Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan, adj., n.
/sree' lahng"keuh, lang"keuh, shree'/
an island republic in the Indian Ocean, S of India: a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 18,762,075; 25,332 sq. mi. (65,610 sq. km). Cap.: Colombo. Formerly, Ceylon. Arabic, Serendip.

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Sri Lanka

Introduction Sri Lanka
Background: Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded to the British in 1802. As Ceylon it became independent in 1948; its name was changed in 1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted in violence in the mid-1980s. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic war that continues to fester. Geography Sri Lanka -
Location: Southern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of India
Geographic coordinates: 7 00 N, 81 00 E
Map references: Asia
Area: total: 65,610 sq km water: 870 sq km land: 64,740 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly larger than West Virginia
Land boundaries: 0 km
Coastline: 1,340 km
Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 NM territorial sea: 12 NM exclusive economic zone: 200 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin
Climate: tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March); southwest monsoon (June to October)
Terrain: mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in south-central interior
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Pidurutalagala 2,524 m
Natural resources: limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems, phosphates, clay, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 13.43% permanent crops: 15.78% other: 70.79% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 6,510 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: occasional cyclones and tornadoes Environment - current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife populations threatened by poaching and urbanization; coastal degradation from mining activities and increased pollution; freshwater resources being polluted by industrial wastes and sewage runoff; waste disposal; air pollution in Colombo Environment - international party to: Biodiversity, Climate
agreements: Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation
Geography - note: strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes People Sri Lanka
Population: 19,576,783 note: since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and armed Tamil separatists in the mid-1980s, several hundred thousand Tamil civilians have fled the island; as of mid-1999, approximately 66,000 were housed in 133 refugee camps in south India, another 40,000 lived outside the Indian camps, and more than 200,000 Tamils have sought refuge in the West (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 25.6% (male 2,559,246; female 2,446,393) 15-64 years: 67.7% (male 6,446,320; female 6,802,515) 65 years and over: 6.7% (male 628,398; female 693,911) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.85% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 16.36 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 6.45 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: -1.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/ female total population: 0.97 male(s)/ female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 15.65 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 72.35 years female: 75 years (2002 est.) male: 69.83 years
Total fertility rate: 1.93 children born/woman (2002 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.07% (1999 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/ 7,500 (1999 est.)
AIDS:
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 490 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Sri Lankan(s) adjective: Sri Lankan
Ethnic groups: Sinhalese 74%, Tamil 18%, Moor 7%, Burgher, Malay, and Vedda 1%
Religions: Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%, Muslim 7% (1999)
Languages: Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8% note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 90.2% male: 93.4% female: 87.2% (1995 est.) Government Sri Lanka
Country name: conventional long form: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka conventional short form: Sri Lanka former: Serendib, Ceylon
Government type: republic
Capital: Colombo; note - Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital Administrative divisions: 8 provinces; Central, North Central, North Eastern, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western; note - North Eastern province may have been divided in two - Northern and Eastern
Independence: 4 February 1948 (from UK)
National holiday: Independence Day, 4 February (1948)
Constitution: adopted 16 August 1978
Legal system: a highly complex mixture of English common law, Roman-Dutch, Muslim, Sinhalese, and customary law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: President Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA (since 12 November 1994); note - Ranil WICKREMASINGHE (since 9 December 2001) is the prime minister; in Sri Lanka the president is considered both the chief of state and head of government, in contrast to the more common practice of dividing the roles between the president and the prime minister when both offices exist head of government: President Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA (since 12 November 1994); note - Ranil WICKREMASINGHE (since 9 December 2001) is the prime minister; in Sri Lanka the president is considered both the chief of state and head of government, in contrast to the more common practice of dividing the roles between the president and the prime minister when both offices exist cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president in consultation with the prime minister elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term; election last held 21 December 1999 (next to be held NA December 2005) election results: Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA reelected president; percent of vote - Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA (PA) 51%, Ranil WICKREMASINGHE (UNP) 42%, other 7%
