Language: Sinhala, Tamil
Currency: Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR)
Calling Code: 94
Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon from 1796 to 1972, is
an island state in the Indian Ocean, 237 km (west coast of the
island) east of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, and had
a population of about 22 million in 2021. The shortest distance
between India (Kodiyakkarai) and Sri Lanka (Munasal) is 54.8 km.
From ancient times to modern times, the island was a strategic
hub for sea travel between the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The
south and the areas around Anuradhapura were centers of ancient
Buddhism; in the north and east there were Hindu temple complexes.
Sri Lanka is today a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation in
which Christianity and Islam are important religions alongside
Buddhism and Hinduism. The Sinhalese make up the majority of the
population. The Tamils are the largest minority. Other ethnic
minorities include the Moors, Malays, Burghers and the indigenous
population of Sri Lanka, the Veddas.
Sri Lanka is known for
the production and export of tea (Ceylon), coffee, rubber and
coconuts. The island is a popular tourist destination due to its
scenic beauty and rich cultural heritage (for example Ayurveda, a
traditional healing art).
Sri Lanka was ruled by various
local kingdoms for over two millennia until large parts of the
island were colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century and then
by the Dutch. Only the Kingdom of Kandy in the highlands of the
island was able to hold its own against the colonizers. In 1815, all
of Sri Lanka became part of the British Empire. During the Second
World War, Sri Lanka served the Allies as a strategically important
base in the fight against the Japanese Empire. Since the beginning
of the 20th century, there have been increasing efforts for
independence. In 1948, Sri Lanka became independent from Great
Britain after peaceful negotiations. Since independence, the state
has been burdened by the conflicts between the Sinhalese majority
and the Tamil minority. Between 1983 and 2009, there was a civil war
in Sri Lanka between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-dominated
central government. The human rights crimes committed during the
civil war have not yet been independently addressed. Between 2005
and 2015, Mahinda Rajapaksa was president of the country and ruled
the country with an authoritarian demeanor. In 2019, Gotabaya
Rajapaksa, Mahinda's brother, was elected president and Mahinda
became prime minister. Under the brothers' rule, the economy
collapsed in 2022. Demonstrations by the population led to the
removal of the Rajapaksas and a democratic constitutional reform in
October 2022.
Sri Lanka is divided into nine administrative districts:
1
Central Province (මධ්යම පළාත, ශ්රී ලංකාව) . predominantly mountainous
with the highest mountains in the country, tea plantations and the city
of Kandy with the Temple of the Tooth.
2 North Central Province
(උතුරු මැද පළාත) . is home to the cultural triangle with places like
Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya.
3 Northwest Province (වයඹ පළාත, ශ්රී
ලංකාව) . with the Wilpattu National Reserve.
4 Northern Province
(උතුරු පළාත) . With historical sites such as Anuradhapura and Jaffna.
5 Eastern Province (නැගෙනහිර පළාත, ශ් රී ලංකාව) . best beaches like
Arugam Bay.
6 Southern Province (දකුණු පළාත) . Mirissa and Unawatuna
beaches and Yala National Park.
7 Western Province (බස්නාහිර පළාත, ශ්
රී ලංකාව) . With the capital Colombo and many beaches.
8 Sabaragamuwa
(සබරගමුව පළාත) . has attractions like Sinharaja Forest and Adams Peak.
9 Uva (ඌව පළාත) . is known for the city of Badulla and the Horton
Plains.
In the center of the island lies an area known as the
cultural triangle. The places at its corners are UNESCO World Heritage
sites, these are the old royal cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa as
well as Kandy, which is considered the religious center of Buddhism.
This area also includes the rock fortress of Sigiriya and the temple
caves of Dambulla, which are also World Heritage sites.
1 Colombo (කොළඹ). Capital on the west coast, commercial metropolis
and largest city in Sri Lanka with a wide range of hotels, cafes,
restaurants, nightclubs and shopping opportunities.
2 Kandy (මහනුවර).
This city is picturesquely located on Lake Kandy and is known for the
Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa), in which a tooth of Buddha is
kept. The city is also famous for its annual Perahera, a colorful
religious procession.
3 Galle (ගාල්ල) . The walled city of Galle on
the south coast is known for its well-preserved Dutch colonial heritage.
Cobblestone streets, old buildings and boutique hotels give the city a
unique charm.
4
Anuradhapura (අනුරාධපුර පෞරාණික නගරය) . Anuradhapura is
one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and has
been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is home to
impressive ruins of ancient royal palaces, Buddhist stupas and giant
sacred trees.
5 Polonnaruwa (පොළොන්නරු යුගය) . An ancient capital of
Sri Lanka is known for its well-preserved 12th-century ruins with
majestic stone statues of Buddha, royal palaces and the Gal Vihara
complex.
6 Jaffna (යාපනය) .
Tamil stronghold in the far north. Rich in cultural heritage, it offers
impressive Hindu temples, colonial architecture, picturesque islands and
a unique cuisine with Tamil influences.
7 Nuwara Eliya (නුවරඑළිය) .
almost British climate and British (colonial) tradition. Known as
"Little England", Nuwara Eliya with its lush tea plantations, English
country houses, cool climate and picturesque landscapes offers a
charming setting for relaxation and recreation.
8 Trincomalee
(ත්රිකුණාමලය) . Tamil city on the east coast, known for its beautiful
beaches as well as the historic Fort Frederick and the Swami Rock
Temple.
9 Kalutara (කළුතර) . Beach town on the southwest coast, with
Kalutara Bodhiya, an impressive Buddhist temple, and the historic
Richmond Castle.
10 Arugam Bay (ආරුගම් බොක්ක) . The surfer's paradise
on the east coast is known for its world-class surf spots such as Main
Point and Whiskey Point, its laid-back atmosphere and its spectacular
sunsets.
11 Hikkaduwe (හික්කඩුව) . A lively coastal town known for
its lively beaches, surfing, coral reefs for snorkeling and diving and
the Hikkaduwa Turtle Hatchery.
Highlands
Coast
Bird sanctuaries
Elephant orphanages
Tea
plantations
a giant reclining Buddha
a cartoon temple
Adam's
Peak ("Sri Pada") - holy mountain in the province of Sabaragamuwa. The
2243m high elevation is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus,
Muslims and even Christians.
Punguduthivu. An island off the coast of
Jaffna, known for its pristine beaches, turquoise water and the ruins of
the Nagadeepa Rajamaha Vihara, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Sri
Lanka.
2 Adam's Bridge Founded on June 22, 2015, 19,000 ha.
3
Angammedilla (අංගම්මැඩිල්ල ජාතික උද්යානය). Tel.: +94 (0)273 277 017 .
Established on 6 June 2006, 7500 ha.
4
Bundala National Park (බූන්දල ජාතික උද් යානය) .
Established on 4 January 1993, 6200 ha. Important wetland and UNESCO
biosphere reserve, known for its diversity of aquatic birds, including
migratory birds such as flamingos, storks, Herons and pelicans, as well
as crocodiles, turtles and other animal species. 5 Chundikkulam
(චුණ්ඩිකුලම ජාතික වනෝද්යානය) . Established on June 22, 2015, 19,600 ha.
6 Delft Founded on June 22, 2015, 1800 ha.
7 Flood Plains Founded on
August 7, 1984, 17,400 ha.
8 Gal Oya (ගල් ඔය ජාතික උද්යානය) .
Founded on February 12, 1954, 25,900 ha.
9 Galway's Country. Founded
on May 18, 2006.
10 Hikkaduwa. Founded on October 8, 2002, 100 ha.
11 Horagolla (හොරගොල්ල ජාතික උද්යානය) . Founded on July 28, 2004.
Horrowpatana. Founded on December 6th, 2011, 2600 ha.
12
Horton Plains National Park (හෝර්ටන් තැන්න) .
Established on March 18, 1988, 3160 ha. UNESCO World Heritage Site,
known for its unique ecology and spectacular scenery, including World's
End, a steep slope with spectacular views, and Baker's Falls, an
impressive waterfall.
13
Kaudulla National Park (කවුඩුල්ල ජාතික උද් යානය) .
Established on 1 April 2002, 6656 ha.
Kumana (Yala East). Founded on
January 20, 1970, 18,100 ha.
14 Lahugala Kitulana (ලාහුගල කිතුලාන
ජාතික උද්යානය) . Founded on October 31, 1980, 1600 ha.
15
Lunugamvehera (ලුනුගම්වෙහෙර ජාතික උද්යානය) . Founded on December 8,
1995, 23,500 ha.
16 Madhu Road. Founded on June 22, 2015, 16,400 ha.
17 Maduru Oya (මාදුරු ඔය ජාතික වනෝද්යානය) . Founded on November 9,
1983, 58,800 ha.
18
Minneriya National Park (මින්නේරිය ජාතික වනෝද්යානය) .
Established on August 12, 1997, 8890 ha. Famous for the annual gathering
where hundreds of elephants from the surrounding areas flock to the
Minneriya reservoir to drink water and congregate, as well as a variety
of bird species.
19 Pigeon Island (පරවි දූපත ජාතික උද්යානය).
Established on 24 June 2003, 19,000 ha.
20 Somawathiya . Established
on 2 September 1986, 37,600 ha.
21
Udawalawe National Park (උඩවලව ජාතික උද් යානය) .
Established on 30 June 1972, 31,000 ha. Known for its high density of
elephant populations and a stunning landscape of open plains, forests
and waterholes, which provide a Attracts a variety of animals and birds.
22 Ussangoda (උස්සංගොඩ) . Founded on May 6, 2010, 300 ha.
23
Wasgamuwa National Park (වස්ගමුව ජාතික උද්යානය) .
Founded on August 7, 1984, 37,100 ha.
24
Wilpattu National Park (විල්පත්තු ජාතික උද්යානය) .
Established on February 25, 1938, 131,700 ha. The oldest and largest
national park in Sri Lanka, known for its pristine wilderness,
waterholes and the opportunity to see leopards, elephants, buffalo,
crocodiles and a variety of birds.
25
Yala National Park (Ruhuna) ( යාල ජාතික උද්යානය).
Established on 25 February 1938, 97,900 ha. Famous for its high density
of leopards and diverse wildlife including elephants, bears, crocodiles
and a variety of bird species.
Dambulla Cave Temple is an ancient and medieval religious complex that is located in over 80 natural caves of which five are especially magnificent.
Sigiriya is a pleasure palace and a fortress constructed by king Kashyapa who desperately feared the return of rightfull prince of Sri Lanka.
The Veddas are considered to be the original inhabitants of Sri
Lanka. They are a hunter-gatherer people who in earlier times lived in
clans with monarchical structures. Today, there are only a few hundred
people who call themselves Vedda, as this population group has been
almost completely assimilated. Sinhalese make up 75% of the population
in Sri Lanka, and are the absolute majority in most provinces. Their
religion is predominantly Buddhism. The Tamils, who immigrated from
neighboring regions of India around the middle of the last millennium
BC, mainly live in the north and east of the island. It is still unclear
whether Sinhalese or Tamils settled on the island earlier, although
the historians of each group believe they can substantiate their claims.
The highland Tamils only came to the country as workers in the 19th
century at the instigation of the British colonial rulers. The Tamil
population is predominantly Hindu. During the colonial period, part of
the population converted to Christianity, so that today around 7% of Sri
Lankans consider themselves Christians. The descendants of Arab traders
were called Moors by the first Europeans on the island. Together with
Malays and Muslim immigrants from India, they form around 8% of the
population group that considers itself to be Muslim. Descendants of a
union between Europeans, especially Dutch and Sinhalese or Tamils, were
called Burghers. The Burghers took advantage of the opportunity to
migrate to European countries during the civil war, so that this
relatively small population group hardly plays a role today.
Employment situation: A significant part of the country is still
agricultural. Tea is the most important agricultural export product,
ahead of coconut products, and rice is grown primarily for the domestic
market. An exporting textile industry also provides a significant
proportion of the population with earned income. In addition, skilled
jobs in IT services, for example, also contribute to the GNP, while
tourism also offers work and income to many less well-educated
residents.
A health care system is available to the population
largely regardless of income.
