Tamara Kunanayakam

Tamara Manimekhalai Kunanayakam is a Sri Lankan diplomat. She was the former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Sri Lankan Ambassador to Holy See.
Early life
Kunanayakam was born in and grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her father was an Anglican Sri Lankan Tamil from Chundikuli in Jaffna who was a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Government Clerical Services Union. Her mother was a Hindu Indian Tamil from Badulla. Kunanayakam's maternal grandfather Gnanapandithan was a businessman in Badulla who had sympathies for the Indian National Congress and the Indian independence movement.
Kunanayakam was educated at Ladies College, Colombo and briefly at Vembadi Girls' High School in Jaffna. She became proficient in Tamil, Sinhala and English. In 1972, aged 19, she left Sri Lanka and travelled overland to Europe. She had intended to go to Netherlands but ended up in Switzerland. She worked...