Poised a few degrees above the equator amidst the azure waters of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is, for many visitors, one of Asia’s ultimate tropical island paradises. Medieval traders and modern tourists have been beguiled by the island’s endless golden beaches and abundant natural riches, from cinnamon to sapphires and elephants. As the home of one of the world’s oldest and purest Buddhist traditions, Sri Lanka boasts a unique and distinctive cultural character, while the island’s wide range of landscapes, from tropical beaches to misty upland tea plantations, lends it an extraordinary scenic appeal.
The modern nation
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (as it has been known since 1972, when it ditched the old British colonial name of Ceylon) now boasts a population of almost 21 million, and is growing rapidly. Almost three-quarters of the population are Buddhist Sinhalese, the descendants of settlers from North India, but there are also significant numbers of South Indian-descended Hindu Tamils, particularly in the north and east of the island. The nation’s two main languages are Sinhala (the language of the Sinhalese) and Tamil, while English is also widely spoken. The island has been a multi-party democracy since independence in 1948.
Sri Lanka’s recent history has been overshadowed by the civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Tamil Tigers (LTTE), which ravaged the island from the early 1980s through to the beginning of 2009, when the Sri Lankan Army finally succeeded in destroying the last remnants of LTTE power. The island was also devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed almost 40,000 people and reduced much of the seaboard to ruins. Today, following great reconstruction efforts, tourist facilities are of a higher standard than ever before, reflecting the industry’s increasingly crucial role in the national economy.
Waterfall in the Hill Country
iStock
The many names of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has had many names over the centuries. The island’s ancient Sanskrit name was Sinhaladvipa, ‘Lion Island’, named after the Sinhalese, and it was this name which provided the basis for most of the island’s subsequent appellations. In Pali, the classic language of early Buddhism, Sinhala is ‘Sihalam’, pronounced ‘Silam’, which was subsequently bastardised by the Portuguese into Ceilão, by the Dutch to Zeylan, and by the British to Ceylon. Early Arab traders, meanwhile, transformed it into Serendib, the origin of the English word ‘serendipity’.
For the Sinhalese, however, the island has always been Lanka and it was to this name, with the additional ‘Sri’, meaning ‘resplendent’ or ‘auspicious’, that the nation’s name officially reverted in 1972.
Landscapes
One of Sri Lanka’s greatest attractions is the remarkable range of landscapes that are packed into the island’s modest dimensions. It is possible to wake up sweating on the coast and then be shivering by lunchtime in the breezy heights of the Hill Country, just a few hours’ drive away. Most of the island’s 1,340km (830 miles) of coastline is fringed with idyllic golden-sand beaches, while inland a world of scenic contrasts awaits, from the rugged mountains and misty green uplands of the Hill Country to the rolling, wildlife-rich savannahs of the north and east. Thorny dry monsoon forest carpets much of the lowland plains, while tea plantations blanket the hills, dotted with perfectly preserved pockets of rainforest and cloudforest. This physical variety in turn supports a uniquely varied array of flora and fauna, including thousands of wild elephants, one of the world’s largest leopard populations, and a vast number of bird species, many of which are endemic to the island.
One island, many people
The island’s physical diversity is mirrored by its cosmopolitan cultural make-up, the legacy of centuries of commerce and conquest experienced by Sri Lanka thanks to its strategic position on the trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Foremost amongst the island’s myriad ethnic groups are the Sinhalese, originally from North India, who arrived in Sri Lanka sometime around the 4th or 5th century BC. The Sinhalese now make up over two-thirds of the population and have given the country its rich Buddhist traditions and a religious outlook that shapes the nation.
Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka
Shutterstock
Tamils from South India, who have probably been in Sri Lanka as long as the Sinhalese, make up the island’s second-largest ethnic group and have created a vibrant local Hindu culture which runs parallel to the Buddhist majority.
Waves of Arab, Indian and Malay traders and Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers have also left their mark on everything from the island’s cooking and architecture to its religion, railways and economy.
Some sense of Sri Lanka’s cultural diversity can be gleaned by comparing the contrasting lifestyles of two of its smallest but most distinctive ethnic groups. In Colombo, the urbane Burghers – white, English-speaking Sri Lankans of mixed European descent – still play a leading role in the island’s cultural life. In the remote jungles of the east, a handful of aboriginal Veddahs, the island’s oldest inhabitants, who have lived here for at least 18,000 years, continue to pursue their traditional hunter-gatherer existence.
Buddhas and beaches
The Sinhalese civilisation can be traced back to the 3rd century BC, when Buddhism first arrived here. By the 1st century AD the great city of Anuradhapura had developed into a vibrant centre of Buddhist learning. The remains of this early Sinhalese civilisation, found at Anuradhapura, Sigiriya and Polonnaruwa, include an astonishing array of monasteries, shrines, statues and stupas, the largest man-made structures in the ancient world, bar the two largest Egyptian pyramids.
Sri Lanka’s other attractions lie namely in the atmospheric tea plantations of the Hill Country, the vibrant cultural traditions of Kandy and the more contemporary urban attractions of Colombo.