Negombo Tamils or Puttalam Tamils are the Tamil speaking ethnic Karavas who live in the western Gampaha and Puttalam districts of Sri Lanka. They are distinguished from other Tamils from the island nation by their unique dialects, one of which is known as Negombo Tamil dialect. Other sub categories of native Tamils of Sri Lanka are Jaffna Tamils or Northern Tamils and Batticalao Tamils or Eastern Tamils from the traditional Tamil dominant North and East of the Island nation. Negombo is a principal coastal city in the Gampaha District and Puttalam is also the principal city within the neighbouring Puttalam District. Assimilation The main feature of the Negombo Tamils is the continuing process of assimilation into the majority Sinhalese ethnic group, a process known as Sinhalisation. This process is enabled via a number of caste myths and legends. In the Gampaha district ethnic Tamils have historically inhabited the coastal belt, as in the neighboring Puttalam district, which until the first two decades of the twentieth century had a substantial ethnic Tamil population, of whom the majority were Catholics and a minority were Hindus. According to L.J.B. Turner, although the distinction between Sinhalese and Tamils of the present-day Sri Lanka is so marked, in the past there was considerable fusion between these ethnic groups. According to him the results of this fusion are most obvious on the western coast between Negombo and Puttalam, where a large proportion of the villagers, though they call themselves Sinhalese, speak Tamil and are undoubtedly of Tamil descent. According to local legends, their ancestors were captives from India or imported weavers and other artisans. This historic process was embraced by the educational policies of a local bishop, Edmund Peiris, who was instrumental in changing the medium of education from Tamil to Sinhala. Survival of Tamil heritage Due to the bilingualism of some residents of both these districts, especially those who are traditional fishermen, the Tamil language survives as a lingua franca amongst migrating fishermen across the island. It is estimated that the Negombo dialect of Tamil language is spoken by perhaps 50,000 people who otherwise identify themselves as Sinhalese. This number does not include others who may speak various varieties of the Tamil language north of Negombo city towards Puttalam. Today most of those who retain their Tamil identity are Hindus and are mostly concentrated in a single coastal village called Udappu. This village has approximately