Trincomalee in the context of Louis XIV's East India Company

Trincomalee Harbour is a seaport in Trincomalee Bay or Koddiyar Bay, fourth largest natural harbour in the world and situated on the northeastern coast of Sri Lanka.

Located by Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, in the heart of the Indian Ocean, its strategic importance has shaped its history. There have been many sea battles to control the harbour. The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the British have each held it in turn. In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Trincomalee harbour and sank three British warships anchored there.

The Eastern Province (Sinhala: නැගෙනහිර පළාත Næ̆gĕnahira Paḷāta , Tamil: கிழக்கு மாகாணம் Kiḻakku Mākāṇam) is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the country. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was temporarily merged with the Northern Province to form the North Eastern Province. The capital of the province is Trincomalee. Kalmunai is the largest and most populous city of Eastern Province.

Trincomalee District (Tamil: திருக்கோணமலை மாவட்டம் Tirukkōṇamalai Māvaṭṭam; Sinhala: ත්‍රිකුණාමළය දිස්ත්‍රික්කය Trikuṇāmalaya distrikkaya) is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (previously known as a Government Agent) appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The capital of the district is the city of Trincomalee.

The Coast Veddas (Tamil: கரையோர வேடர்கள், romanized: Karaiyōra Vēṭarkaḷ, Sinhala: වෙරළේ වැද්දන්, romanized: Veraḷē Væddan), by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar (Tamil for "hunter") neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past.

They speak a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from the Vedda language. Most Vedar are Hindu Saivites and worship a plethora of folk deities, as well as the main Hindu deities such as Murugan, Pillaiyar and Amman. They also maintain the ancestor worship tradition of the interior Veddas. Clan divisions, if they still exist, do not play an important role in choosing of marriage partners or place of domicile. Most identify themselves as a caste among the Tamils as opposed to a separate ethnic group. Their economic conditions have been impacted by the Sri Lankan civil war.

Ove Gjedde (alternatively spelled Giedde; 27 December 1594 – 19 December 1660) was a Danish nobleman and Admiral of the Realm (Danish: Rigsadmiral), who established the first Danish colony in Asia.

Born in Tomarps (Tommerup), Denmark–Norway, in 1594 to Brostrup Gjedde and Dorthe Ulfeldt, Ove Gjedde went to Sorø Academy from 1609 to 1612 and studied thereafter at various German universities. In 1616, Gjedde was employed in the Danske Kancelli (Danish Chancellery) and was ordered by King Christian IV of Denmark to lead an expedition to the East Indies in 1618. Gjedde arrived in Ceylon in May 1620 and negotiated trade agreements with Senarat of Kandy and Raghunatha Nayak, ceding the coastal towns of Trincomalee and Tranquebar to the Danish East India Company.

The North Eastern Province was one of the provinces of Sri Lanka. The province was created in September 1988 by merging the Northern and Eastern provinces. This merger was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 2006. The province was formally demerged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007. The capital of the province was Trincomalee.

Trincomalee Bay, also known as Koddiyar Bay, is a bay in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka.The bay is located by Trincomalee town on the north-east coast of the island.