Sri Lanka

இலங்கை சனநாயக சோஷலிசக் குடியரசு
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: none
Anthem: Sri Lanka Matha
Capital	Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte 6°54′ N 79°54′ E
Largest city	Colombo
Official language(s)	Sinhala and Tamil
Government President Prime Minister	Democratic Socialist Republic Mahinda Rajapaksa Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
Independence Granted	From the United Kingdom February 04, 1948
Area • Total • Water (%)	65,610 km² ( 121st) {{{areami²}}} mi² 1.3%%
Population • 2005 est. • [[As of |]] census • Density	20,064,776 ( 53rd) 305/km² ( 24th) {{{population_densitymi²}}}/mi²
GDP ( PPP) • Total • Per capita	2004 estimate 79,020,000,000 ( 60th) $3,882 ( 118th)
HDI ( 2003)	0.751 ( 93rd) – medium
Currency	Sri Lankan Rupee ( LKR)
Time zone • Summer ( DST)	( UTC+6) {{{time_zone_DST}}} ( UTC{{{utc_offset_DST}}})
Internet TLD	.lk
Calling code	+94

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala / இலங்கை in Tamil) (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent, about 30 km south of India.

Name

In 1972, the official name of the nation that governs the island was changed to the Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්‍රී ලංකා in Sinhala / இலங்கை in Tamil). In 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Prior to 1972, Sri Lanka was known by a variety of names; the best known is Ceylon.

History

The Island of Sri Lanka has a written history of 2,500 years, and archaeological evidence has been found that suggests the island may have been inhabited by humans for more than 300,000 years. the primary sources for the country's pre-history are archaeological ruins and the Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana. The main written accounts for the country's history are the buddhist chronicles of Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa.

Prehistory

Paleolithic human settlements by 125,000 year-old people using chert and quartz tools have been discovered in Sri Lanka. The island was colonised by the Balangoda people about 34,000 years ago, who were a group of Mesolithic hunter gatherers who lived in caves (e.g. Batadombalena, Fa-Hien Rock cave).

Similarities have been indentified between these and the Dravidian inhabitations of southern India, furthermore they may also be related to the modern hunter-gatherer people known as the ‘’ Wanniyala-Aetto’’ or Veddas, the descendents of whom still live around eastern Sri Lanka. [1]

The Balangoda people appear to have been responsible for creating the Horton Plains, in the central hills, by burning the trees in order to catch game. However, finds of Oats and Barley on the plains dating to about 15,000 BC suggest they may have engaged in agriculture on the island long before similar groups in the world. [2]

Cinnamon, which is native to Sri Lanka, was used in Ancient Egypt in about 1500 BC, suggesting that the island had trading links with the outside world. [3]

A large settlement appears to have been founded before 900 BC at the site of Anuradhapura and signs of an Iron Age culture have also been found. The size of the settlement was about 15 hectares at that date, but it expanded to 50 ha, to 'town' size within a couple of centuries. A similar site has been discovered at Aligala in Sigiriya. [4]

One of the first references to the island is found in the great Indian epic Ramayana. The Ramayana tells the story of Rama (an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu), Rama invaded the island through the Mannar causeway with the help of Vanara Army, to save his abducted wife, Sita, from Ravana the King of Sri Lanka. Plenty of archaeological evidence of been found that are supportive of the fact that Ravana did indeed rule over Lankapuri from his capitol in the south.

The earliest chronicles The Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa say that, before the migration of the Indo-Aryans, tribes of Yaksha, Nagha, deva & raksha inhabited the island. They are said to have lived in highly developed urban areas in the island.

Ancient History

The Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa give a near-continuous written history of the island and is also the primary source for the early chronology of India, especially for the synchronity with Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Archaeological evidence supplements the Mahavamsa as it places people (perhaps the indigenous Yakkas and Nagas of the chronicle) of indistinguishable racial origin living in the north-central Sri Lanka from the 10th century BC onwards with knowledge of agriculture, metallurgy, and livestock breeding.

