Mahela Jayawardene hit 66, Sanath Jayasuriya 41 and Upul Tharanga 40 in the home side's 269-7 on a slow pitch.
Debutant Phil Mustard made a brisk 27 in reply but he and Kevin Pietersen fell to Farveez Maharoof (4-31) as England went from 43-0 to 102-6.
Alastair Cook (46) battled for 80 balls but after he edged Maharoof behind, they folded for 150 in the 35th over.
It was England's heaviest defeat, in terms of runs, by Sri Lanka in one-day matches and took their dismal record on the island to eight defeats in nine ODIs.
They will need to improve considerably for the next two games in Dambulla.
The venue last staged a match more than two years ago and its recently relaid surface caused plenty of problems with its lack of pace and variable bounce.
Sri Lanka's openers never really came to terms with it even though Jayasuriya heaved James Anderson over wide long-on for six and to the backward square-leg boundary in an over costing 16.
He and Tharanga were caught in the deep, and Kumar Sangakkara (38) was stumped to provide a maiden international wicket for Graeme Swann, who found prodigious turn in his first appearance for England since January 2000.
Jayawardene knew patience and playing the ball late was the key in such conditions and showed his class by cutting skipper Paul Collingwood and sweeping Swann for early boundaries as he reached 50 off 61 balls.
When Chamara Silva cracked Ryan Sidebottom over the wide long-on rope and Jayawardene carved Swann over extra-cover, England were facing an even bigger total.
But the duo were among three wickets to fall for 15 runs to give the visitors hope of limiting the damage.
Jayawardene was pouched on the cover-point boundary, Silva (33) holed out to deep square-leg and Jehan Mubarak was expertly snapped up by Anderson at fine-leg to give Stuart Broad a deserved second wicket in his first spell since being smacked for six sixes by India's Yuvraj Singh at the World Twenty20.
Maharoof ensured his team finished with a flourish by clubbing three boundaries off the young seamer in his cameo of 22 off 12 balls to leave England in need of a flying start.
Mustard recovered from almost being caught first ball at slip off Chaminda Vaas to strike several lusty blows, none better than the swipe off the veteran left-armer over long-off for six.
With Cook timing the ball beautifully to drive Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando elegantly through the covers, things were looking up.
But it all went horribly wrong once Mustard miscued Maharoof to a diving Malinga at wide mid-off and Ian Bell followed one that moved away a touch to edge behind.
Pietersen got an inside edge driving loosely and, although Collingwood ended a period of six overs without a four by driving Fernando down the ground, he soon guided a slower ball from the paceman to slip.
Owais Shah chipped Malinga to Mubarak at short extra-cover and when Cook failed in his attempt to guide Maharoof down to third man the game was all but up.
Swann (24) shared 42 in 39 balls with Ravi Bopara (27no) to delay the inevitable and once he was caught reverse-sweeping Tillakaratne Dilshan the end was not long in coming.
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