Sri lanka is situated in the Indian Sub continent on the southern tip of India between 7 to 10 Degrees north of the Equator .Land extent area is 65,000sq k meters and the highest altitude is 2500 meters above sea level.The hill country is covered up with Tea plantations of 250,000 hectares and coconut and rubber represent same area extent. Staple food of Sri lankan population is Rice which covers 650,000 hectares of plantation .
The capital of the country is Colombo 1 million people
Historical cities are Anuradhapura (400 years BC to 1300 years AC)
Second capitol is Polonnaruwa (1155 to1186)
Third and the last capital of the Sinhalese kingdom was Kandy (1500 TO 1815)
The most sacred Temple of Tooth of Buddha is in the hill capital of Kandy.
The population is over 20 million and 74% are called Sinhalesea race of Indo-Aryans,11.5% of the population are Tamils who are called as Dravidian,in addition to the 4.5 of Indian Tamils who were brought by the British ,the colonial masters of the country in the 19th century after Portuguese and the Dutch.
There is a Muslim population of 7% which consists from the descendants of the Arab traders who came and settled in Sri lanka and the Malay Muslims came from Malaya(Malaysia)
History of Sri lanka goes back to 6th century BC A prince called as Vijaya came to Sri lanka with seven hundred people and settled in Sri lanka.At the time he married to a tribal woman here.Later he became the first king of Sri lanka and the Sinhalese Dynasty continued up to 19 th century AC .During 23centuries of Sinhalese Dynasty there were ups and downs prosperity and the destruction prevailed in sri lanka .Buddhism introduced to the country in3rd century BC.
In the 3rd century BC the son of Emperor Asoka of India who became a Buddhist monk named as Arahath "Mahinda" is the noble person who introduced Buddhism in Sri lanka.
To day the population consists of,Buddhist, Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
There are lot of historical monuments and temples of Buddhist and Hindus scattered all over the country.
There are lot of Cultural and Religious festivals through out the year.The Buddhist Procession called The Kandy perahera of the Sacred Temple of Tooth of Buddha is the largest and most beautiful among the world of its kind.The golden Beaches of 1200 kms brings lot of beauty to the island of Sri lanka.
After the year1505 Portuguese merchants came to Sri lanka and later on colonized the southwestern coastal region of the country.Hundred and fifty years later Dutch from Holland chased away Portuguese and stayed for another 150 years.Finally British came here they colonized whole island in 1815 .In 1948 Sri lanka became an independent nation and now called as the Democratic socialist republic of Sri lanka.We have today a Government elected by the popular vote and the President is elected for every six years.
The staple food in Srilanka is Rice.Which is called paddy when it is in the field which we have 650,000 hectares of fields or plantations.After the independence our economy was based on three agricultural products ,which are, Tea 250,000 hectares of plantations in law level medium level and high grown(altitude) etc.Coconut plantations are another 250,000 hectares and Rubber(Hevea)another 200,000 hectares of plantations spread all over the country
During the last three decades the agricultural based economy was diversified to the various sectors as textile ,ready made garments,information technology,and various other field.
Recently elected government and the President encouraged the agricultural sector by giving the fertilizers with 96% of subsidiary to the local farmers.
In the recent world food crisis Sri lanka was less affected because we wereself-sufficient in our staple(main)food here in Sri lanka.The Diamonds and Rubies for who are interested Sri lankan Gem stones.
Author Malki