The Mahavansa describes the Sinhalese kingdom started by king Vijaya and his followers. This may refer to a specific group of Prakrit-speaking people, and not necessarily the first such group to arrive. It also describes a minister of Vijaya, Anuradha, who established the village Anuradhagamma which later became Anuradhapura and became the capital of Sri Lanka centuries later. Archaeological excavations at Anuradhapura show a settlement from the 10th century BC. Legend states that king Vijaya came to Sri Lanka from Orissa in northeast India. However, archaic Sinhalese langauge is closer to Prakrits used in northwest India, indicating an origin in the present western coastal Indian state Gujarat.

Sri Lankan Tamil presence is noted throughout the country's written history. Its origins are not dated, but must post-date the arrival of the Dravidian language group in South India sometime in prehistory [5]. Given the island's proximity to the Deccan Plateau, people of different ethnicities must have traveled to and from it throughout human history.

Buddhism arrived from the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BC thanks to Arahath Mahinda Thero, missionary of Indian Emperor Ashoka, and spread rapidly. Buddhism and a sophisticated system of irrigation became the pillars of Sinhalese civilization ( 200 BC- 1200 AD) that flourished in the north-central Sri Lanka, with capitals at Anuradhapura (from c. 200 BC to c. 1000 AD) and Polonnaruwa (c. 1070 to 1200).

After the Polonnaruwa era, the capital moved often, and the island was rarely unified. Parakramabahu IV, who ruled from Kotte, was the last Sri Lankan king to rule over the entire island, although the other kingdoms remained under the nominal suzerainty of the High King at Kotte.

South Indian kingdoms invaded Sri Lanka on a number of occasions and so the island was ruled for extended periods by Tamil dynasties such as the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras and Pallavas. It was also invaded and ruled by Kings of Kalinga (present-day Indian state Orissa) and Malay Straights.

Colonial Rule

When the Portuguese arrived, the island consisted of several autonomous kingdoms under the nominal suzerainty of the king at Kotte, such as those of Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in the north and Kandy in the central hills. In 1517, the Portuguese established the fort and trading post Colombo. They defeated both coastal kingdoms (Yarlpanam and Kotte) in the 16th century.

The Dutch followed in the 17th century. During Portuguese and Dutch rule of coastal areas, the interior, hilly region of the island remained independent, with its capital at Kandy city.

Great Britain replaced the Dutch in 1796, and the coastal areas became a crown colony in 1802. After the fall of Kandy kingdom in 1815, the British unified it with the 'low country' Kingdoms on the island under one rule for administrative purposes in 1818.

The struggle for independence started in the 1930s, when the Youth Leagues opposed the 'Ministers' Memorandum' which asked the colonial authority to increase the powers of the board of ministers, rather than seeking independence.

During World War II pro-independence leaders were jailed. Japan bombed Sri Lanka, but there were few casualties. Extensive damage was caused to shipping and the Royal Navy lost two cruisers, an aircraft carrier and an Australian destroyer. A month later, a Sri Lankan garrison on the Cocos Islands mutinied, but the rebellion was put down. The British used Sri Lanka as a base for operations in the Pacific Ocean.

Independence

As Ceylon [6], it became a dominion in the British Commonwealth in 1948. The first prime minister was Don Stephen Senanayake, while Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore became Governor-General, the Queen's nominal representative. The flag of the last king of Kandy was proclaimed the National Flag with few minor changes (added orange and green vertical bars to represent the Tamils and Muslims). In 1972, the country became a republic, free of the last vestiges of colonial domination; the name was changed to Sri Lanka. In 1982, the legislative and judicial capital was moved from Colombo to nearby Sri Jayewardanapura Kotte. Despite the civil conflict of recent years, independent Sri Lanka is famed for its remarkable increase in human development, notably life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy, which lead the country to be seen as somewhat of a model for third world development.

Sinhala-Tamil conflict

Post-independence governments implemented a series of pro- Sinhala measures, supporting the Sinhala majority. The 1956 Sinhala Only Act made Sinhala the sole official language, forcing Tamil-speakers to learn it. This led to unrest among Tamils, whose cultural identity was threatened.

