Sri Lankan Profile

 Sri Lanka's coast, particularly the west, south, and southeast, is palm-fringed and indented by lagoons and inlets. The more rugged northeastern coast contains Trincomalee Harbor, considered one of the best natural harbors in the world. On the southwestern coast other harbors include the largely artificial one at Colombo and one at Galle.

 Rivers and streams that are broken by rapids are especially numerous in the mountainous south central region. The longest river is the Mahaweli Ganga, which empties into the Indian Ocean south of Trincomalee. Other rivers include the Kelani, the mouth of which is near Colombo; the Kalu, which reaches the sea near Kalutara on the southwestern coast; and the Aruvi Aru, which flows northwest across the dry zone to a point near Mannar.
 

Because Sri Lanka is situated near the equator, the climate is generally hot and humid. The hill and mountain areas, however, are cool, and the humidity is relatively lower in the dry zone. The average annual temperature is 32.2° C (90° F) in the lowlands and 21.1° C (70° F) in the higher mountainous regions.

 Precipitation is characterized by wide seasonal and regional variations. The monsoon season in the southwest is from May to November, at which time the rainfall is exceptionally heavy. In the northern dry zone the main precipitation of about 1016 mm (about 40 in) annually occurs during the monsoon season, which begins in the first week of November. Most crops in the dry zone, however, require irrigation. The hills and the lowlands of the southwestern section, which is known as the wet zone, normally have some rainfall throughout the year, but peaks occur in May and June and in October and November.

The natural resources of Sri Lanka are chiefly agricultural, but most of the land is not easily cultivated. The mineral deposits of the country are limited.
 

 The animal life of Sri Lanka, including many species that may be in danger of extinction, is varied and includes the cheetah, leopard, several species of monkey, and elephant. The island contains numerous species of birds and reptiles.

The population of Sri Lanka (1991 estimate) was 17,240,000, yielding an estimated overall population density of 263 people per sq km (681 per sq mi).
 

Sri Lanka is divided into nine provinces and 24 administrative districts. Each district is headed by an appointed district minister.

 Less than one-quarter of Sri Lanka's population lives in urban communities. Colombo had a population (1990 estimate) of 615,000. Most of the foreign trade of the island is routed through Colombo, and the city has been an important fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. Other important cities are the rapidly expanding suburb of Colombo, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, with a population of 196,000; the seaport of Jaffna, with a population of 129,000; the ancient capital city of Kandy, with a population of 104,000; and the tea-producing community of Galle, with a population of 84,000.

 Buddhism, which was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC, is the prevailing faith. As practiced in Sri Lanka, Buddhism also exhibits elements of both Hindu and Islamic traditions. About 69 percent of the population is Buddhist, 15 percent is Hindu, 8 percent is Christian, and 8 percent is Muslim.
 

The official language of Sri Lanka is Sinhala, or Sinhalese, spoken by more than 70 percent of the population. Tamil, a Dravidian language of southern India, is spoken by people living in the northern and eastern provinces. English, the official language of the country until 1957, is still widely used.
 

 In Sri Lanka schooling is compulsory for children from 5 to 15 years of age. Free education to the university level is provided by the state. In the late 1980s, Sri Lanka had about 10,200 elementary and secondary schools, of which most were government institutions. The state schools were staffed by about 140,100 teachers and contained more than 3.8 million pupils. The University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Colombo, founded as the University of Ceylon in 1942 and renamed in 1978, is one of the country's major institutions of higher education. In the late 1980s more than 34,000 students were enrolled in the country's ten universities.

Religion plays an important role in Sri Lanka; a revival of Buddhism was associated with the rise of Sinhalese nationalism. Most public holidays are based on religious festivals. The annual torchlight temple procession, or Perahara, in which ornamentally covered elephants and hundreds of dancers participate, draws thousands of devotees. Pilgrimages also play an important role here. The most important pilgrimage is to the top of Adam's Peak. Muslims believe that Adam and Eve lived here after they left the Garden of Eden. Buddhists visit a rock on the peak that they believe contains one of Buddha's footprints. Another important pilgrimage is to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, where it is believed that one of Buddha's teeth is enshrined.

