddhist minority. The city is home to number of educational institutions established during the colonial and post-colonial period. It also has number of commercial institutions, minor industrial units, banks, hotels and other government institutions such as the hospital. It is home to the popular Jaffna library that was burnt down and rebuilt. The city is anchored by the Jaffna fort rebuilt during the Dutch colonial period.