Punchage Kalumenika, widely recognised as Sri Lanka’s oldest woman, has died at the age of 114.
A resident of Sangili Kanadarawa in Rambewa, in the Anuradhapura District, Kalumenika was born on July 4, 1912, and had recently marked her 114th birthday alongside her family. According to the Daily Mirror, her health had declined after a fall earlier this year that required surgery.
She was the mother of 12 children and, over the course of more than a century, saw her family grow to some 325 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her death marks the passing of one of the country’s oldest known citizens.
Born in 1912 under British colonial rule, Kalumenika lived through more than a century of the island’s modern history — from the era of Ceylon, through independence in 1948, to the present day. Sri Lanka’s rural heartland has a long tradition of longevity, and the deaths of its supercentenarians are frequently noted nationally.