Tip
For some Asian citizens, according to Indian visa rules, the
normal multiple entry visa does not entitle them to re-enter India
within two months of their last departure. Anyone affected by the
regulation who arrives via India and has to enter India briefly there,
for example because of a change of airline, should submit a separate
application to the Indian embassy. In exceptional cases, the application
can also be approved directly at the border. In all cases, a maximum of
two re-entries (i.e. a total of three entries) are possible within 2
months.
The rules are particularly strict for people with
Pakistani ancestors (parents and grandparents).
All visas issued
to Afghan citizens have been declared invalid, regardless of their
duration. (As of April 2022)
Entry requirements
Citizens from
all European countries require a visa for stays of up to 30 days, and
their passport must be valid for at least six months upon arrival. The
visa is available
for short trips of up to 30 days via the online
registration (ETA) for entries. The fee of US$50 can only be paid by
credit card. Copies of the flight booking and the travel plan in Sri
Lanka, with hotel addresses, are also required. This is effectively an
online visa. If necessary, you can also get one at the airport in
Colombo, but it is 20% more expensive.
If you have paid for a
visa-on-arrival for tourist stays upon arrival with an ETA (in addition
to the visa fee of US$50, there is also a processing fee of US$10, which
must be paid in cash in dollars), extensions of up to 180 days are
possible.
ETAs for business trips incur different fees.
If the
approved length of stay is exceeded by more than two calendar days,
there is a fine of US$500.
Consulates
Only entry permits are
issued for short business trips (30-90 days) or tourist stays longer
than 90 days. The fees vary according to nationality, for Germans in
2022 US$ 117. If you apply by post, you must expect a processing time of
at least three weeks.
Consular Department of the Embassy,
Niklasstrasse 19, 14163 Berlin (S1 "Mexikoplatz"; buses 118, 629
"Niklasstrasse"). Tel.: (0)30 80909749, Fax: (0)30 80909749. Price:
Regulation on all fees, 2021.
General Consulate Frankfurt, Lyoner
Str. 34, 60528 Frankfurt a. M. (stop "Bürostadt Niederrad" bus 78 / tram
12). Tel.: +49 (0) 69 - 660 539 80, Fax: + 49 (0) 69 - 660 539 899.
Duty-free quantities
For tourist arrivals:
2 bottles of wine
and max. 1.5 liters of liquor, together no more than 3 bottles = 2.5 l
250 ml of toilet water and a “small amount” of perfume
no tobacco
products
Indian or Pakistani currency only up to a maximum of 1000
Rp.
Own motor vehicles (this also includes motorboats) not longer
than 6 months with Carnet de Passage/triptyque. Details from the
Automobile Association of Sri Lanka, 40 Sir Mohamed Macan Markar
Mawatha, Galle Face, Colombo 3. Tel.: 0094-11-242 1528 / 292. There is a
local “recognition permit” for the home driver’s license.
Airplane
The journey to Sri Lanka is almost exclusively by plane via
Bandaranaike Airport (IATA: CMB), located about 30km north of the city
center of the capital Colombo in the suburb of Katunayaka near Negombo.
A large part of the traffic to and from Europe is now handled by the
Gulf airlines, especially Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways. These are
usually the cheapest offers. SriLankan Airlines fly up to four times
from Frankfurt am Main directly to Colombo. Air Belgium is involved as a
partner here.
For onward travel within Southeast Asia from
Colombo, for example, Air Asia flies to Kuala Lumpur or Thai Airways to
Bangkok, tickets start from around 100 euros for one way.
The
nearest airport on the Indian subcontinent is Chennai, there are a large
number of cheap flights to CMB every day. Lufthansa also flies directly
to Chennai.
Ratnapala Airport is closer to Colombo and was the
island's international airport until CMB opened in 1967. Today, the
airport serves business and charter flights, but more at Chessna level.
There is no relevant domestic scheduled service in Sri Lanka. The
largest operator is the Sri Lankan Air Force, which offers domestic
flights accessible to the public with Helitours.
The second
international airport is Mattala Rajapaksa Airport (IATA: HRI) near
Hambantota. HRI was opened in 2013 during the term of office of the
eponymous President Rajapaksa. At about the same time as his election
defeat in 2015, the few commercial flights were stopped, with a few
exceptions. According to press reports, some of the halls are now to be
used to store rice in order to generate at least some income. The
airport was built and financed by China, and the loans must of course be
gradually repaid.
Ship
Ferry connections from India were
discontinued in 1983 due to the civil war. A reactivation in 2011 on the
Tuticorin-Colombo route was only short-lived, so there is currently no
ferry to Sri Lanka. The restoration of the railway line to Talainmannar
in 2015 with Indian support could lead to a resumption of ferry services
to Rameswaram. There are also plans for a bridge between the two
countries, but so far these projects have not been implemented in
practice.
By train
Sri Lanka has around 1,400 kilometers of railway lines.
Some interesting destinations can be reached by train. These include
seaside resorts on the southwest coast and Galle. The "Main Line" leads
to Kandy and from there on a scenic route into the highlands to Badulla.
Jaffna and Trincomalee can also be reached by Sri Lanka Railways. Many
lines start at Colombo Fort station. The website of the state railway
company with an electronic timetable is available in English.
All
trains have a non-air-conditioned second class. Third class is available
on most trains; the furnishings vary between plastic benches and hard
upholstered seats depending on the vehicles used. The third class
carriages are often very full. Between Colombo and Badulla, some trains
have the first class "Observer Wagon" as the last carriage on the train;
this observation carriage also allows a view of the landscape thanks to
larger windows at the front. On long routes such as to Jaffna, sleeper
trains run overnight. There, first class is a two-bed compartment.
On long distances, there are some trains called ICE
(InterCityExpress) that require seat reservations. On long distances,
seat reservations are possible on many trains even in third class, but
there are also carriages available without seat reservations. Suburban
and commuter trains run particularly around Colombo. Tickets can be
bought at the counter at the train stations, seat reservations are
available up to 45 days in advance.
A ticket for the 121
kilometers from Colombo Fort to Kandy costs 900 rupees in third class,
between 1,000 and 1,200 rupees in second class, depending on the train,
and between 1,500 and 2,000 rupees in the "air-conditioned saloon."
By bus
There are red buses (state-run), also called CTB buses
(Ceylon Transport Board). These buses are invariably cheap (mostly well
under 50 Rs), but the comfort leaves a lot to be desired. You can stop a
CTB bus anytime and anywhere, and it is also possible to get off at any
tree. Important for travelers in the monsoon season: there are not
always windows. So-called intercity buses are privately operated, mostly
have curtains on the windows and are often equipped with air
conditioning (A/C).
There are very rarely fixed timetables for
buses; they usually leave when they have reached a suitable "fill
level". Occasionally this means an agonizingly tight fit in the bus with
a certain degree of "body contact". The first seats are reserved for
monks ("clergy"), should any get on, which is also strongly respected.
You can simply get on a bus and look for a seat, the "controller" will
announce itself during the journey and collect the fare.
On the
road
The motorway from Colombo to Galle is now fully open. The exits
to the most important places on the west coast are signposted in detail.
Main roads are numbered A1 (Colombo-Kandy), A2 (Colombo-Hambantota)
etc. They can be compared to county roads or country roads, not all of
them are fully paved. Secondary roads are designated in the form B123.
They were also mostly built during the English colonial period, but in
some rural areas they have not improved much since then. There are now a
few expressway routes, the E01 from Colombo to Galle and the E03 from
Colombo to the airport have been expanded to four lanes. The main
advantage: there are no tuk-tuks or motorcycles (usually a synonym for
moped) on these routes.
Driving style
The traffic is very
different in its composition and organization from that in Europe and
the rest of the "western world". There are only a few cars, but a lot
more so-called "three-wheelers" or "tuk-tuks", which serve as a cheap
taxi replacement. The volume of traffic and the often poor road surface,
especially in the towns, only allow slow progress, regardless of the
vehicle. Since there are hardly any explicit country roads, but all
roads lead through the middle of the towns, an average speed of 40 km/h
is hardly exceeded in the long term, regardless of the vehicle.
Very unusual for Europeans: pedestrians and cyclists are at the bottom
of the scale, above them are motorcycles and tuk-tuks, and at the top
are trucks, cars and buses. If a road appears to be wider than 6m, a
slower vehicle can be overtaken by a faster one, even if there is
oncoming traffic, the road is wide enough. Fortunately, the speeds
driven are not so high, so braking distances are also shorter.
Road vehicles
Tuk-Tuks
Three-wheelers = Tuck-Tucks (Tuk-Tuk) are
three-wheeled vehicles with a two-stroke engine, similar to a moped, and
a back seat for two people in addition to the driver. They have a top,
but are open at the sides, which on the one hand makes air conditioning
superfluous on short journeys, but on the other hand exposes the
occupants to high levels of exhaust fumes, especially in larger cities.
They are the taxi of the little man. The vehicles manufactured in India
by the Bajajauto company can be found all over Asia. "Economical",
"small" and "indestructible" probably best describe this mixture of car
and scooter. The price is negotiable. Piaggio Ape vehicles are now also
finding their way onto the streets of Sri Lanka.
Taxis/ Vans
The other vehicles besides trucks and buses are almost exclusively
minibuses (vans) made by Asian manufacturers, i.e. Toyota Hi-Aces,
Isuzus and Nissans. These can also be rented, but are more expensive
than tuk-tuks. These vehicles usually have air conditioning.
The
fuel prices are not cheap, but the vehicles' consumption is not that
high either. This is important to know because tuk-tuk drivers like to
say during price negotiations (which you always have to do before
setting off - until everyone is completely clear about where you are
going and how much it will cost) that fuel has become more expensive.
And that's true: fuel costs half as much (compared to Germany), but
people don't earn anywhere near half. In January 2013, Super 95 cost 167
Rupees, which was exactly one Euro.
Orientation is not always
easy due to the widespread use of the Sinhalese language and, above all,
writing. Places sometimes merge directly into one another, as
practically every street is lined with small shops. Many of them have
oversized advertisements instead of a shop sign. The "footer" shows the
name of the owner and also the address. This way you don't completely
lose your bearings. The rare street signs or signposts are often black
on a white background and are therefore easily lost in the colorful
surroundings.
Differences between city and country: In the city,
due to the sharp increase in traffic, there are times when it takes
longer to get from A to B.
This is now a thing of the past thanks
to the new highway from Colombo to GHalle. Here you can get around very
well without major traffic.
For example, from the airport to
Benota you reach your destination after about 1.5 hours
Tuktuk:
40-70 Rs. per km (depending on size)
Bus: 25 Rs. (Colombo airport)
A/C bus: 50 Rs. (Colombo airport), 150 Rs. Beruwela-Colombo
Train: 3rd class: 19 Rs. for 80km (Colombo-Aluthgama)
2nd class:
"Express train" 120 Rs. (Aluthgama-Kandy)
Driver all-in: 40-60
EUR/day, cheaper for several days
Ayubowan! - Welcome (in Sinhalese: Long life!, often pronounced
"Eibo!" in abbreviated form).
The fact that the island was
settled by two ethnic groups is also evident from the languages. The
language of the Sinhalese is Sinhala, that of the Tamils Tamil.
Unfortunately, both the script and the language are not compatible, so
that very few Sinhalese speak both languages. Sinhala is a small
language spoken by only 18-20 million people. It is hardly widespread
beyond the island, although there is even a two-part textbook in German.
Sinhala is a syllabic language with a regular consonant-vowel
sequence (see the word A-yu-bo-wan). The script is very round and is
based on a few basic characters that are modified by additional strokes.
Sinhala was actually "invented" and consists of elements from
various Asian languages, for example, new characters were introduced
over time to represent Indian loan words. Tamil can be recognized by its
much "squarer" letters. Official documents are always written in both
languages, often in English (a relic from colonial times). Many place
names are also written in Sinhala, Tamil and Latin letters.
Due
to the country's history, English is understood by many locals in a
simplified form, but it is less important than in other ex-colonies.
However, this is usually sufficient for communication for travelers. If
there is no written information, passers-by are happy to help.