Decades of tension between Tamils living primarily in the north and east, and the Sinhala majority in the south, led to widespread communal riots in the 1950s to 1970s targeting Tamil communities and economic interests in many parts of the island. Calls for a separate Tamil state in the north and east grew, and eventually several Tamil militant groups formed, particularly in the northern Jaffna peninsula. Initially many of these were supported by the Indian Government which sought to appease Tamils in South India.

JVP rebellion

In 1971, the Marxist group Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launched an insurrection in the south to gain state power. The insurrection was quelled by the government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and JVP leaders were jailed for treason. In 1977, J. R. Jayewardene came to power and released imprisoned JVP members.

Guerrilla war

By early 1980s, calls for a separate Tamil state had grown to the point where Tamil militants engaged in guerrilla attacks against the Government. They called the proposed homeland Tamil Eelam. The Government sent the military to the Jaffna peninsula, increasing tensions.

In July 1983, called Black July, in response to the killing of 13 army soldiers in Jaffna, the Government instigated a week-long pogrom against the Tamil community in the south, killing thousands. Many thousands were forced to move from their homes in Colombo to the north and east.

Clashes between Tamil militants and the Government increased. A 1985, round of peace talks in Thimphu, Bhutan failed, and the conflict intensified. One Tamil militant group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fought other groups, assassinated their leaders and assimilated their cadres into their ranks, and soon became the main group fighting the Army in the north and east.

Second JVP rebellion

In 1986, the JVP (banned in 1983), started their second struggle in the south for state power. By 1988 it was a full-scale guerilla war. Both JVP and the Government engaged in the abduction, torture and murder of thousands of people. At the end of 1989, JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera was arrested and days later shot while allegedly trying to escape. His death ended the rebellion. 60,000 people vanished in the south during this period.

Indo-Sri Lanka Accord

While the Government dealt with the JVP rebellion, it enlisted the help of the Indian government to quell the Tamil separatist movement. India, which had helped create and nurture the Tamil militant groups in the north, had changed its stance, and in 1987 signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to the Jaffna peninsula. The 60,000-strong Indian force soon lost the support of both sides of the conflict and began a phased withdrawal, ending in 1990. They had lost more than 1,500 men.

Muslim exodus

In 1990 the LTTE ordered all Muslims in the north to leave their homes. Thousands of Muslims who had lived there for generations started a mass exodus to southern parts of the island. In 1991 a LTTE suicide bomber killed former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in retaliation for the IPKF and the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. In 1993 Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed in a similar manner during a May Day celebration in Colombo.

In 1994 Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, daughter of two previous Prime Ministers, was elected President. Her initial attempts to negotiate with the LTTE failed and the war in the north and east continued with heavy casualties to sides. By the mid 1990s, LTTE controlled much of the North and had set up a de facto state. Both the Sri Lanka Army and LTTE stood accused of gross human rights vioaltions including abduction, torture and extrajudicial executions during the conflict.

In 1996 Sri Lanka became world champions in Cricket. This was the first time the country's cricket team had won the Cricket World Cup tournament.

Ceasefire and talks

In December 2000 President Kumaratunge was re-elected for her second term. During her re-election rally, a suicide bomber killed 10 people, missing Kumaratunge. At the end of 2001 a new Parliament was elected and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe declared a ceasefire, responding to the LTTE which had declared a ceasefire in December 2001. In early 2002 both the LTTE and the Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding and entered into a joint ceasefire. Six rounds of direct talks were held in various locations around the world, but no substantial steps were taken towards a political settlement to the conflict. LTTE negotiators proposed an Interim Self Governing Authority, but the Government's response did not satisfy LTTE, and the peace process paused in late 2003. No significant progress has been made since that time.

In April 2004, the Government of Ranil Wickramasinghe was ousted from Parliament and a coalition including several Sinhala nationalist groups opposed to negotiations with LTTE came to power.

Tsunami

On December 26, 2004, an earthquake off the western coast of Sumatra created tsunamis that washed over the Eastern and Southern coasts of Sri Lanka. Over 40,000 people died on the island and many more are still missing. On June 24, 2005, the Government signed the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), a legal instrument for the Government to share aid with the LTTE. Several Sinhala nationalist groups in the South challenged this pact and the Supreme Court declared that some articles of the pact were unconstitutional.

