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Unawatuna is a coastal town in Galle District of Sri Lanka. Unawatuna is a major tourist attraction in Sri Lanka and known for its beach and corals. It is a suburb of Galle, about southeast of the city center and approximately south of Colombo. Unawatuna is situated at an elevation of above sea level. Despite significant development in the last decade it is still home to the endangered and endemic purple-faced langur, an unusually shy monkey species that can only be found in Sri Lanka's forests.
Unawatuna traces its roots to the great epic Ramayana. In the epic, the monkey-warrior Hanuman was sent back to India to fetch the four herbalism by Jambavan namely, mritasanjeevani, vishalyakarani, suvarnakarani, and sandhani from the Himalayas in order to heal Lakshman who was wounded trying to save the abducted Princess Sita from the demon king Ravana. Hanuman failed to identify these , so he lifted the entire mountain and carried it to the battlefield to try to save Lakshman, but in the process, a chunk of it "fell-down" in the location of the present day Unawatuna, the name of the village derives from "Una-watuna" meaning "fell down".
Currently, an edifice is being built in honour of Hanuman on the harbour end of Rumassala Hill by of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism near the Peace Pagoda that they built.
It is said that he lived in Unawatuna and helped the people in various ways. Over the years he has been venerated and worshiped, and the Kovil (or Devalaya) on the west end point of the bay which has a history of over a thousand years is believed to be the abode of this Devol deity.
This rice is pounded and mixed with coconut milk and treacle and made into a porridge which is then offered to the deities at the dewalaya and given as alms to thousands of devotees who will trek to the dewalaya for this alms giving or Maha Dewa Dana or Kiri Dana. Fisher folk save and offer part of their earnings called "Goda kotasa" seeking protection on their forays into the ocean.
The Dutch built houses for their in Unawatuna. These constructions include the Nooit Gedacht Hotel, Unawatuna Hospital and the mansion Maharambe. The UBR hotel is situated on a land called Parangiyawatta, meaning "land of the Portuguese", and the area nearby is known as Ja-kotuwa, suggesting that it was the settlement of Ja or Javanese people better known as Hollanders and there may have been some fortification.
The Galle tower or Edward's Pillar on Rumassala Hill is believed to have been a fake lighthouse built during World War I, and the area is shown as property of the British Admiralty in old surveying maps.
Over sixty species of endemic , including , , , and , as well as rarer species such as the lesser whistling duck, the Asian palm swift, the white-breasted waterhen, the Loten's sunbird and the black bittern have been sighted in the locality by the ornithologist, Clive Byers. These birds are mostly sighted in the remaining marshy area and Rumassala Hillock.
Off the coast of Unawatuna, beneath the Indian Ocean lies a number of , , and a great variety of fish and . The turtles still wade onto the shore to lay their nests and eggs, and at times, as if to lay first claim to the sandy shore now invaded by the and dotted by restaurateurs, even go right into the beach front .
The Rumassala coral reefs at the east end of the Galle Harbor attract divers, but are now endangered due to possible port development. Eco treks in the shrub of Rumassala are also available.
Beginning on December 14, 2011, many illegal structures were cleared from the beachfront.Ceylon Today, "Hotels in Unawatuna demolished", Ceylon Today, 14 December 2011
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