In
everyday life, the spoken language dominates. There is an employee on
every bus who takes care of the tickets and at every stop calls out the
next stops and the destination of the line to the people waiting,
although there are signs on every bus (not always in English!) with the
relevant information.
Some of the most popular beach resorts include:
Negombo: Just
a short drive from Colombo, Negombo offers long sandy beaches, water
sports and a lively beach promenade with restaurants and shops.
Bentota: A popular beach resort on the south-west coast, known for its
scenic beaches, luxurious resorts, water sports activities and boat
trips on the Bentota River.
Mirissa: A laid-back coastal village
in southern Sri Lanka, known for its scenic beaches, whale watching
tours, surfing spots and relaxed atmosphere.
Unawatuna: A
picturesque coastal town near Galle, known for its crescent-shaped
beach, good snorkeling and diving opportunities, and a lively beach
promenade with restaurants and bars.
Hikkaduwa: A lively coastal
town on the south coast, famous for its long sandy beaches, good surfing
spots, snorkeling and diving opportunities, and the Hikkaduwa Coral
Sanctuary.
Arugam Bay: A surfer's paradise on the east coast of
Sri Lanka, known for its world-class surf spots, relaxed atmosphere and
picturesque scenery.
Trincomalee: A coastal town in the northeast
of Sri Lanka, known for its beautiful beaches such as Nilaveli and
Uppuveli, as well as the opportunity to spot dolphins and whales.
Tangalle: A quiet coastal town in the south of Sri Lanka, known for
its pristine beaches, tranquil atmosphere and proximity to Yala National
Park and other natural attractions.
The most popular places are: Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Galle, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna
The best areas for hiking and trekking include: Horton Plains National Park, Knuckles Mountain Range, Adam's Peak, Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Udawatte Kele Sanctuary
Negotiating prices is particularly common at the various markets and
among street vendors. You should decide on your own maximum price early
on and then not exceed it. In general, friendly interest in a product
("How much is that?") is almost interpreted as an intention to buy, so
you may have trouble getting rid of the vendor, as they have a wide
range of marketing tools at their disposal: "Off season/bad business",
"very good quality", "good value", "final price" are all terms that you
will hear from a vendor sooner or later. Fortunately, friendly but firm
expressions of non-interest are ultimately accepted.
Many locally
produced products are on offer, including carvings made from various
types of wood, e.g. the inevitable "Eliphants", spices (make sure they
are good for cooking if you plan to use them, "not for display only"),
tea and, above all, textiles. These products can be very cheap,
especially if they are of normal quality. However, high-quality products
have almost the same price level as in Euroland. Tailors make all kinds
of clothing quickly and well. They are often equipped with the latest
European mail-order catalogs, from which you can choose the cut you
want.
It is best to buy tea directly from the factory. In normal
shops you often only get "everyday tea", which is of inferior quality.
With prices of around ten euros for a kilo of the best quality, you
should not settle for less. Tea lovers in particular should leave enough
space in their suitcase. Since there are no longer any customs limits
for tea, you can stock up on excellent tea for a long time.
Jewelry lovers get their money's worth, as the jewelry is much cheaper
than here due to the low labor costs and the stones found in the
country. You can also have your own designs made. Unfortunately, as
everywhere, there are a few black sheep among the many jewelry dealers.
That's why you shouldn't necessarily buy from the smallest street
vendor, no matter how tempting the prices are. Large jewelers are not
necessarily the cheapest, but they offer high quality at an adequate
price. Aida Gems & Jewellery in Bentota is recommended, for example. You
can also get help from the State Gem Office, where stones are checked
for authenticity. This government office is a kind of control body for
jewelers.
Electrical products are mostly imports from other Asian
countries and do not have a particularly lucrative price level,
especially when you consider the often lower quality.
Currencies
In addition to rupees, euros and dollars are also equally accepted, at
least in the tourist areas. The exchange rate is around 304 LKR = 1 EUR
and 290 LKR = 1 US$ (as of Dec. 2024).
It is very annoying to see
different prices for "locals" and "tourists". This distinction is openly
admitted and can only be partially argued away. This becomes
particularly clear when visiting museums or certain temples and is not
negotiable (example: entrance ticket to the rock in Sigiriya: 30 US$ for
tourists, about 50 LKR for locals).
Along with Thai, Sinhalese cuisine is the hottest cuisine in the
world. You should eat Sinhalese from the start, as continental food does
not last long in Sri Lanka. The best way to avoid stomach/intestinal
problems is not to change your diet.
Today, the respective dishes
are often offered without "spiciness". If you still want it a little
"spicy", you can note it beforehand.
However, you can do the
European stomach a favor by taking it slowly and ordering spicier over
time.
The standard dish is rice and curry with fish or chicken,
and you can get it on every corner for a few rupees, although these are
bought with the well-known spiciness.
Other popular dishes are:
Kottu Roti (கொத்து றொட்டி) is a popular dish. A roti (unleavened
flatbread) is cut into strips, mixed with curries or other spicy, fried
vegetables, eggs or pieces of meat and served hot.
Fried Rice
Hoppers
String Hoppers (pasta strips)
Buriyani
Egg Hoppers are
similar to German pancakes. They consist of fermented rice flour,
coconut water or coconut milk and unfermented palm wine (toddy) or palm
syrup. They are baked in a pan with a slanted raised edge (appachatti)
over an open flame. The thin flatbreads, which are curved upwards, taste
sweet and sour and, like flatbread, are often eaten for breakfast. They
are served with or without eggs, but almost always with sambols, curry,
dhal and coconut sauce. Egg hoppers can also be enjoyed for dinner or as
street food.
Because many ethnic groups live in Sri Lanka, each
of which has brought their own cuisine with them, there are many
different types of cuisine to try. There are Chinese restaurants (some
of which are much better than the ones here), restaurants with 'halal
food', typical Sinhalese food stalls and of course a mixture of
everything.
The Sinhalese love to eat hot meals several times a
day.
Vegetarians have no problems, as traditionally vegetarian
food is more common in the predominantly Buddhist-oriented countries of
Asia than in so-called western countries. Since many dishes are based on
rice and the other ingredients are put on the plate according to your
own taste, you don't run the risk of getting a plate whose contents you
don't know.
Salad: Greens grow well in Sri Lanka and so salad is
often included, at least in families who pay a little attention to their
diet. Salad grows in the forest and not in a greenhouse. It is therefore
a little more leaf and plant than a leaf salad as we think of it in
Europe.
Drinks: The British left behind a tea culture that is not
only evident in the large-scale cultivation, but also in the fact that
even the simplest people make tea at least once a day. Tea is also
offered in many shops. In contrast to India, where tea is often made
with milk and spices, in Sri Lanka you usually get tea pure. Sugar and
milk come separately. A little lemon juice in tea is also very good and
refreshing.
Beer doesn't taste so fizzy, but the standard beer
'Lion Lager' does the job.
There are 1.5l water bottles
everywhere, without which nothing would "work".
Sri Lanka is not
a wine country; the wines you get are often imported from Australia and
are not really good. There are small growing areas and the "Ceylon
Classic", a dry white wine, has a strong sherry note.
The
standard alcoholic drink is arrack, a spirit distilled from the
fermented juice of the coconut palm (toddy). It tastes a little like
Irish whiskey. A bottle of arrack is always a good gift to bring when
you're invited to a party.
The government has made alcoholic
drinks much more expensive - shop prices are significantly higher than
in Germany, which is why it can be a good idea to bring spirits within
the customs limits. Alcohol, including beer, is only sold in so-called
"wine stores", which are often heavily secured, meaning you can only buy
the goods through a small sales window.
Here, prices (2024) are
usually between 6200 and 6800 rupees for a bottle of Old Arrack and
around 350 rupees for a can of Lion Lager beer.
Alcohol is now
ubiquitous in restaurants. The prices for a bottle of Lion Lager (0.745
ltr) are between 800 and 100 SR
Various long drinks can also be
found on every menu
Milk is made from powdered milk, there is no
cold chain for milk logistics.
A typical day with simple food:
In the morning, fruit breakfast: papayas, mangos, bananas, pineapples,
etc.
At noon, lunch: rice and curry with fish, i.e. rice, lentils,
beans, chickpeas, fish sauce, salad
In the evening: Rice and curry,
this time perhaps with chicken and other side dishes
In general,
Europeans have no problems with Sinhalese cuisine, the Sinhalese don't
eat anything that we might find disgusting. You can eat heartily. Enjoy
your meal!
Sri Lanka is certainly not the Mallorca of Asia. If you want to party
a lot, you'd be better off going to Thailand. Buddhism gives people a
worldview in which they have their function and after being reborn in a
different form, we'll see what happens next. This means that no one sets
their sights too high, but rather accepts their situation.
There
are various options in Colombo, and the free magazine 'LT-Colombo' -
Leisure Times Colombo - provides a good overview. Unfortunately, Colombo
is teeming with so-called V.I.P. clubs where the country's
self-appointed elite meet, some of which are even 'for foreigners only'.
Since reggae is one of the Sinhalese's favorite musical genres
(popular for people aged 8 to 88), there are frequent beach parties
(between Mount Lavinia and Galle) with this music. There's everything
from UB40 to Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff.
Sinhala/Tamil Music
(June 2005):
Delon Jayasingha
Ashanthi
Krishan
Bathiya and
Santhush
Iraj
Centigradz
Ranidu
Gypsies
Accommodation prices are often negotiable if the accommodation was
not pre-booked via internet portals - which is why there are often no
prices listed.
Air conditioning is a great invention, but a
simple fan will do just as well. Sleeping in Sinhalese means: open door,
open window and fan on. The ceiling fan (fan) drives away mosquitoes and
other flying creatures when set high. Doors to bedrooms in private areas
are usually just curtains and some of the windows have mosquito nets
instead of glass.
Sockets in Sri Lanka have 3 round poles - the
socket type D, which dates back to colonial times but is almost extinct
in Great Britain. Adapters for Great Britain therefore do not work in
Sri Lanka. Many accommodations lend adapters, so you don't necessarily
have to bring one with you. Some tourists simply stick a ballpoint pen
into the upper pole - this does not carry any electricity, but only
contains a mechanical protection device that closes the lower poles
until the ballpoint pen is inserted at the top...
Sockets have
their own on and off switch - if the socket does not work, it may just
be because it is not switched on.
The country has a largely functioning school system. Some projects offer supplementary or advanced courses for young adults in English or, for example, computer science. This makes it possible to work as a course leader in Sri Lanka for a while. As part of nature conservation projects, it is possible to get involved in protecting sea turtles or elephants. In practice, however, such projects tend not to pay any remuneration, but often collect money from the participants for accommodation and food.
Tue, 4 Feb 2025 Independence Day commemorates independence from
England in 1948.
Mon, 31 Mar 2025 Idul Fitri End of Ramadan (fasting
month)
Fri, April 18, 2025 Good Friday
Thurs, April 3, 2025
Sinhalese and Tamil New Year
Mon, April 14, 2025 Buddhist New Year
Mon, April 21, 2025 Birthday of the Prophet Mohammed
Thurs, May 1,
2025 Labor Day
May Vesak Day Buddha's birthday
Thurs, December 25,
2025 Christmas
The public holidays also include the monthly full moon
days, the Poya Days, see
http://www.holiday-times.com/public-holidays-sri-lanka/ for 2014. On all
of these days, the serving of alcoholic beverages in restaurants and
bars is not permitted. This ban can also apply in hotels. In addition to
the public holidays, religious festivals naturally play an important
role in a Buddhist country. Even though the public holidays come from
different religions, there are also important Buddhist festivals.
Temple Festival Every last day of the month there is a small
festival in all temples. This is an important ritual to promote the
community of believers. At the beginning of the month, the children of
the village come to every house and ask for a donation for the next
temple festival. In return for your donation, you can eat and drink at
the temple festival. Typical Sinhalese dishes such as rice and curry are
prepared.
Esala Perahera In August of each year, a colorful
temple festival takes place in Kandy. This is a celebration lasting
several days, to which Buddhists come from all over the island and also
from other Buddhist countries. The tooth relic - this is a canine tooth
of Buddha (or a copy of it) - is brought from the temple in Kandy and
carried through the city on an elephant. It is a nighttime parade with
elephants, dancers, drummers, lights and many festively dressed
visitors.
