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Destination : SRI LANKA
Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded to the British in 1802. As Ceylon it became independent in 1948; its name was changed in 1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted in violence in the mid-1980s. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic war that continues to fester
The Island of Sri Lanka lies 3 degrees north of the equator, 82 degrees east of Greenwich and 32 KM southeast of India. She occupies 65,610 sq Km (approximately 25,000 sq miles). She possesses tropical beaches, ancient monuments, rain forests, gorgeous waterfalls and many places to delight any person. The typically tropical climate with an average temperature of 270C fluctuates between 150 C in the highlands to 350C in certain areas of the lowlands.Sri Lanka is mainly an agricultural country. She is self sufficient in her staple diet rice which is the largest cultivation. Tea, Coconut and Rubber are the main economic agricultural crops. Tea brings beauty as well as the foreign exchange to the country.
Sri Lanka, according to historical sources was settled by Indo-Aryans in the 6th century B.C. These Indo-Aryans were the first Sinhalese, who are 74% of the population today. The Indo-Aryans assimilated the indigenous inhabitants who are called Yakkhas in the historical chronicles. While the country had contacts in historical times with various foreign races, the Tamil and Muslim minorities of the present day had nosettlements in the island until about the 10th century AD; that is to say about 1,500 years after the Sinhalese settlement.
From the 19th Century however, Tamil minority leaders have put forward various claims to political rights unsupported by fact or principle. From the early 1970s the Tamil political leadership has sought to enforce even more extreme claims with the use of violence. From 1949 the Tamils have been claiming the right to establish a Tamil state in over one third of the island. A Muslim theocratic party, the only such in a non-Muslim country, was formed in 1985 with the objective of establishing a Muslim political region in the island. The Indian Tamils, the first of whom were brought in the 19th century as labour by the British, were a floating population until the end of the Second World War. Though they were all entitled to Indian citizenship under Article 8 of the Indian constitution, they have been indiscriminately granted Sri Lankan citizenship by various Governments of independent Sri Lanka. The Indian Tamil leaders now expect to establish an Indian Tamil autonomous region in the heart of the country. Minority politics particularly Tamil terrorism seek to wreck the political, financial and cultural life of the country and there is serious disruption already.
205 km from Colombo is Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka's first capital founded about the 4th century BC. According to the Mahavansa, the Sinhala Buddhist chronicle, the city was a model of planning. Precincts were set aside for huntsmen and scavengers and even heretics and foreigners. There were hostels and hospitals, separate cemeteries for high and low castes. A water supply was assured by the construction of reservoirs.
Anuradhapura was to continue for six hundred years as the national capital. But internecine struggles for the royal succession grew, and it became more and more vulnerable to the pressures of South Indian political expansion. The city was finally abandoned and the capital withdrawn to more secluded areas.
But the monuments of Anuradhapura's heyday survive, surrounded by the solemn umbrage of trees, scions of an ancient parkland.
Colombo is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Until recently, Colombo used to be the administrative capital as well, but for better security in these modern times, the administrative offices were moved to nearby Kotte (Sri Jayawardhanapura).
Served by the busy Colombo harbor for maritime traffic and by the International Airport at Katunayake, some 21 miles (34 km.) north of Colombo city for air traffic, every visitor starts his or her stay in Sri Lanka at Colombo. In and around Colombo, the visitor can find a wide variety of accommodations, from international class luxury hotels to modest guest houses, dormitories and rooms in private homes.
Colombo is a true metropolis with over a million inhabitants, an ethnic melange of the island's diverse races and religions. Here, Sinhalese (74%) who are mostly Buddhists, Tamil (18%) who are mostly Hindus, Moors (7%), people of middle eastern extraction, who are mostly Muslims, co-exist, although not in complete harmony at all times, with a small numbers of Burghers, who are descendants of Portugese, Dutch, and the British, who were rulers of Sri Lanka in the past.
Known as "Kolomba" in Sinhala, the city goes back to 8th century A.D. when Arab traders used it as a port for shipping cinnamon to the middle east. The Portugese who came to Sri Lanka in 1505, and the Dutch who defeated them later, established a fort here. The area is still known as the "Fort" and still is the commercial center of Colombo.
The British who drove out the Dutch in 1796, rebuilt Colombo with wide tree lined avenues, parks and greens. Before nationalism swept the island during prime minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's time, most of the major streets in Colombo were named after street names in English cities. Street names like Queen's, Prince, and York were commonplace. Horse racing on the Galle Face Green used to be regular activity. Today most of the streets are renamed to honor national heros, and horse racing on the green is a thing of the past. Most of the International class hotels now occupy the land surrounding the Galle Face Green.
(information courtesy Destination Sri Lanka by Ari Withanage)
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