In December 2005, following a brutal gang rape and murder of a Tamil woman ( Ilayathambi Tharsini)(such incidents have happened before, including Krishanti Kumaraswamy), restive civilian groups likely encouraged and controlled by the LTTE carried out a series of attacks against Government forces in the North and East, and some unknown forces assassinated a pro-LTTE Tamil politician on Christmas Eve in a Catholic church.

Politics

The President of the Republic is directly elected for a six-year term and serves as Head of State, Head of Government and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. The President is responsible to Parliament for the exercise of duties in accordance with the Constitution and laws. The incumbent may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of Parliament, with the agreement by the Supreme Court. The President appoints and heads a Cabinet of Ministers responsible to Parliament. The President's deputy is the Prime Minister, who leads the ruling party in Parliament.

The Sri Lankan Parliament is a unicameral 225-member legislature. Members are elected by universal (adult) suffrage based on a modified proportional representation system by district to a six-year term. The primary modification is that the party that receives the largest number of valid votes in each constituency gains a unique "bonus seat" (see Hickman, 1999). The president may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament any time after it has served for one year. Parliament reserves the power to make all laws. Since its independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Parliament was dissolved on February 07, 2004 by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Elections were held on April 02 and the new Parliament convened on April 23 and elected Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister.

In August 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Presidential Elections would be held in November 2005, resolving a long-running dispute on the length of President Kumaratunga's term. Mahinda Rajapaksa was nominated the SLFP candidate and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe UNP candidate. The Election was held on November 17, 2005, and Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka with a 50.29% of valid votes, compared to Ranil Wickremesinghe's 48.43%. Rajapaksa took oath as President on November 19, 2005. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was appointed the 22nd Prime Minister on November 21, 2005, to fill the post vacated by Rajapaksa. He was previously Prime Minister in 2000.

Rajapaksa offers less autonomy than Wickremasinghe to the northeast, home to most of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils. His narrow victory was engineered by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who want Tamil Eelam to be an independent country. The LTTE boycotted the election, thereby preventing thousands of Tamils from voting, and so Wickremasinghe from taking power, whose election promises included a Federal state to the North and East.

There were high hopes that the devastating Tsunami of December 2004 would force the government and Tamil rebels into a new, lasting dialogue to address the serious effects of the disaster on Sri Lanka as a whole. But these hopes were dashed by almost immediate accusations of bias and favouritism on the part of international aid agencies from both sides. At the close of 2005, deep political unease and suspicion remained between the two factions.

• Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

Foreign relations of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka traditionally follows a nonaligned foreign policy but has been seeking closer relations with the United States since December 1977. It participates in multilateral diplomacy, particularly at the United Nations, where it seeks to promote sovereignty, independence, and development in the developing world. Sri Lanka was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It also is a member of the Commonwealth, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, and the Colombo Plan. Sri Lanka continues its active participation in the NAM, while also stressing the importance it places on regionalism by playing a strong role in SAARC

Provinces

Sri Lanka consists of 8 provinces:

• Central
• North Central
• North Eastern
• North Western
• Sabaragamuwa
• Southern
• Uva
• Western

Geography

The island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal. It is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.

According to Hindu mythology, a land bridge to the Indian mainland, known as Rama's Bridge, was constructed during the time of Rama. Often referred to as Adam's Bridge, it is now mostly submerged, with only a chain of limestone shoals remaining above sea level. According to temple records, this natural causeway was formerly complete, but was breached by a violent storm (probably a cyclone) in 1480.

The pear-shaped island consists mostly of flat-to-rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. Amongst these are Sri Pada and the highest point Pidurutalagala (also known as Mt Pedro), at 2,524 m.

The climate is tropical, characterized by monsoons: the northeast monsoon lasts from December to March, the southwest June to October. The lowest gravitational field on Earth lies just off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The commercial capital is Colombo, but the administrative and legislative capital is at nearby Sri Jayewardanapura (Kotte). Other major cities include Jaffna, Galle, and Kandy.