Sri Lanka is a poor country with a low average income and high
unemployment. In many countries this is synonymous with a high crime
rate, but not in Sri Lanka. The people are very peace-loving, which is
very welcome for tourists.
Buddhism (in the form taught in Sri
Lanka) has, among other things, the motto "If you live happily, you will
be reborn as something better". Many Sinhalese derive a conflict-free,
peaceful way of life from this. Buddhism also teaches you to accept the
situation you were born into. This also contributes a lot to the fact
that theft is not widespread.
You can move around absolutely
freely: take the train, drive a car, sleep on the beach at night, spend
the night in an open boat in the mangroves. Of course you should look
after your luggage on the train, but you should do that anywhere in the
world.
In general, you can say that you should not be gullible
and should not do anything that you would not do at home. On the
internet you can read stories of holidaymakers (mostly package tourists)
who have magically attracted swindlers, traffickers and con artists
through their public and wasteful use of money, ignorance of the value
of money and a fair amount of naivety.
When it comes to security,
you inevitably come to the subject of the Tamil conflict or the
"northern and eastern provinces".
The Tamils would like to have
a state called "Tamil Eelam", but the Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka
is fighting this aspiration. As a result, there was a thirty-year civil
war with heavy losses, fought between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the
military loyal to the government. The rebels even managed to destroy the
entire fleet of Sri Lankan Airlines at one point. Ultimately, however,
they did not have the means to prevail, especially since a subgroup of
the Tigers split off and collaborated with the government.
The
civil war ended in 2009 with a victory for the government army, and the
LTTE has since been disarmed. However, security in the areas formerly
controlled by the rebels (on the northern Jaffna peninsula) is not yet
100% guaranteed. The local authorities provide information on which
areas are safe to travel to.
In Colombo, you will often come
across roadblocks securing government buildings; this seems quite
warlike at first glance, but since the Tigers have already carried out
attacks on important buildings in Colombo, the government is cautious.
Food - and especially its storage - must be adapted to local
conditions. It is strongly recommended to avoid "European" food, as it
spoils too quickly due to the often non-existent or unreliable
refrigeration. Sinhalese food is generally very spicy and therefore not
a good breeding ground for bacteria. So you should switch to local food
immediately after arriving.
Tap water is actually only available
in Colombo and Kandy, the water that is drawn "from the tap" in the
village is pumped from a well and then temporarily stored in
characteristic round black plastic tanks (which can be found on many
houses). Due to gravity, the water from the higher tanks comes out of
the tap with natural pressure.
For minor injuries, the
"antiseptic plasters" work well, which are available everywhere where
"daily goods" are sold.
Private hospitals (e.g. the blue Philips
Hospitals) should be preferred over state ones. The prices are much
higher for tourists than for locals, please don't be surprised!
According to the WHO, Sri Lanka is malaria-free. Nevertheless, insect
repellent should be used, as Degue fever and Japanese encephalitis can
still be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Dangers of snake bites.
There are 64 species of snake, six of which are poisonous, including
the diurnal spectacled snake and the nocturnal krait from the family of
venomous snakes. In general, they do not become aggressive towards
humans as long as they do not feel threatened. Nevertheless, there are
40-70 deaths in Sri Lanka every year, as it often takes too long for the
victim to get life-saving serum.
Ayurveda: the knowledge of
healthy living is a healing art that is thousands of years old,
Ayurvedic medicine is offered in numerous shops, and Ayurvedic
treatments also enjoy a good reputation. Some resorts offer authentic
Ayurveda in Sri Lanka
Cigarettes: Currently (March 2024) a pack
(20 pcs.) of cigarettes costs Rs 3100. Smoking is prohibited in public
in Sri Lanka, but not so strictly controlled.
Monsoon is the key word when thinking about the climatic conditions
in Sri Lanka. A nice explanation of the weather in Sri Lanka can be
found at SriLanka-info.com.
Sri Lanka's climate is more
consistent and more pleasant for Europeans than that of India. In the
northernmost part, the area around Jaffna, there is drought; in
Trincomalee, rainfall is frequent but light, and inland the fields
require irrigation. In the south, heavy rain falls during the monsoons
(April, May and October, November).
Due to its geographical
location, Sri Lanka enjoys the monsoon twice. Once it is the northeast
monsoon, which lasts from November to April and is caused by the
northeast trade winds. The air flowing into Sri Lanka comes over the Bay
of Bengal and hits the northeast coast of the island. Only far inland
are the mountains high enough for uphill rain to occur.
From May
to October, Sri Lanka is influenced by the southeast trade winds that
blow in the southern hemisphere. Due to low pressure areas over India,
the wind is diverted and hits the south and west coast of the island as
the southwest monsoon, causing rain to fall over the central highlands.
It also brings much more moisture than the northeast monsoon. The wet
zone in the southwest of the island is characterized by rainfall of over
2,500 mm/year. For comparison: in the dry zone it is around 1,500
mm/year, but that is still twice as much as in Hamburg (773 mm/year).
However, the amount of rain is very low in some months.
The Sinhalese are sometimes typically Asian and bustling and
sometimes deeply immersed in meditation. When you see the same people in
such different roles, you can hardly believe it.
The people of
Sri Lanka value a good atmosphere and try to please everyone in some way
so that reincarnation as "something better" (as Buddhism puts it) also
occurs.
This atmosphere is contagious, because who doesn't like
to smile. But it is not always compatible with European/non-Buddhist
ways of thinking. Sayings like "You just have to get through it" or
answers like "No, it's not possible" are traditionally not used.
Something is not done rather than risking one's advancement up the
career ladder (through reincarnation) through bad [unlucky] behavior.
This behavior stems from the fear of losing face. This loss of face,
or the Sinhalese's fear of it, can really upset a traveler (who is not
familiar with this problem). This is exactly when you should remember
that you are a guest in the country and accept this behavior. So, if
instead of an answer to a question (which is perfectly normal for us)
you only get a smile in return, perhaps together with an evasive answer,
you should remember that the Sinhalese person does not say something
because it will make them lose face. If you ask something differently,
you will usually get further.
The Sinhalese population is not
uniformly composed. The various religions (70% Buddhist, 15% Hindu, 7.5%
Muslim, 7.5% Christian (mainly Tamil!) all have their own ideas about
how to treat temples, churches, holy places, etc. with respect.
Some basic rules that are always a good idea are given here:
Appropriate clothing. The Sinhalese dress cleanly and (depending on the
means available) well. No one would think of wearing Bermuda shorts in
the city; that belongs on the beach. A striking number of women walk
around with dark umbrellas, because the ideal of beauty is as light skin
as possible.
Friendly behavior. People greet you with a friendly
attitude. You should reciprocate this, because it doesn't take much to
do so and it shows the locals that you are a knowledgeable traveler.
However, if you want tickets at the train station and there is a fight
for the best seats in the queue, you can join in. It is important to
study the behavior of the Sinhalese and imitate it as far as it makes
sense.
You should not disturb the Buddhists during morning and
evening prayers, because the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka (Theravada)
is a very intense form of Buddhism, and people believe in the bad
consequences of "non-Buddhist behavior." According to a Gallup survey,
Sri Lanka is the second most religious country in the world (together
with Egypt and Bangladesh).
Visiting temples. No head coverings, no
shoes, at least 3/4 length trousers, covered shoulders. If you behave
and dress like the locals do, you're not doing anything wrong. Hardly
anything in the area of temples/beliefs is reserved for Buddhists. As
a European, you don't have to make any sacrifices, but since most of the
rituals (prayers, lights, incense) are well known, you are invited to
take part. Prayers are mostly about luck. For example, you thank them
for the luck they have had, wish themselves and others, family and
friends luck for the future, for upcoming events, the trip to xyz, etc.
Participation is allowed and encouraged. Tourists who just stare in the
temple are not chased away, but those who have a little prayer for their
friends back home are perceived very differently.
Monks. Monks are
something special in Sri Lanka. Theravada Buddhism does not make monks a
withdrawn fringe group, but a powerful and influential group that has a
strong influence on politics. Monks are strongly integrated into
society, usually better educated and people who can be trusted. It is
not strange that monks in particular give more "honest" information than
normal citizens, even though monks practice Buddhism even more strongly.
The often better education means that monks know that they cannot really
lose face in front of foreigners. Monks are usually very nice, they help
you in a temple if you have no idea, they explain the principles of the
Buddhist religion, such as Buddha's life story. You can ask monks what
is hidden behind closed doors in the temple. One thing you should avoid:
touching monks - depending on the subgroup, this can force the monk to
undergo a long and arduous washing ritual. If the monk touches you (e.g.
shakes hands or something similar), you can be sure that this monk is
not afraid of being contaminated by the traveler.
Buddha statues can be photographed! Temples and Buddhist religious
institutions can too. You should not take photographs during sacrificial
ceremonies (in the presence of a monk) and also not when you turn your
back to Buddha. Important: If you want to photograph Buddha and living
people (regardless of religion) together, all people should look at
Buddha. If you are sitting, you should sit cross-legged in front of the
statue (like Buddha, by the way) and not stretch out your legs, because
the soles of your feet are not 'clean' and should not point at anything
that you should treat with respect.
Hindu temples: the same
applies here. Respect for Shiva, Vishnu, etc. is expressed by behaving
kindly towards the statues.
Christian churches. You should only
take photographs after you have asked the responsible pastor. Otherwise,
most people are familiar with the Christian faith.
As Europeans, try to "make your own way of thinking clear" to
someone. If something is not as we imagine it, it will certainly not
change in the short time you are there. Furthermore: how would we feel
if someone tried to convince us that our views were completely wrong?
Be afraid. You can talk to the Sinhalese about absolutely anything.
There are none of the oft-described faux pas. If you have read the
"Respect" section, everything is clear.
Conclusion: The
interested traveler will get many answers to questions about religion,
belief, behavior, etc. Locals talk about it without any problems. If you
show interest, you will notice that people are very happy to integrate
you. Before you know it, you are in the middle of family celebrations,
weddings, temple visits, etc. By behaving appropriately, you open up the
possibility of coming to "the other side" and more than just being
there. I wish every traveler such experiences.
Sri Lanka is a country near the equator and therefore has no shortage
of forests. The jungle is not exactly the best terrain for building
infrastructure (including telephone lines). For a long time, Lanka has
had so-called wireless local loops, landline phones that work in a
specific radio cell. For a long time, this technology was the only way
to get a telephone connection in the jungle.
Today, mobile phones
have a firm grip on Sri Lanka. The advantages are obvious: no cables,
antenna masts were available in many places thanks to WLL technology,
cheap devices, etc. There are two large providers, Dialog and Celltel,
and smaller ones like Mobitel, some of which only act as resellers.
Dialog's network is much better (as of June 2005) than the Celltel
network. It is worth getting a prepaid card from the first minute, as
the SMS charges are very low (3 cents/SMS) and there are no roaming
charges. Dialog offers a prepaid card called kit (dialling code 077),
the top-up card is called "ezLoad"; Celltel's counterpart is called
cellcard.
In larger towns there is an internet café almost everywhere. Most internet cafés are connected via a single dial-up line, so the speed remains "manageable". Many cafés have WiFi routers, but not all offer WiFi to the outside world as a designated service. DSL is effectively only available in Colombo and Kandy. The main difficulty in communication is not so much access to the provider as the country's connection to the rest of the world.
The Celltel card (prepaid - dialing code 072) costs 800 Rs. (€6) and contains credit for 400 Rs (€3). Top-up cards are available in sizes of 150, 400 or 1000 Rs (€1.20, €3 or €8). One hour of Internet use should cost between 100 Rs in simple Internet cafes and 500 Rs in hotels. Prices are as of June 2005.
