Sri Lanka
island country in South Asia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala, இலங்கை in Tamil) is a tropical island nation located in the Indian Ocean just off the Southern coast of India. The capital of the country is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte while the largest city is Colombo. Sri Lanka shares a sea boundary with the Maldives in the south-west and India in the north-west.
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It was known as Ceylon before 1972, and Serendib and Sinhale, among other names, before that.
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Ethnic make-up
Sri Lanka has three main ethnic groups.
The largest of the three groups are the Sinhalese. Most of them are Buddhist. Their language is Sinhala.They make up about 75% of the population.
The second largest group are the Tamils. They are mostly Hindu and mostly live in the north. There are about 2,271,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka.
The third largest group are the Sri Lankan Moors. They are Muslims. There are over 1.5 million people in this group. They are predominantly Tamil speakers.
Other than these three main groups, there are burghers (descendants of colonial ancestors), Malays and Chinese.
There is also a small indigenous population called 'veddas'.
The total population of the island is over 22 million people.
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History
The island has a recorded history of over 2500 years. Buddhist missionaries were sent from India in 250 BC during the reign of Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire. The kings of the island, and eventually most of the Sinhalese people, became Buddhists. Legend has it that Buddha visited the island three times.
There were many Sinhalese Kingdoms such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Kotte and Kandy. The Island also faced several invasions from India and one such invasion led to the establishment of the Jaffna Kingdom in the North.
The island was subject to colonisation beginning with the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries, and lastly the British from 1796 to 1948. The British traded as the others had done, but also developed plantations of coffee and tea. Tea was planted after a fungus destroyed the coffee plantations in 1869. The tea plantations were the basis of Sri Lankan prosperity for a hundred years. Lastly, rubber plantations were started in the early 20th century. In 1965, Ceylon became the world's leading exporter of tea, with 200,000 tonnes of tea being shipped internationally annually.[12]
Independence from Britain was gained in 1948, together with Dominion status in the British Commonwealth of Nations. In 1972, Ceylon changed its name officially to the Republic of Sri Lanka, and is still a member of the Commonwealth.[13]
The Sri Lankan Civil War against Tamil separatists(LTTE) erupted in 1983 and only came to an end in 2009. In the 2010s, tourism rapidly grew as a source of foreign investment and currency. An economic crisis in the early 2020s led to civil unrest.
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National symbols of Sri Lanka
National bird of Sri Lanka - Ceylon Junglefowl
National tree of Sri Lanka
National flower of Sri Lanka
National Flag of Sri Lanka
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Flag
The Sri Lanka flag also known as the Lion flag has a Lion holding a sword in its right paw. The lion represents bravery. There is a Bodhi leaf in each corner which represent the four Brahmaviharas of Buddhism. The colours Crimson, Orange and Green represent the Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors respectively.
Provinces
Sri Lanka has 9 provinces.
Related pages
Notes
References
Other websites
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