Totagamuwa is the name of a complex of villages just north of Hikkaduwa on the south-western coast of Sri Lanka. It is situated in the Wellaboda Pattu (division) of the Galle District.
The name Totagamuwa is derived from Tota (landing or ford) and gamuwa (village). It is mentioned in the Culawamsa as Titthagama (Pali for Landing Village). It lay beside a stream known as the Sima Nadi.
The Totagamuwa village stretched from Madampetota (modern Madampegama) in the the north to Molaputota (modern Totagamuwa) in the south, from the coast in the west to Metiwiltota in the east. In colonial times, hamlets within the village were separated administratively from each other, and the Totagamuwa name was given to the Molaputota hamlet.
At the centre of the village, in present-day Telwatte, lay the ancient Totagamuwa Vihara, the Purana Totagamuwa Raja Maha Vihara. This monastery dated back to the Anuradhapura era.
At Seenigama, just south from Telwatte, is the shrine of the God/Demon Devol, the Devol Devale.
The modern villages in the Totagamuwa area are:
In 1953, the Totagamuwa area was one of the centres of the unrest leading up to the Hartal, and a focal point of insurrectionary action during the Hartal itself. Reference
The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 affected the Totagamuwa area badly. Just south of Telwatte is Pereliya, the site of the most catastrophic railway accident in history, which occurred due to the Boxing Day Tsunami. Just south of the site of the accident at the Japanese Honganji Tsunami Vihara, is a replica of one of the famous Buddha statues from Bamiyan in Afghanistan.
- Vinod Moonesinghe