In Vedic times (ca. 1500–400 BC) the island was called "Laṃkā", "Laṅkādvīpa", "Lakdiva" and "Lakbima"; in Pali it was also called "Sihala"; at the time of the Indian Mauryan Empire under Ashoka (ca. 3rd century BC) it was called Sanskrit "Tāmraparnī" or Pali "Tambapanni". The latter two names, which can be found in the ancient Buddhist chronicles of Sri Lanka (Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa) and in the rock inscriptions of Ashoka, are also the origin of the name "Taprobane" (Ταπροβανῆ), which was predominantly used by the ancient Greeks. The island was mentioned and described under this name by Onesikritos, a Greek historian and participant in Alexander's campaign, and later in the "Geography" of Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD). The name was also adopted by all later Roman authors, for example in the Naturalis historia of Pliny the Elder. In the Gupta period (around 400 AD) and at the time of the Indian Great King Harshavardhana (7th century) it was called "Singhala", in the late Middle Ages (13th/14th century) it was called "Silan" and "Sarandib", from which "Serendib" or "Serendip" was derived, which is the old Persian name for the island. The Portuguese called the island "Ceilão", the Dutch and British called it "Ceylon". When the new constitution came into force on May 22, 1972, the state was renamed "Sri Lanka" (from 1978 "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka"), Sanskrit for "honorable island" ("Sri" is a general honorary title). The island is called ලංකාව (laṃkāva) in Sinhala, and இலங்கை (ilaṅkai) in Tamil. The inhabitants of the island are called "Sri Lankans" or "Sri-Lankers" in German and the corresponding adjective is "Sri Lankan". Many state institutions retained the old name "Ceylon" as part of their name even after the renaming (for example the Bank of Ceylon). On January 1, 2011, the Sri Lankan government announced its intention to consistently change these names to "Sri Lanka".
Modern humans arrived in South Asia from Africa around 60,000 years
ago. Until around 5000 BC, there was a land bridge between the Indian
subcontinent and Sri Lanka, allowing populations of anatomically modern
humans (Homo sapiens) to move back and forth. The oldest evidence of
human settlement in Sri Lanka dates back to around 28,000 BC, but older
collections of stone tools have also been found, dating to around 42,000
years ago. There are also traces of archaic hominins (Homo erectus) that
are up to 125,000 years old.
There is little solid knowledge
about the origins of the indigenous population of Sri Lanka. It is
unclear whether the fossils, dated to be 12,000 years old and referred
to as Homo sapiens balangodensis, belong to their ancestors. Myths and
legends are usually used as a source of information about the island's
indigenous population. For example, parts of the Hindu epic Ramayana are
set in Sri Lanka. However, the Mahabharata and the Mahavamsa are
considered the main sources. According to these writings, the Nagas and
the Yakkas make up the indigenous population of Sri Lanka. The
Dravidians and Indo-Aryans most likely only came to Sri Lanka in the
first millennium BC.
The descendants of the so-called Yakkas, the
Veddas, still live in Sri Lanka today. Their habitat was destroyed early
on by the clearing of the jungle and its conversion into arable land.
They were resettled in villages where they mixed with Sinhalese and
Tamils. Things became even more critical for the indigenous population
in the 20th century, when they were increasingly driven out of their
traditional habitats by settlement projects. Today, only a few of them
live entirely according to their traditions. It is estimated that there
are still around 600 Veddas, which means they form a clear minority of
the country's population and are threatened with extinction. The Veddas
are therefore threatened with the same fate as all indigenous peoples.
Due to assimilation, they will lose their independent culture and
language in the foreseeable future.
Around 500 BC, North Indian settlers (belonging to the Indo-Aryans), who later became the Sinhalese, came to Sri Lanka. The Indo-Aryan immigrants called themselves Siṃha Vaṃsa (in Sanskrit or Pali: Siṃha = "lion", Vaṃsa = "tribe, origin"). This is why the lion became the national symbol of the Sinhalese. Vijaya (543-504 BC) was the mythical tribal father of the Sinhalese and the first king of Sri Lanka. He is said to have ruled in the 6th century BC. In the 2nd century BC, Mahinda and his entourage were exiled to Sri Lanka from the kingdom of Vanga in northeast India with their followers. However, linguistic facts suggest that the first Indo-Aryan settlers came from northwest India.
Around 247 BC, Mahinda and his sister Sanghamitta, sent to Sri Lanka by their father, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, introduced Buddhism in the form of the Theravada tradition. Mihintale, one of the first Buddhist monasteries, was built on Missaka Mountain about seven kilometers east of Anuradhapura. Buddhism had been the state religion of the kingdom of Anuradhapura since about 200 BC.
From ancient Greece to the Middle Ages, the island was known in
Europe as Taprobana. In the 1st century AD, trade and cultural exchange
with the Roman Empire and China began. Sri Lanka was involved in the
first Roman-Chinese relations. The Silk Road developed into an important
trade route for the Sri Lankan kingdoms. The Chinese pilgrim monk Faxian
also reached the island via it in 414 AD.
From the 6th century BC
to the 11th century AD, the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom was
Anuradhapura. Up until the 14th century, the capital changed several
times, including Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. At least since the 13th
century, there was a Tamil kingdom with its capital Jaffna. These
kingdoms were repeatedly under pressure from neighboring South India,
and the Chola dynasty ruled the entire island for several decades in the
11th century. In the following period, several regional (Sinhalese and
Tamil) kingdoms developed. The most important was the kingdom of Kotte
(now Sri Jayewardenepura).
In 1284, the Yuan Empire under Kublai Khan sent an expedition to Sri
Lanka to obtain the Buddha's tooth relic, but returned to China without
success.
Later in 1410/1411, a conflict arose between the Ming
Dynasty and the Kingdom of Kotte due to piracy and again because of the
tooth relic. The Chinese admiral Zheng He broke into the capital of
Kotte with 2,000 men, captured the then ruling king Vira Alakesvara and
brought him to China. The king was later released, but had lost his
power due to the loss of prestige. Around 1414, a Chinese delegation
reached Kotte again to help a new king favored by the Chinese to power,
who would represent the interests of the Ming Dynasty at the
strategically important trading hub. In the meantime, however, the later
King Parakramabahu IV had united almost the entire island and was able
to ascend the throne of Kotte himself in 1415 and drive out the Chinese.
In modern times, the country lost some of its independence and was
taken over several times by European colonial powers, who, however, only
controlled the coastal plains; the Kingdom of Kandy was initially able
to hold its own in the highlands. Portugal first conquered the coastal
regions of the island in 1518. After Colombo had already become Dutch
two years earlier, the remaining Portuguese part of the island also fell
to the Dutch East India Company in 1658 (see Dutch possessions in South
Asia). British rule over Ceylon began in 1796 and it was granted the
status of a crown colony in 1803.
After the Kingdom of Kandy was
conquered in 1815, the last Sri Lankan king Vikrama Rajasinha was
arrested and taken to India, and several uprisings were put down, the
entire island finally became British by treaty in 1818. The
infrastructure was then expanded and the cultivation of coffee on
plantations was promoted. From 1840 onwards, Indian Tamils were
recruited to work on the plantations in the highlands. From 1860
onwards, tea plantations replaced coffee cultivation. During the First
World War, the first national movements emerged. The Ceylon Reform
League, founded in 1917 and merged into the Ceylon National Congress two
years later, was able to push through a constitutional reform in which
19 of 27 members of the Legislative Assembly were to be elected. This
national movement collapsed due to disputes between the Sinhalese and
Tamils. Even after the Donoughmore Commission (1927/28), the local
population had no real say in government. Although seven of the ten
ministers were elected, the three most important ministerial posts
continued to be filled by the British governor. Sri Lanka was one of the
first countries in Asia and Africa to achieve women's suffrage. As part
of the Donoughmore constitutional reforms of 1931, the right to vote and
to stand for election was introduced for women over 21 on 20 March 1931.
Although the Commission had recommended limited suffrage for women over
30, when the reforms were introduced in 1931, all women over 21 were
given the right to vote. Since then, however, women have only been
represented in negligible numbers in political bodies. They never made
up more than four percent of the members of the national legislative
assembly, and their participation in local governing bodies was also
insignificant.
In June 1947, Ceylon became a British Dominion, and finally independent within the British Commonwealth on 4 February 1948. The two-chamber system of the Parliament of Ceylon consisted of the Senate of Ceylon as the upper house and the House of Representatives as the lower house. When independence was achieved in 1948, women's suffrage and passive voting rights were confirmed.
On May 22, 1972, Ceylon became a republic called "Sri Lanka".
From 1983 onwards, after a long simmering ethnic conflict, a civil war
broke out in Sri Lanka, in which Tamil separatists in the north-eastern
regions fought for independence from the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka
in the rest of the country. The most important group was the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose goal was an independent state of
Tamil Eelam. It was only after more than 25 years that the civil war
ended on May 18, 2009 with the complete military victory of the Sri
Lankan government troops over the LTTE.
On November 17, 2005,
Mahinda Rajapaksa of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was elected
president with 50.33% of the vote. Voter turnout in the Tamil areas was
estimated to be only one percent. Rajapaksa was re-elected for another
six years on 26 January 2010 after a snap election with 57.88% of the
vote. Sarath Fonseka, the opposition leader and rival candidate,
received around 40% of the vote. Two days after the election, he
announced that he would contest the election result and expressed
concern about his security situation. On 8 February 2010, Sarath Fonseka
was arrested by the government. A government spokesman announced that
Fonseka would be brought before a military tribunal for conspiracy
against the government. The government accused Fonseka of planning a
coup against it. The opposition, on the other hand, accused the
government of trying to prevent Fonseka from taking part in the upcoming
parliamentary elections. Sarath Fonseka, who as a former army leader was
accused of war crimes against the Tamils, announced that he would hand
over information about war crimes in the 25-year civil war to the
international tribunals. The parliamentary election on April 8, 2010 was
won by Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) with a clear
majority. On April 21, 2010, D. M. Jayaratne was sworn in as the new
Prime Minister in Parliament.
In October 2014, about 1½ years
before the end of his second term, Rajapaksa surprisingly announced that
new elections would be held in January 2015. At his instigation, the
constitution had previously been changed to allow him to run for a third
term, which had not previously been possible. Surprisingly, his party
colleague Maithripala Sirisena then had himself declared the
opposition's leading candidate and won the presidential election on
January 8, 2015.
On December 26, 2004, a devastating natural disaster struck Sri
Lanka. A tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake destroyed
large parts of the east and south coasts as well as the west coast south
of Colombo and killed more than 45,000 people.
From May 20 to
June 1, 2021, the container ship X-Press Pearl of the X-Press Feeders
Group of the shipping company Sea Consortium was on fire off Sri Lanka.
Plastic parts, oil and debris from the fire were washed up on the
beaches. Eight containers of polyethylene pellets that had fallen
overboard caused severe environmental damage. Sri Lankan officials
described the accident as probably the worst beach pollution in Sri
Lanka's history. On June 2, 2021, the X-Press Pearl sank while
attempting to tow it to deeper waters in the Indian Ocean.
During the last ice age, the Indian subcontinent was significantly larger in area than it is today; at that time Sri Lanka was connected to India. The land masses were probably separated between 6000 and 3500 BC. The "Adam's Bridge" (an island group between Talaimannar and Rameswaram in India) is the last visible trace of this connection.
The tropical island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean southeast
of the Indian subcontinent between 6° and 10° north latitude and between
79° and 82° east longitude. It lies about 800 km north of the equator
and measures about 432 kilometers north-south and 224 kilometers
east-west. It is separated from India (state of Tamil Nadu) by the Palk
Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. The coral rock islands of Adam's Bridge
form a loose connection between the northwest of Sri Lanka and the
Indian mainland. According to reports from the British colonial period,
this natural dam was almost complete, but was destroyed by a strong
storm in 1480. The Palk Strait is so narrow that you can see the coast
of Sri Lanka from Rameswaram. The southern tip of the island is Dondra
Head.
Sri Lanka can be divided into three different landscapes:
the central highlands with the famous tea-growing areas and mountains up
to 2500 m high, lowlands that were made fertile centuries ago by
artificial irrigation (see wewa), and the coastal area with fishing and
palm-lined beaches.