 Sinhalese society, although Buddhist, is stratified along caste lines. Ceylon Tamil society reproduces the caste features found in India, although in modified form.

 The Colombo National Museum Library (1870), incorporating the collection of the Government Oriental Library, is the largest in Sri Lanka. The oldest library is the Department of National Archives in Colombo, which contains the official records of the Dutch Administration from 1640 to 1796, the British Administration from 1796 to 1948, and the independent nation from 1948 to the present.

 Middle Stone Age implements such as bones and grinding stones have been unearthed in the Bandarawela region in the south; some late Stone Age tools of ground quartz were discovered nearby. Early Buddhist pottery and iron artifacts have been found throughout the country. Hindu burial relics dating from the 3rd century BC have been discovered in the North-Western Province. The National Museums of Sri Lanka, with branches located in Colombo, Kandy, Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Galle, and Trincomalee, contain collections of archaeological finds and historical documents of the country.

About 29 percent of Sri Lanka's land area is under cultivation. Tea covers only 12 percent of the cultivated acreage, but it accounts for about one-fourth of the country's export earnings. Tea, rubber, and coconuts together made up nearly 35 percent of Sri Lanka's export earnings in the late 1980s.

 Rice is the basic food of the people and the principal crop of the island. More acreage is devoted to the cultivation of rice than to any other crop; the annual output in the late 1980s was 2.5 million metric tons. Vegetables are grown in small amounts, but they are mostly cultivated by farmers for their own private consumption. Considerable quantities of sugar, wheat, and rice are imported.

 Animal husbandry is of comparatively little importance to the economy of Sri Lanka. In the late 1980s the island contained about 1.8 million cattle, 1.1 million buffaloes, 503,000 goats, and 9 million chickens. Pigs and sheep are also raised.
 

Local timber needs are satisfied by government-owned woodlands. The annual timber harvest in the late 1980s was about 8.8 million cu m (about 311 million cu ft); more than 90 percent of the harvested wood was used for fuel. The fishing industry is restricted to a small coastal fringe and contributes relatively little to the national economy; the annual catch in the late 1980s amounted to approximately 190,000 metric tons.
 

Although mineral resources are generally limited, Sri Lanka is an important source of high-grade lump amorphous graphite, used in the manufacture of carbon brushes for electric motors. Output of natural graphite in the late 1980s reached 7450 metric tons annually. Ilmenite, rutile, and zircon are also mined for commercial uses. Limestone is mined for a government-owned cement factory at Jaffna. Other minerals include salt, mica, kaolin (a fine clay), glass sands, and precious and semiprecious stones.
 

Mechanized industry is relatively limited in Sri Lanka, and in the late 1980s it accounted for only about 16 percent of the country's yearly gross domestic product. The more important industrial enterprises, most of which are entirely or partly government owned, produce such goods as steel, tires, cement, textiles, clothing, sugar, cigarettes, paper and leather goods, electronic equipment, refined petroleum, chemicals, ceramics, and processed food.
 

 In the late 1980s Sri Lanka had an installed electricity generating capacity of about 1.1 million kilowatts, and an annual production of about 2.7 billion kilowatt-hours. More than 80 percent of the power was produced by hydroelectric facilities.
 

 The Sri Lankan rupee, consisting of 100 cents, is the monetary unit (45 rupees equal U.S.$1; 1992). In the late 1980s annual imports cost $2 billion and exports earned $1.5 billion. The chief exports were tea and rubber, followed by coconut products, clothing, graphite, and precious and semiprecious stones. Foodstuffs, mainly rice, flour, and sugar, make up a significant share of imports. Other imports include petroleum products, machinery, and transportation equipment. Sri Lanka's chief trading partners are Japan, Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Iran, and India.
 

A network of about 27,200 km (about 16,900 mi) of paved roads connects most regions of the island; the best-developed road system is that in the plantation areas. Operated railroad track totals about 1450 km (about 900 mi). Sri Lanka has three international airports. The government-owned airline, Air Lanka, provides domestic and international service.
 

