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Distraction
  Tropical Climate: Sri Lanka's climate is tropical. While the average lowland temperature is 80° F. (27° C), the average temperature in the mountains is 60° F. (16° C). Average rainfall varies from 50 in. (127 cm.) a year in the northeast to 200 in. (508 cm.) a year in the southwest. Sri Lanka's two rainy seasons help account for this difference in rainfall. Each is caused by a different monsoon—a shift in the direction of the prevailing winds. The southwest, which is mostly covered by tropical rain forest, experiences the stronger rainy season in summer and fall. In late fall and winter, the northeast experiences a weaker rainy season. Sri Lankans store rainwater in huge human-made lakes and tanks and use it to irrigate crops during the dry seasons. Land of Natural Resources: Sri Lanka has many natural resources, including its beautiful gemstones. Sapphires, rubies, moonstones, topazes, and cat's-eyes are found in the southwest. Large deposits of graphite, the leading mineral export, are also found there. Another natural treasure is the country's variety of wildlife and fauna. More than 3,000 species of ferns and flowering plants grow there. Some common plants are orchids, poinsettias, and fruit trees. Nearly 400 different types of birds, including peacocks and flamingos, live in the forests and jungles. Sri Lanka is home to more than 100 kinds of mammals, among them leopards, buffalo, deer, bears, and monkeys. Trained elephants help in construction work and in clearing forest land. Wild elephants are now strictly protected by law to save them from extinction. There are also crocodiles, lizards, and snakes. The government has set aside land for national parks and bird sanctuaries to protect the island's wildlife. The Sinhalese and the Tamils: Sri Lanka's two largest ethnic groups—and those most often in conflict—are the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The Sinhalese make up more than 70 percent of the population. The majority of these people live in the southern and western regions of the country and speak Sinhalese. Most Sinhalese are Theravada Buddhists. As an ethnic and linguistic group, they are found nowhere else in the world. Sri Lanka is also home to more than 2 million Tamils, who make up about 20 percent of the population. The Tamils live mainly in the north and east, speak Tamil, and are mostly Hindus. About half are Sri Lankan Tamils, descendants of people who came to Sri Lanka from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu in ancient times. About half are Indian Tamils, whose ancestors the British brought from India to work on coffee and tea plantations, starting in the late 1800s. Sri Lanka's strong caste system keeps these two groups at odds. Sri Lankan Tamils regard Indian Tamils as being of the lowest caste. The population also includes Moors, descendants of early Arab traders; Burghers, descendants of European colonists; and Veddas. Veddas are thought to be descendants of the island's original inhabitants. Four out of five Sri Lankans live in rural areas and farm as their ancestors did before them. Most rural people—and many other Sri Lankans—live in extended families. Most houses in rural areas have mud walls and thatched roofs. They often have a small veranda and are fenced. Village houses are square or rectangular, with walls of dried mud or clay blocks, floors of beaten earth or concrete, and roofs of coconut thatch or tile. Clothing: While urban Sri Lankan men often wear Western-style clothes, traditional clothing is more common. For men, this consists of a sarong (a long piece of cloth, usually white, which is wrapped around the body and secured at the waist) worn with a loose shirt or jacket. Sri Lankan women wear a redde, which is similar to a sarong, with a blouse or jacket, or a sari (a straight piece of cloth draped around the body as a long dress). Food: Rice is Sri Lanka's staple food. Orthodox Hindus and most Buddhists are vegetarians. They often serve rice with curries made of vegetables cooked in coconut milk and spices. Tea is the favorite drink. Artistic expression has been important to the people of Sri Lanka throughout their history. Most ancient art has religious themes. The ancient Sinhalese capital Anuradhapura is filled with dagobas (domed Buddhist shrines) and statues of Buddha that are important to Buddhists everywhere. Dance is an important art form. Each August, in the lovely hill city of Kandy, scores of whirling dancers in lavish costumes take part in a perahera (procession), a Buddhist festival to honor a tooth of Buddha. Sri Lankans have handed down artisans' skills for generations. Handicrafts include carved wooden masks used in ritual dances and folk plays, brass work, hand loomed cotton, tortoiseshells ware, pottery, and handmade lace. HISTORY: The Mahavansa, the 6th-century epic of Sri Lanka, tells of a group of men from northern India who sailed to Sri Lanka in the 6th century B.C. They conquered the island's earliest inhabitants and set up the Sinhalese kingdom in the northern part of the island. They built complex irrigation systems to support agriculture in the face of persistent droughts. Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka around the 3rd century B.C., and the Sinhalese adopted this religion. Buddhism and an advanced irrigation system became the pillars of the Sinhalese kingdom, which lasted more than 1,000 years. As early as a.d. 500, the Tamils came from southern India to Sri Lanka to set up their own kingdom. The next 1,000 years of Sri Lankan history centered on struggles between Sinhalese kings and Tamil kings. Tamils eventually gained control of the northern half of the island, and the Sinhalese moved to the southern part of the island. Sri Lanka's location on the ocean route between East Africa and South Asia made it a natural stopping place for traders and seafarers. Early Greeks and 8th-century Arabs knew the island, and Marco Polo visited it in 1293. In 1505, the Portuguese became the first Europeans to occupy parts of Sri Lanka. They came in search of cinnamon and other spices. The Dutch drove out the Portuguese in 1658. At the end of the 1700s, the Dutch were challenged by the British, who in 1815 became the first Europeans to control the entire island. Sri Lanka remained under the British until 1948, when it became independent. Ceylon, the name under which the island was long known, was dropped in 1972, and the ancient Sinhalese name Sri Lanka, which means "Resplendent Land," was adopted. Sri Lanka has gone through many political crises since 1948. The worst has been the ongoing civil conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The newly independent, Sinhalese-dominated government angered the Tamils when it refused to accept Estate Tamils, descendants of the Tamils brought from India, as Sri Lankan citizens. Then, in 1956, the government made Sinhalese Sri Lanka's official language. Eventually, the law was changed to make Sinhalese and Tamil both official languages. But the Tamils began to demand guarantees that their language and culture would be protected. The conflict escalated into guerrilla warfare in the early 1980s. Tamil separatists, who demanded an independent Tamil state, launched a terrorist campaign against the government, and some Sinhalese retaliated with attacks against Tamils. India stepped in to help end the conflict in 1987 but became embroiled in the guerrilla war when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam refused to give up the fight. India's presence also triggered an outbreak of violence in southern Sri Lanka by the People's Liberation Front (JVP), an extremist Sinhalese group, which was finally suppressed by the government in the fall of 1989. India withdrew the last of its troops in March 1990 after Sri Lanka agreed to give the Tamils greater economic and political power, but the bloody conflict between the Tamil separatists and government forces soon resumed. On May 1, 1993, President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by a Tamil terrorist bomber. He was succeeded by Dingiri Banda Wijet-unge. Chandrika Kumaratunga, the daughter of former prime ministers Solomon W. R. D. and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who had become prime minister in August 1994, was elected president in November 1994. She named her mother prime minister and began peace talks with the Tamil rebels, but the violence continued. After independence in 1948, Sri Lanka remained linked to the British Crown until 1972, when it became a republic. It had a parliamentary system of government headed by a prime minister until 1978. That year, a new constitution placed full executive power in the hands of a directly elected president. The president and members of the one-chamber Parliament are elected for six-year terms. | |
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