The central highlands in the south-central
part of Sri Lanka are the heart of the country. At the core of the
highlands lies a high plateau 65 km long in a north-south direction. The
highest elevation in the country is Pidurutalagala at 2524 m above sea
level. Two mountain ranges extend from the southern end of the plateau,
one 50 kilometers to the east to Namunakula (2036 m) and one 50
kilometers to the west to Sri Pada (2243 m). Sri Pada is the most
important mountain for various religions. To the west and east, the
center of the highland borders two plateaus; to the north and south
there are further mountains, each separated from the center by valleys.
Most of the island consists of large tropical plains that are about
30 to 200 meters above sea level. In the southwest, mountain ridges and
valleys gradually merge into the central highland. In the southeast
there are plains and hills covered with laterite. The transition from
the plain to the central highland is abrupt, so that the mountains look
like a wall. The plain in the north and east is flat and broken up by
narrow granite ridges towards the highland.
By far the longest
river is the Mahaweli, which also has the largest catchment area. Sri
Lanka has numerous waterfalls, some of which are tourist attractions.
The highest waterfall is the 241-meter-high Bambarakanda waterfall.
The island is surrounded by a coastal belt 30 meters above sea
level. Sri Lanka's coasts mostly consist of sandy beaches. The coastline
is about 1,790 kilometers long.
More than 85 percent of Sri Lanka's surface lies on a Precambrian
basement, some of which is more than two billion years old. The
metamorphic rock surface was created by the transformation of very old
sediments. The theory of plate tectonics assumes that these cratons,
which make up most of the Indian subcontinent, belonged to Gondwana. 200
million years ago, the Indian subcontinent separated from Gondwana and
headed toward the Asian plate. After India collided with the Asian plate
45 million years ago, Sri Lanka separated from the Indian mainland
through earthquakes or volcanic events.
Sri Lanka is rich in
mineral resources. In addition to iron ore, there are also tin ore,
manganese, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, arsenic, tungsten, tellurium and
some gold. Rubies, sapphires, topazes and spinels are mined.
Sri Lanka's climate is tropical with varying rainfall patterns due to
the monsoons. Due to its location between the 5th and 10th northern
latitude, the country has a warm climate with mild sea breezes and high
humidity. Average temperatures range from 16 degrees Celsius in Nuwara
Eliya in the central highlands (where there can even be snow and frost
in winter) to 32 degrees Celsius in Trincomalee on the northeast coast
of the country. The average annual temperature for the entire country is
between 28 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius. The coldest month is
January and May is the warmest.
While the southwest of the
country (see Colombo climate diagram) is always humid with two clear
rainfall peaks in May and October, the southwest monsoon brings only
little rainfall to the northeast and east coast, as this area is in the
lee of the central mountains. There, most of the rainfall occurs during
the northeast monsoon in November and December (see Trincomalee climate
chart). The rainfall pattern is influenced by the monsoon winds from the
Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal and is determined by four seasons. In
the first season, from mid-May to October, southwesterly winds bring
moisture from the Indian Ocean. When these winds hit the central
highlands, heavy rain showers develop on the mountains and in the
southwest of the country. The east and northeast of the island receive
little rain during this time. In the second season, from October to
November, periodic gusts of wind and sometimes cyclones occur, bringing
cloudy weather to the island. In the third season, from December to
March, the northeast monsoon brings moisture from the Bay of Bengal to
the north and northeast of the country. The last season, from March to
mid-May, brings little rainfall.
Sri Lanka is one of the biodiversity hotspots in Asia, with a large
number of endemic plant and animal species.
Depending on the
rainfall conditions, the vegetation changes from west to east: in the
area of the highest rainfall, tropical rain and mountain forest
predominates, while in the north and east xerophytic bush vegetation can
be found. In addition to plants that are native only to Sri Lanka, there
are also Near Indian, Southeast Asian and Malay species.
In
Anuradhapura, there is the Bodhi tree, the oldest historically known
tree in the world. It is a Ficus religiosa, and is a direct offshoot of
the original Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya in India, under which Buddha is
said to have been enlightened. There is a direct offshoot of the tree in
Anuradhapura in every Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka.
Important
crops are coconut, rice, sugar cane, tea bushes, indigo, tobacco, coffee
and cinchona bark, as well as a variety of spices (chilli, cinnamon,
turmeric).
Sri Lanka is home to monitor lizards, crocodiles and
giant snakes such as the pale tiger python, which is found in a
subspecies. There are also various monkeys (toque monkeys, Hanuman
langurs and white-bearded langurs) as well as sambars, axis deer and
wild boars. Sri Lanka has even larger wild populations of the critically
endangered Asian elephant. The island is also home to the Sri Lankan
leopard. This subspecies is threatened with extinction, with fewer than
400 to 600 animals. A large population of feral dogs is noticeable.
Geckos are omnipresent. Sri Lanka's diverse and colorful birdlife
includes white and other herons, huge flocks of cormorants that catch
rich fish from the many reservoirs, parrots and crows.
Sri Lanka has registered eight historical and natural sites as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and two entries in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: the Rūkada Nātya puppet theatre and Dumbara Ratā Kalāla, mats made of plant fibres.
Although Sri Lanka's official national sport is volleyball, cricket
is by far the most popular sport. The Sri Lankan national cricket team
is one of the best in the world. Although Sri Lanka was given Test
cricket status in 1982, it was not until the early 1990s that they
reached the top of the world cricket, which reached its peak with the
win of the World Cup in 1996 and the Asia Cup in 1997. Since then, Sri
Lanka has regularly competed for the crown of the world's top teams.
They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with India, were runners-up in
both 2007 (against Australia) and 2011 (against India), as well as in
the 2009 and 2012 ICC Men's T20 World Cups. Sri Lanka also won the 2014
ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh after defeating India in the final. The
national team also won the Asia Cups in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008 and 2014.
Sri Lanka co-hosted the 1996 and 2011 World Cups and the 2014 ICC World
Twenty20. The Asia Cup has also been held in Sri Lanka several times. In
November 2021, Sri Lanka was named as the host of the 2026 T20 World Cup
along with India.
Other popular sports include rugby, water
sports, athletics, football, basketball and tennis. Sri Lankan schools
and universities regularly hold competitions to compete at regional or
national level. However, the Sri Lankan men's national football team has
never participated in an Asian Cup or World Cup.
Sri Lanka's
national rugby union team is considered the fourth strongest in Asia
after Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, but they have not yet qualified
for a Rugby Union World Cup. Sri Lanka participates in the Asia Rugby
Championship, where they compete against other up-and-coming national
teams. With around 103,000 registered rugby players, Sri Lanka is the
second largest rugby nation in Asia after Japan.
Sri Lanka has a
large number of sports stadiums - the most famous include the Sinhalese
Sports Club Ground and R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, as well as the
Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla and the Galle
International Stadium in Galle.
Due to the numerous beaches,
boating, surfing, swimming and diving are also popular sports and
attract large numbers of foreign tourists.
Special Olympics Sri
Lanka was founded in 2004 and has participated in the Special Olympics
World Games several times.
The largest radio and television stations are under government
control. The government also owns the largest publishing house. In 2020,
35 percent of Sri Lanka's residents used the Internet.
The
non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders reports that all
media, including online news portals, require a government license. Laws
dating back to the civil war period heavily regulate the media and have
also led to self-censorship among journalists.
For centuries, the Buddhist clergy dominated the island's written culture. In the 18th century, the first secular literary works were written in the south of the country, especially the poems of Andare (* 1742) and Gajaman Nona (the Christian-educated "Lady Gajaman", 1746–1815). The author Shehan Karunatilaka was awarded the Booker Prize in 2022 for his satirical novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. In it, he describes the turmoil of the civil war in Sri Lanka. Anuk Arudpragasam (* 1988), two of whose novels have been translated into German, writes in Tamil and English.
The traditional music of Sri Lanka shows the cultural influences
since the immigrants from North India in the middle of the 1st
millennium BC. From them emerged the Sinhalese, who have been followers
of Theravada Buddhism since the 3rd century BC. Since Buddhist teachings
do not require rituals and salvation can only be sought by each
individual, there would be no need for ceremonial music or music in the
community of believers. The religious music of the Sinhalese, which
nevertheless exists, arose from folk religion and consists mainly of
drum rhythms and songs appropriate to the occasion, with which
protective gods, ancestral gods and demons are invoked and worshipped.
Otherwise, music was promoted by the Sinhalese kings, who, according to
the chronicle Mahavamsa (5th century AD), ruled the island since the
arrival of the North Indians.
The Tamils, the second largest
ethnic group, maintain their own musical traditions with a Hindu cult
music originating from South India. This dates back to the 11th century,
when the Tamil Chola Empire ruled over Sri Lanka. Other musical
connections can be attributed to the island's geographical location,
which since the second half of the 1st millennium has been on a sea
trade route between the East African coast, Arabia and Southeast Asia.
One such link is the frame drum rabana, the name of which is unknown in
India. It came to the Malay Islands with the Arab-Islamic culture, where
it is played as rebana by Muslims in religious music, and from there it
reached Sri Lanka. From the 16th century onwards, musical influences
from European colonists followed: Portuguese (from 1505), who brought
African slaves with them in the 17th century, Dutch (from 1658) and
British (from 1796), who had Africans in the ranks of their army in the
19th century.
First, a distinction is made between the ritual and
religious music of the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. Stylistically,
Sinhalese cult music is divided into three major cultural regions, which
roughly correspond to the use of certain Sinhalese drum types. The vast
majority of the repertoire of drum rhythms belongs to ritual dance
styles and folk religious practices. The most well-known cultural region
is the central highlands around Kandy. The dance and drum styles of the
highlands (preferably with the barrel drum gata bera and the large
cylinder drum dawula) are propagated as Sinhalese national styles and
performed on stages because the Kingdom of Kandy was not released from
British rule until 1815, i.e. later than the coastal regions, and the
music culture there is therefore considered the most traditional. Even
if the dance and music styles were previously only practiced on ritual
occasions by male members of socially lower professional castes, they
are now part of the repertoire at entertainment events and are performed
by both sexes and all social classes. The second cultural region is the
lowlands in the south with the southwest and south coast, where a long,
slender cylinder drum (yak bera) accompanies the dances during cult acts
directed at protective deities (deva tovil) and during private
possession ceremonies. The third cultural region lies in between and
coincides with the province of Sabaragamuwa (where the cylinder drum
dawula is preferred).
Buddhist rituals include the sung
recitation of religious texts by monks and temple processions
(perahera), especially the annual Esala Perahera procession around the
Sri Dalada Maligawa ("Temple of the Tooth") in Kandy. This involves a
group of hymn singers (kavikara maduva), who praise Buddha in hymns
(prashasti), and large drum ensembles. Three times a day, a temple's own
ensemble (hevisi) usually plays a musical sacrificial ceremony with the
cylinder drum dawula, which always serves as a ceremonial drum, a pair
of kettle drums tamattama and a small cone oboe horanawa, sometimes
supplemented by hand cymbals (talampata). On special occasions, a snail
horn sounds at the beginning.
The formerly ritual masked theater
Kolam on the southwest coast is now performed for entertainment on some
festivals. All roles are played by men only and, apart from the
recitations, all scenes are accompanied by cylinder drums (yak bera).
Other traditional folk theatres of the Sinhalese are the dance and mask
theatre Sokari in the highlands, which arose from fertility rites, and
the Nadagam, which became popular in the second half of the 19th century
and goes back to the older, now extinct Tamil folk theatre Nattukuttu.
The Hindu temple music of the Tamils includes the barrel drum
tavil, known from South India, and the long double-reed instrument
nadaswaram. For other rituals, such as funeral processions, the low
Tamil professional caste of the Paraiyar plays the double-headed
cylinder drum parai and the kettle drum pair tampattam. The Muslims
practice Koran recitations and forms of Sufi music. The Tamil-speaking
population in the north and on the east coast has its own forms of folk
dramas such as Vada modi, Ten modi and Koothu. The Malay minority, which
speaks in a combination of Malay, Sinhalese and Tamil, has a tradition
of orally transmitted ballads, which primarily belong to the pantun
genre. The Malays also sing religious songs in veneration of Mohammed.