Ecology

Sri Lanka is one of the world's bio-diversity hot-spots. Its forests are among the most floristically rich in Asia and for some faunal groups, it has the world's highest density of species diversity. The southwest, where the influence of the moisture-bearing southwest monsoon is strongest, is home to the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests. At higher elevations they transition to the Sri Lanka montane rain forests. Both these tropical moist forest ecoregions are very similar to those of India's Western Ghats.

The north and east are considerably drier, lying in the rain shadow of the central highlands. The Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests are a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion, which, like the neighboring East Deccan dry evergreen forests of India's Coromandel Coast, is characterized by evergreen trees, rather than the dry-season deciduous trees that predominate in most other tropical dry broadleaf forests.

These forests have been largely cleared for agriculture, timber or grazing, and many of the dry evergreen forests have been degraded to thorn scrub, savanna, or thickets. Several preserves have been established to protect some of Sri Lanka's remaining natural areas. The island has three biosphere reserves, Hurulu (established 1977), Sinharaja (established 1978), and Kanneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya (KDN) (established 2004).

Sri Lanka is a centre of bird endemism. See Endemic Birds of the Indian Subcontinent for more information.

Economy

Sri Lanka is historically famous for the production of cinnamon and tea (introduced by the British in the 19th century). From independence, till 1977, it was a strongly socialist economy but since then it has been increasingly pursuing privatization, market-oriented policies and export-oriented trade. While tea and rubber are still important, the most dynamic sectors are now food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, insurance, and banking. By 1996, plantation crops made up only 20% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while textiles and garments 63%.

The GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% during the early 1990s, until a drought and a deteriorating security situation lowered growth to 3.8% in 1996. The economy rebounded in 1997- 2000, with average growth of 5.3%. 2001 saw the first economic contraction in the country's history, due to a combination of power shortages, budgetary problems, the global slowdown, and continuing civil strife. Signs of recovery appeared after the government and the LTTE signed the 2002 ceasefire. The Colombo stock exchange reported the highest growth in Asia for 2003, and today Sri Lanka has the highest per capita income in South Asia.

In April 2004, there was a sharp reversal in economic policy after the government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe from the United National Party was defeated by a coalition made up of Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the left-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna called the United People's Freedom Alliance. The new government stopped the privatization of state enterprises, reforms of state utilities such as power and petroleum and embarked on an unprecedented subsidy program called the Rata Perata economic program. Its main theme to support the rural and suburban SMEs and protect the domestic economy from external influences, such as oil prices, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

But this policy of subsidizing imported commodities like fuel, fertilizer and wheat, soon unravelled the fiscal sector. In 2004 alone Sri Lanka spent approximately US$ 180 mn on a fuel subsidy, as fixing fuel prices was an election promise.

To finance the expanded budget deficit arising from a range of subsidies and a public sector recruitment drive, the government eventually had to print Rs 65 bn (US$ 650 mn) or around 3% of GDP. The expansionary fiscal policy, coupled with loose monetary policy eventually drove inflation up to 18% by January 2005, as measured by the Sri Lanka Consumer Price Index.

By December 2004, the country was heading for a balance of payments crisis, as the currency depreciated and reserves dwindled. The December 26th Tsunami brought aidflows, and support from the IMF helped improve sentiment in the foreign exchange market. But GDP growth, which had climbed to 6.4% by the first quarter of 2004 had fallen to 4.8% by the first quarter of 2005. The tsunami helped stabilize the deterioration of macro-economic fundamentals as foreign debt relief and assistance from the International Monetary Fund strengthened both the external sector and fiscal operations.

A September 2005 IMF report called for an end to 'fiscal domination' of monetary policy and more independence for the Central Bank so that inflation could be contained.

In December 2005, Sri Lanka received its first international credit rating with Fitch Ratings assigning it a BB- (a rating held by Brazil and Indonesia among others).

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Sri Lanka

Racial identities in Sri Lanka do not represent the genetic heritage. Assimilation and intermixing has produced a group of people who are marginaly different from each other irrespective of current racial claims. About 74% of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese, most of them Buddhist, mostly following the Theravada tradition. Tamils constitute 18%, are predominantly Hindu, and live mostly in the north, east and central provinces. Tamils comprise two communities: Native Tamils and more recent immigrants from India called as Indian Origin Tamils.