 All electronic communications in Sri Lanka are government controlled. The country has about 15 daily newspapers with a combined daily circulation of more than 780,000. In the late 1980s the largest daily was the Dinamina, published in Colombo. During this period Sri Lanka had more than 125,000 telephones, 3.2 million radio receivers, and 500,000 television sets. Television broadcasting began in Colombo in 1979.

The Mahavamsa relates that the island was conquered in 504 BC by Vijaya, a Hindu prince from northeast India. After subjugating the aboriginal inhabitants, a people now known as Veddas, Vijaya married a native princess, encouraged emigration from the mainland, and made himself ruler of the entire island. However, the realm (called Sinhala after Vijaya's patrimonial name) that was inherited by his successors consisted of the arid region lying to the north of the south-central mountain system.

 Members of the dynasty founded by Vijaya reigned over Sinhala for several centuries. During this period, and particularly after the adoption in the 3rd century BC of Buddhism as the national religion, the Sinhalese created a highly developed civilization. Extant evidence of their engineering skill and architectural achievements includes remnants of vast irrigation projects, many ruined cities, notably the ancient capital Anuradhapura, and numerous ruined shrines (dasobas).
 

From the late 3rd century AD to the middle of the 12th century, Sinhala was dominated by Tamil kings and by a succession of invaders from southern India. Native princes regained power briefly in the late 12th century and again in the 13th century. From 1408 to 1438 Chinese forces occupied the island of Sinhala, which had been partitioned into a number of petty kingdoms.

 In 1517 the Portuguese, having established friendly relations with one of the native monarchs, founded a fort and trading post at Colombo. Their sphere of influence expanded steadily thereafter, mainly as a result of successful wars of conquest, and by the end of the 16th century they controlled large sections of the island. Consequently, in 1638 and 1639, when the Dutch launched the first of a series of attacks on Portuguese strongholds in the island, they found numerous allies among the natives. The struggle ended in 1658 with the Dutch gaining control of most of the island, although the kingdom of Kandy remained an independent entity.
 

In 1795, following the occupation of the Netherlands by France, the British government dispatched an expeditionary force against Sri Lanka. The Dutch capitulated early in the next year, and in 1798 the British made all the island, except the kingdom of Kandy, a crown colony. By the provisions of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens, which terminated the second phase of the Napoleonic Wars, the country was formally ceded to Great Britain. The kingdom of Kandy was also occupied in 1803 and annexed to the crown colony in 1815. The British period of rule was marked by abortive native rebellions in 1817, 1843, and 1848. Tea and rubber estates were developed. In this period violent social-religious struggles between the Sinhalese peasants, mostly Buddhists, and the moneylenders and traders, chiefly Muslims, also occurred, and all the native peoples struggled continuously for representative government and national freedom. The first substantial victory in the struggle for self-government came after more than one century, when, in 1931, Great Britain promulgated a new constitution that granted the indigenous people semiautonomous control over national affairs.

 During World War II (1939-1945) Sri Lanka was an important base of operations in the Allied offensive against the Japanese and a major source of rubber, foodstuffs, and other materials vital to the war effort.
 

On February 4, 1948, the colony became an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations; Sir Henry Moore was installed as governor-general and D. S. Senanayake, leader of the United National party (UNP), became prime minister. An ancient Sinhalese flag was adopted as the flag of the new state.

 The foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations assembled at Colombo in January 1950, and drafted a tentative plan for the economic development of Southeast Asia. As finally formulated, the Colombo Plan allocated nearly $340 million of Commonwealth funds for a variety of projects designed to advance the Sri Lankan economy, notably irrigation works and hydroelectric plants.

 When D. S. Senanayake died in 1952, his son, Dudley Senanayake, who belonged to the same party, was named prime minister. In 1954 Sri Lanka declined to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, which was formed as a defensive alliance by the United States, Great Britain, and six other nations. On December 14, 1955, the republic of Sri Lanka was admitted to membership in the United Nations.