In addition to the Sokari and Kolam masked plays staged on open
stages in the villages and the Nadagam dance performance, the popular
Nurti musical theatre was developed in Colombo at the beginning of the
20th century. This was performed in theatres in front of a paying
audience. Nurti was influenced by the traveling musical theatres of the
Parsis and accordingly relied on opulently decorated stages, costumes
and music. Historical, mythical and religious stories were offered. The
Nurti style of music predominated in the cities until the 1930s, when it
was replaced by Indian film music. A dance music style that is still
popular today and goes back to the influence of the Portuguese and the
black African slaves they abducted is Baila. The Portuguese introduced
the guitar, which together with clapping provided the simple
accompaniment to the older acoustic Baila songs. Modern Baila ensembles
use electric guitars, synthesizers and drums to accompany the cheesy
songs that are standard at weddings and other parties. Typically, a
Baila ensemble with electric instruments also uses guitar, banjo or
mandolin, violin, the frame drum rabana and a pair of congas.
From the 1960s onwards, Sinhala pop developed from a mixture of Indian
film music, Western pop music and reggae. Such a band consists of a
singer, electric guitar, synthesizer and an electric drum set. The light
classical music heard in the cities (Sinhalese sarala gi) orchestrates
catchy melodies with instruments known from classical Indian music such
as violin, sitar, sarod, flute (bansuri) and tabla.
Sri Lanka had 22.0 million inhabitants in 2023. The population
decreased by 0.7%. Despite a surplus of births (birth rate: 13.8 per
1000 inhabitants vs. death rate: 7.3 per 1000 inhabitants), the
population decreased due to migration. The number of births per woman
was statistically 2.0 in 2022, compared to 2.2 in the South Asia region.
The life expectancy of Sri Lankans from birth was 76.6 years in 2022.
The median age of the population in 2021 was 32.5 years. In 2023, 22.4
percent of the population was under 15 years old, while the proportion
of people over 64 was 11.9 percent of the population.
Sri Lanka
is a country of emigration and millions of Sri Lankans live abroad,
mainly in the Arab Gulf states and in the USA and Great Britain. In
2017, only 0.2% of the population was born abroad.
The dominant ethnic group in Sri Lanka are the Sinhalese. According
to the 2012 census, they make up 74.9 percent of the island's
population. The largest ethnic minority, with a total of 15.4 percent of
the population, are the Tamils, who are divided into Sri Lankan Tamils
and Indian Tamils. The native Sri Lankan Tamils make up 11.2 percent
of the population and live in the northern and eastern provinces. The
Indian Tamils are descendants of Tamils who immigrated to Sri Lanka
from southern India (Tamil Nadu) as plantation workers during the
British colonial period. They make up 4.2 percent of the population,
most of them living in the tea-growing areas in the central highlands.
9.2 percent of Sri Lanka's population are Moors, Tamil-speaking Muslims
who identify themselves as descendants of Arab traders. They are
scattered all over the island, with the highest proportion of the
population in the Eastern Province. Smaller minorities are the 40,000
Malays, whose ancestors immigrated from what is now Indonesia and
Malaysia during the Dutch and British colonial period, and the 37,000
Burghers, descendants of European colonists and local women. The
indigenous people of Sri Lanka, the Veddas, have been almost completely
displaced and are estimated to number only a few hundred individuals.
The Sinhalese speak Sinhalese (Sinhala), an Indo-Aryan language,
while the Tamils and Moors speak Tamil, which belongs to the group of
Dravidian languages. English is widely used as a language of
communication and education. Following the constitutional amendment of
1987, Sinhalese and Tamil are the official and national languages of
Sri Lanka, and English is recognized as a connecting language.
Sinhalese and Tamils have lived in Sri Lanka for over 2,000 years. Among the Tamils in Sri Lanka, a distinction is made between Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils. Most Indian Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka from South India (Tamil Nadu) as plantation workers during the English colonial period. They are settled in the central mountains of Sri Lanka, while the native Tamils live in the northeastern coastal areas. The history of the Indian Tamils is often confused with that of the native Tamils, which leads to the occasionally expressed misconception that Tamils only immigrated to Sri Lanka in the 19th century. The civil war was fought between the Sinhalese and the native Tamils.
The main potential for conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils dates back to the colonial period. At that time, the Tamils, as the majority of the population group was literate, were preferred as administrative officials and therefore identified by the Sinhalese with the colonial power. With independence, nationalist Sinhalese wanted to eliminate this Tamil advantage in power. Tamil, like English, was to be banned from offices and public life; Sinhala was to be the common language. For the majority of Tamils, most of whom did not speak it, this was neither practical nor acceptable. There were armed protests in the Tamil area and the formation of political movements with a spectrum of goals ranging from federal territorial solutions to separatist efforts and efforts to join India.
Shortly before independence in 1948, the Tamils had demanded
constitutional protection for minorities with a guarantee of the
preservation of their human rights. G. G. Ponnambalam, the leader of the
Tamil Congress, had demanded equal voting rights for the Tamils from
the British Soulbury Commission, which was responsible for leading the
independence process in Sri Lanka. According to this voting right, the
Tamils should be seen as having an equal voice despite their
relatively small share of the total population (approx. 15%). However,
this demand was unsuccessful and the British left the island, while
political power went to the United National Party (UNP). At the time of
its founding, the coalition consisted of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim
parties. There were two Tamil ministers in the cabinet, G. G.
Ponnambalam and C. Sundaralinkam.
The election victory of the Sri
Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in 1956, which had campaigned with patriotic
slogans, led to a pro-Sinhalese policy. The preferential treatment of
the Tamil minority during the colonial period in terms of education and
professions (for example in the colonial administration) was viewed by
the Sinhalese majority as a social injustice. The government's goal was
to reduce the disproportionate representation of Tamil minorities in
administrative, educational and economic areas and to adapt it to the
current demographic situation. This led to the preference for the
Sinhalese language and Buddhism and to a quota system based on regional
affiliation for university admissions. This development was viewed by
the Tamil minority as a future threat.
The Sri Lankan population
explosion and youth unemployment among Tamils and Sinhalese made the
political situation more difficult, as the governments after
independence were unable to offer any concrete measures to reduce youth
unemployment. This resulted in the Marxist uprising of a section of the
Sinhalese youth (“Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna”) in 1971. At the same time,
a tendency towards armed uprising developed among a section of the Tamil
youth, supported by Marxist ideology.
In 1970, several Tamil
parties joined forces to form the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF),
which called for an independent Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) in the north
and east of the island.
At the end of the SLFP government under
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the conflict was temporarily calmed down. Despite
these rapprochements, there were still conflicts between the two ethnic
groups. Radical Tamil groups still insisted on separation. The radical
LTTE stood out among these groups, and also attracted moderate Tamils
who were open to other conflict solutions, such as the Tamil-Islamic
Front. B. Alfred Dureiappa (mayor of Jaffna in 1975) or Amirthalingam,
leader of the TULF, were murdered. Later, the LTTE was also accused of
ethnic cleansing in Jaffna and mass murder of Sinhalese farmers.
The United National Party (UNP), consisting of Sinhalese, Tamils and
Muslims, won in 1977 with a constitutionally amended majority under
Junius Richard Jayawardene. He denied the Tamil MPs their
quota-guaranteed parliamentary seats on the generalized charge of
separatism and declared them all enemies of the state. He also changed
the constitution and placed himself at the head of a presidential system
based on the French model. J. R. Jayawardene was relatively successful
compared to his successors because he received the support of the
Western powers from outside and the support of the Tamil, Muslim and
Christian minorities from within.
As a result of Jayawardene's policies, the conflict between Tamils
and Sinhalese escalated from July 1983. The radical Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who demanded an independent Tamil state in the
north and east of the island, received strong support. In 1986, the LTTE
militias conquered the Jaffna peninsula, which is almost exclusively
inhabited by Tamils, and large parts of the north-central and eastern
provinces, the main settlement areas of the Tamils. The deployment of
Indian peacekeeping troops with the approval of the Sri Lankan
government in June 1987 was met with rejection by the LTTE, which led to
the fighting escalating. Due to frequent misconduct, the Indian troops
also made themselves unpopular with both parties to the conflict, so
that the Sri Lankan government even worked with the rebels (including
covert arms deliveries) to drive out the peacekeeping troops. After two
years, the Indian troops withdrew without resolving the conflict.
In the mid-1990s, the conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils
escalated again when government troops recaptured the Jaffna Peninsula
in December 1995. In November 1999, the Liberation Tigers launched a
major offensive in the central north of the country before a ceasefire
was agreed between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels in
February 2002. This was followed by peace negotiations between Sinhalese
and Tamils in Geneva, which failed in February 2006. Due to its brutal
actions, for example the use of suicide squads (Black Tigers), the LTTE
lost a lot of foreign sympathy and is now viewed by the EU and the USA
as a terrorist organization.
On August 12, 2005, Foreign Minister
Lakshman Kadirgamar was murdered. A political background was likely,
although the perpetrators could not be determined. The LTTE denied
having carried out the attack.
At the beginning of August 2006,
according to estimates by the Red Cross, 6,000 to 7,000 families fled
the predominantly Muslim town of Mutur (Mooduthara in Sinhala), where
the civil war had flared up again. In August, the fighting intensified
massively. On August 12 alone, well over 200 people were killed,
including a high-ranking mediator in the peace process. In August, too,
access to the crisis region was made difficult by foreign aid workers,
and food was scarce. In March 2007, Sri Lanka was on the verge of war
after the army launched a major offensive against the LTTE in January.
Around 150,000 people fled.
On November 2, 2007, the head of the
LTTE's political wing and negotiator, S. P. Thamilselvan, was killed in
an air strike by the Sri Lankan air force, which was another setback for
the peace negotiations.
The ceasefire agreement between the LTTE
and the government was terminated by the government on January 2, 2008.
A few hours before the agreement, which had been terminated with a
two-week notice period, expired, a bus was bombed near the southeastern
town of Buttola, killing at least 22 people. The LTTE is suspected of
being responsible.
Initially, several areas were recaptured by
government troops, but the advance stalled before the town of
Kilinochchi. It was not until January 1, 2009 that the Sri Lankan army
took the LTTE stronghold in the north after an offensive.
On
January 25, 2009, Mullaitivu was captured by the Sri Lankan army. The
LTTE thus lost the last town it still controlled. According to the
United Nations, around 250,000 civilians were trapped in the combat
zone. In May, the military was also able to capture the last coastal
strip controlled by the LTTE. The LTTE's sphere of influence was now
concentrated on a region of just a few square kilometers in the
northeast of the island.
The fighting between the LTTE and the
Sri Lankan army claimed thousands of civilian lives in the spring of
2009, and up to 200,000 people had to leave the rebel-held region and
could only be inadequately cared for. In view of the humanitarian
situation, the United Nations Security Council issued its first official
statement on the civil war in Sri Lanka on May 13, 2009, calling on the
parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of the population still
trapped and to care for the refugees.
In view of the territorial gains in May 2009, Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapaksa declared the LTTE defeated and the civil war over on
May 16, 2009. The remaining rebels were surrounded by the military, and
nothing was initially known about the fate of the rebel leader
Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE announced on the Tamilnet website that
it would lay down its arms in order not to further endanger the civilian
population.
According to confirmed information from the Sri
Lankan army, Velupillai Prabhakaran and the entire LTTE leadership elite
were shot dead by a special unit while fleeing from government troops on
May 18, 2009.
2021
At the protest march from Pottuvil to
Polikandy from February 3 to 7, 2021, Tamil and Moorish minorities once
again expressed their desire for political participation.
According to the 2012 census, 70.2 percent of Sri Lanka's population
are Buddhists, 12.6 percent Hindus, 9.7 percent Muslims and 7.4 percent
Christians (6.1 percent Catholics and 1.3 percent others). The
distribution of religions reflects the ethnic division of Sri Lanka's
population: the Sinhalese are mostly Buddhists, the Tamils are mostly
Hindus and the Moors are exclusively Muslims. There are also Christian
minorities among Tamils and Sinhalese.