Both Sinhala and Tamil are official languages. English, the link language in the present constitution, is spoken competently by about 10% of the population, and is widely understood. All three languages are used in education and administration.

Smaller minorities include (mostly Sunni) Muslims (7%), mostly of mixed Arab, Persian, Tamil and Sinhalese origins and Malay descent, Burghers of mixed European descent (1%), and the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddahs, the few remaining descendants of earlier cultures.

Buddhism (69%) and Hinduism (15.5%) are the dominant religions, while Islam and Christianity (including 6% Catholics and 1% Protestants) represent 8% and 7% of the population respectively.

Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is an ongoing conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils on the island-nation of Sri Lanka. Since 1983, there has been on-and-off civil war, mostly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the LTTE, who want to create an independent Tamil Eelam state in the northeast of the island. It is estimated that the war has left 65,000 people dead since 1983 and caused great harm to the population and economy of the country. A cease-fire was declared in 2002, but renewed violence in late 2005 led to fears of a renewed civil war.

Statistics on Civilians Affected by War in Northeast 1974-2004 A Full Report in 11 pages.

Articles about Sri Lanka`s current defence status.

Sri Lankan Culture

Throughout the past centuries Sri Lanka has been going through a dramatic makeover. A vast majority of the Sri Lankan community were only influenced by their own traditional food and nothing more. But, due to economical growth and intense competition in developed countries, companies have taken themselves overseas to developing nations, in an attempt to achieve a positive global presence (competitive advantage). Consequently, this method has caused a major ripple effect in countries like Sri Lanka like never before. Some of the major cities in Sri Lanka present a startling picture (some may say loss of identity) by the assimilation/influence of western culture into Sri Lankan community. You can now find the presence of American taste represented by McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken and so on. This newly brought change does not mean Sri Lankans stopped practicing their culture and traditions, this just slightly shifted them from their original norm, whether in fact the average Sri Lankans still continue to eat traditional food such as Rice and curry, Pittu (mixture of fresh rice meal, very lightly roasted and mixed with fresh grated coconut, then steamed in a bamboo mould). Kiribath(cooked in thick coconut cream for this unsweetened rice-pudding which is accompanied by a sharp chili relish called "Lunumiris") Wattalapam (rich pudding of Malay origin made of coconut milk, jaggery, cashew nuts, eggs, and various spices including cinnamon cloves and nutmeg). These are only a few out of hundreds of various food types that Sri Lankans consume.

Transport in Sri Lanka

Transportation in Sri lanka is based mainly on the road network which is centred on Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. There is also an extensive railway network but it is largely a legacy of British colonial rule and is less appropriate for the modern transport requirements of the country. There are also navigable waterways, harbours and airports, including an international airport, located in Katunayaka. The highways and roadways around the capital are in very good condition and being upgraded for the future.

The railway network is one of the most picturesque in all of Asia because of its narrow winding treks across the mountainside along the Hill Country of Sri Lanka. Also the treks along the coastal cities and towns is very picturesque due to the blue oceans and sandy beaches.

Military of Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Military comprises of Sri Lankan Army, Sri Lankan Navy and Sri Lankan Air Force. They are under the control of the Ministry of Defence, which is currently controlled by President Mahinda Rajapaksa who also acts as Minster of Defence. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces are primarily focused on land warfare with the Army being the oldest and largest of all the services. However due to its geographical position in the world the Navy is considered the most vital defence force of the island nation. The Air Force is said to operate as primarily a support force for both land and naval services. The military has taken part in many wars throughout its history including the Boer Wars and both World Wars (under the command of the British at the time). Since independence however its primary missions have been counter-insurgency, targeting armed groups within the country, most notably the LTTE and at one point the former nationalist insurgent group the JVP. The Sri Lankan military has apparently received training assistance from other nations such as Australia, Britain, Israel, United States, India, Pakistan even South Africa. There have even been claims that soldiers from some of those countries have taken part in operations, but this has not been confirmed or proven. Recently, the Sri Lankan Army was chosen by the United Nations to take part in peacekeeping operations in Haiti.