From the 8th to the 11th
century, Mahayana was widespread among Buddhists. Since the 12th
century, Buddhists in Sri Lanka have belonged to the Theravada school.
As a predominantly Buddhist country, Sri Lanka has a special position in
the predominantly Hindu South Asia. Buddhism is given a special position
in Sri Lanka's constitution: According to this, the state is obliged to
"protect and promote" Buddhism. Among the Hindus of Sri Lanka, as among
the Tamils on the Indian mainland, Shaivism is the most widespread
religious movement. The Muslims of Sri Lanka are Sunnis of the Shafi'i
school of law. Among the Christians, Catholicism dominates as a result
of Portuguese missionary work during the colonial period, but there are
also Anglicans (Church of Ceylon) and Protestant groups. The following
maps show the percentage of the population of the largest religious
communities by district.
Since 2015, the number of attacks by
Buddhist extremists on members of religious minorities has increased.
Christians, Muslims and Hindus in particular have been the victims of
religiously motivated violence since then.
The largest terrorist
attack in Sri Lanka was carried out on Easter Sunday 2019. Islamist
terrorists targeted Christians in particular in a series of attacks on
one day, with four of the attacks being carried out on Christian
churches during Easter services. A total of 253 people were killed and
around 500 injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the
attack. The first six explosions were carried out by suicide bombers.
There is compulsory schooling for children aged 5 to 14. The
five-year primary school is followed by the three-year junior secondary
school (intermediate school leaving certificate) and the three-year
senior secondary school (high school leaving certificate). The languages
of instruction are Sinhala and Tamil. English is a compulsory subject.
The literacy rate in 2006 was around 91 percent, and that of 15- to
24-year-olds around 96 percent. This is mainly due to the introduction
of free education in 1945 by Sri Lanka's first education minister, C. W.
W. Kannangara.
Schools and universities
The primary schools
established in all regions guarantee school education for all residents.
All pupils are required to wear a school uniform, and the purchase of
the material is financed by the state. - Despite compulsory schooling,
around a third of children do not attend school or are taken out of
school early because they have to help at home or even work to earn a
family income. - The illiteracy rate is around ten percent, well below
the world average (23%).
There are 13 universities, including the
University of Colombo and the University of Peradeniya. The oldest such
institution is in the city of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte (founded in
1873), the largest, i.e. the one with the most students, is the
university in Colombo (11,604 students; as of 2021). The thirteen cities
with universities:
Ampara
Anuradhapura
Badulla
Belihuloya
Colombo
Jaffna
Kelaniya
Kuliyapitiya
Matara
Moratuwa
Nugegoda
Peradeniya
Sri Jayewardenepura
The country's healthcare expenditure amounted to 4.1% of gross domestic product in 2021. In 2020, there were 12.1 practicing physicians per 10,000 inhabitants in Sri Lanka. The under-5 mortality rate was 6.5 per 1,000 live births in 2022. The life expectancy of Sri Lankans from birth was 76.6 years in 2022 (women: 80.2, men: 72.9). Life expectancy increased by 9% from 70.4 years in 2000 to 2022.
The current constitution in Sri Lanka was passed in 1977 under the
government of the United National Party. Accordingly, Sri Lanka is a
semi-presidential democracy with a strong position of the president,
whose prerogatives have been increasingly restricted by amendments to
the constitution. The president, whose regular term of office is 6
years, is directly elected by the people. He appoints the prime
minister, who runs the government. On October 22, 2022, however, as a
result of the collapse of the economy, a democratic constitutional
reform was carried out that limited the president's power. Several
powers were taken away from him, including a newly created institution
called the "Constitutional Council" taking over some of the president's
duties. The Constitutional Council consists of MPs and "respected
persons" who are not politicians.
The parliament, which is made
up of 225 MPs, is also elected every six years in a mixture of
proportional and majority voting. Since independence, politics in Sri
Lanka has been dominated by two large parties (two-party system): on the
one hand the United National Party (UNP), which belongs to the
conservative-liberal spectrum, and on the other hand the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party (SLFP), a socialist party. There are also smaller interest
parties, e.g. the Tamils in the northern and eastern provinces (Tamil
National Alliance, TNA), the Tamils in the interior (Tamil Progressive
Alliance, TPA), the Muslims (Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, SLMC),
Sinhalese-Buddhist parties (Jathika Hela Urumaya, JHU) and others. The
communists used to be important too (e.g. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna,
JVP), but their share of the vote has been declining for some time. The
UNP and SLFP have alternated in government at irregular intervals. More
or less forced by the electoral system, the country's smaller parties
usually join one of the two large parties before parliamentary elections
and form party alliances, e.g. B. the United People's Freedom Alliance
under the SLFP or the United National Front (UNF) under the UNP. This
guarantees the smaller parties some seats in parliament.
The state budget in 2016 included expenditures of the equivalent of
15.5 billion US dollars, compared to revenues of the equivalent of 10.9
billion US dollars. This results in a budget deficit of 5.6% of GDP. The
national debt in 2016 was 77.3% of GDP. Due to the relatively high
foreign debt, the country's government bonds are rated B+ by the
American rating agency Standard & Poor's (as of November 2018). Sri
Lanka's government bonds are therefore considered "junk".
In
2006, the share of government spending (in % of GDP) in the following
areas was:
Health: 4.2%
Education: n/a
Military: 2.6%
Sri Lanka is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement.
As a former colony, its principle of non-interference in internal
affairs is one of the guiding principles of the country's foreign
policy. Sri Lanka is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the
United Nations and the SAARC, among others. Sri Lanka is the
headquarters of the Colombo Plan, an organization that aims to promote
regional development in South and Southeast Asia.
The country's
relations with Western nations have fluctuated in recent decades, with
the United National Party advocating closer ties between the country and
the Western community of nations and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party
advocating rapprochement with the countries of the so-called Third
World. One constant over time, however, has been India's overwhelming
importance in the country's foreign and domestic policy. During the
civil war, for example, India supported the central government of Sri
Lanka against the insurgents in order to keep its immediate geographical
environment stable and prevent Tamil separatism from spreading to its
own territory. From 1987 to 1990, India intervened directly in the war,
which is why Tamil extremists murdered Indian Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi in 1991 in revenge. Ten Indians and 16 Sri Lankans were later
convicted for the crime. Due to these incidents and India's role as big
brother, relations between the two countries were not always free of
tension. However, they have improved significantly since the end of the
war in 2009. Economically, politically and diplomatically, the two
countries have become close partners and Sri Lanka supports India's
application for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
From
2007, the People's Republic of China began to steadily increase its
presence in Sri Lanka. Starting with diplomatic and military support for
the government in the war against the Tamil Tigers, economic cooperation
in particular later intensified, and China began to invest specifically
in the country's infrastructure. The strategic intention behind this is
to build the so-called Maritime Silk Road, in which Sri Lanka occupies
an important position between the Persian Gulf and the Strait of
Malacca. This increased presence in the Indian Ocean (string of pearls
strategy) is in turn perceived by India as encirclement, which leads to
increasing tensions. The high debts to China for various construction
projects, which have also been partly overshadowed by corruption
scandals, are also proving problematic. In 2017, the state was no longer
able to service a loan and had to lease the newly built port in
Hambantota to the Chinese company China Merchants Port Holdings for 99
years.
Other countries with which Sri Lanka has close relations
are the United Kingdom, the United States and the Arab Gulf states,
where the majority of its diaspora lives. The Foreign Office describes
relations with Germany as good and friendly. At the invitation of
Chancellor Merkel, President Sirisena visited in February 2016. In 2017,
130,000 German tourists visited Sri Lanka (2010: 46,000). In 2018, both
countries celebrated the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
The armed forces of Sri Lanka are made up of the army (Sri Lanka
Yuddha Hamudawa), the navy (Sri Lanka Navika Hamudawa) and the air force
(Sri Lanka Guwan Hamudawa). The armed forces of Sri Lanka had a
personnel strength of around 250,000 in 2020. The military budget has
since been greatly expanded and amounted to the equivalent of US$ 1.89
billion in 2021.
In the civil war in Sri Lanka, which lasted from
1983 to 2009, the army was ultimately able to defeat the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The civil war ended on May 18, 2009 with
the complete military victory of the Sri Lankan government troops over
the rebels. The number of deaths during the war between 1983 and 2009 is
estimated at 80,000 to 100,000.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, plantation farming dominated and the
island was known primarily for the cultivation of cinnamon, rubber and
tea (Ceylon). Under British rule, the ports were modernized, making the
island strategically important as a hub for long-distance trade. During
the Second World War, the Allies stationed equipment and troops on the
island. In 2013, Sri Lanka was the third largest exporter of tea in the
world behind Kenya and the People's Republic of China, measured by
export volume.
After independence from 1948 to 1977, the economic
policy of the incumbent governments was socialist. Colonial-era
plantations were abolished and industrial facilities were nationalized.
During this period, living standards improved, illiteracy rates fell,
but the economy suffered from inefficiency, slow growth and a lack of
foreign investment. In 1977, the government broke with nationalization
and has since then promoted the private sector.
In the World
Bank's "Doing Business Index" in 2016, Sri Lanka ranked 110th out of 190
countries. 80 percent of the gross domestic product is generated by the
private sector. However, labor laws that are still influenced by
socialism and unclear bureaucratic decision-making processes represent
an obstacle for foreign investors. In 2015, the gross domestic product
(GDP) was 81.1 billion USD, or 3,920 USD per capita. In purchasing power
parity, the GDP is 274.7 billion USD or around 12,800 USD per capita
(2017). Real growth in the same year was 3.1%. In the Global
Competitiveness Index, which measures a country's competitiveness, Sri
Lanka ranks 85th out of 137 countries (as of 2017-2018). In the Index
for Economic Freedom, the country ranked 112th out of 180 countries in
2017.
Unemployment is around 4.2%. The high youth unemployment
rate of around 20% is problematic. According to World Bank figures, in
2012 1.9% of the population lived on less than 1.90 US dollars a day and
thus in extreme poverty. In 1985 the proportion was 13.3%.
Sri
Lanka is a middle-income country and has achieved relative prosperity
compared to the South Asian environment (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).
In May 2022, after an economic crisis, the country slipped into
insolvency for the first time in its history.
Sri Lanka's most important exports are textiles, clothing, tea, precious stones and coconut products. After the end of the civil war, the number of visitors increased. Over 240,000 arriving tourists were registered for December 2017.
Sri Lanka has been a member of the International Monetary Fund since
1950; In 2007, the IMF closed its office in the country, a move that was
welcomed by the government. According to an IMF official, the reason for
the closure of the IMF office was that the Sri Lankan government refused
to accept the organization's help and there were no longer any ongoing
programs from the IMF. According to the World Bank, the country should
increase its foreign exchange reserves because it is unprotected against
external shocks. During 2006, the Sri Lankan government sold about $400
million to support the country's currency, which was under pressure.
The Federal Republic of Germany provides financial assistance to Sri
Lanka. The economic relations between the two countries are regulated by
several trade agreements (1950, 1955, 1958), a double taxation agreement
(1979), a framework agreement on technical cooperation (1973) and an
investment promotion and protection agreement (2000).
Most of Sri Lanka's cities are connected by the rail network of the state-owned railway company Sri Lanka Railways. The first line was inaugurated on April 26, 1867, connecting Colombo to Kandy. The government launched several projects to build high-speed rail lines to improve the economy and the national transport system.
The total road network covered about 114,093 km in 2010, of which 16,977 km were paved. The state-run Sri Lanka Transport Board is responsible for the bus transport system across the island. Sri Lanka also has a water transport system with a length of 430 kilometers. The three largest ports in Sri Lanka are in Colombo, Trincomalee and Galle. There is also a port for inland waterways in Kankesanturai, north of Jaffna.
Sri Lanka has 16 civil airports (as of 2021, see the list of airports in Sri Lanka). Officially, there are five international airports, although so far only Bandaranaike International Airport is used by international scheduled flights on a large scale. It is located in Katunayake, about 35 kilometers north of Colombo. It is operated by Airport & Aviation (Sri Lanka) Limited. SriLankan Airlines is the second official flag carrier of Sri Lanka after the defunct Air Ceylon.