Legislative branch: unicameral Parliament (225 seats; members elected by popular vote on the basis of a modified proportional representation system by district to serve six-year terms) elections: last held 7 December 2001 (next to be held NA December 2007) election results: percent of vote by party or electoral alliance - UNP, SLMC and CWC 46.8%, PA and EPDP 38%, JVP 9.1%, Tamil National Alliance 3.89%, PLOTE 0.19%; seats by party or electoral alliance - UNP, SLMC and CWC 114, PA and EPDP 79, JVP 16, Tamil National Alliance 15, PLOTE 1
Judicial branch: Supreme Court; Court of Appeals; judges for both courts are appointed by the president Political parties and leaders: All Ceylon Tamil Congress or ACTC [KUMARGURUPARAM]; Ceylon Workers Congress or CWC [Arumugam THONDAMAN]; Communist Party or CP [D. GUNASEKERA]; Democratic United National (Lalith) Front or DUNLF [Shrimani ATULATHMUDALI]; Eelam People's Democratic Party or EPDP [Douglas DEVANANDA]; Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front or EPRLF [Suresh PREMACHANDRAN]; Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP [Tilvan SILVA]; National Unity Alliance or NUA [Ferial ASHRAFF]; People's Alliance or PA [Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA]; People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam or PLOTE [leader NA]; Sihala Urumaya or SU [Tilak KARUNARATNE]; Sri Lanka Freedom Party or SLFP [Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA]; Sri Lanka Muslim Congress or SLMC [Rauff HAKEEM]; Sri Lanka Progressive Front or SLPF [P. Nelson PERERA]; Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization or TELO [SABARATNAM]; Tamil National Alliance or TNA [Nadarajah RAVIRAJ]; Tamil United Liberation Front or TULF [R. SAMPATHAN]; United National Party or UNP [Ranil WICKREMASINGHE]; Upcountry People's Front or UPF [P. CHANDRASEKARAN]; several ethnic Tamil and Muslim parties, represented in either Parliament or provincial councils Political pressure groups and Buddhist clergy; labor unions;
leaders: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE [Velupillai PRABHAKARAN] (insurgent group fighting for a separate state); radical chauvinist Sinhalese groups such as the National Movement Against Terrorism; Sinhalese Buddhist lay groups International organization AsDB, C, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-15,
participation: G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Warnasena RASAPUTRAM consulate(s): New York consulate(s) general: Los Angeles FAX: [1] (202) 232-7181 telephone: [1] (202) 483-4025 (through 4028) chancery: 2148 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 Diplomatic representation from the chief of mission: Ambassador E.
US: Ashley WILLS embassy: 210 Galle Road, Colombo 3 mailing address: P. O. Box 106, Colombo telephone: [94] (1) 448007 FAX: [94] (1) 437345
Flag description: yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other panel is a large dark red rectangle with a yellow lion holding a sword, and there is a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow field appears as a border around the entire flag and extends between the two panels Economy Sri Lanka -
Economy - overview: In 1977, Colombo abandoned statist economic policies and its import substitution trade policy for market-oriented policies and export- oriented trade. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, and insurance and banking. By 1996 plantation crops made up only 20% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% throughout the 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%. But 2001 saw the first contraction in the country's history, due to a combination of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the global slowdown, and continuing civil strife.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $62.7 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: -1% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $3,250 (2001 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 21% industry: 27% services: 52% (2000) Population below poverty line: 22% (1997 est.) Household income or consumption by lowest 10%: 3.5%
percentage share: highest 10%: 28% (1995) Distribution of family income - Gini 34.4 (1995)
index: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14.2% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 6.6 million (1998) Labor force - by occupation: services 45%, agriculture 38%, industry 17% (1998 est.)
Unemployment rate: 7.7% (2001)
Budget: revenues: $2.8 billion expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2001 est.)
Industries: rubber processing, tea, coconuts, and other agricultural commodities; clothing, cement, petroleum refining, textiles, tobacco Industrial production growth rate: 1.4% (2001) Electricity - production: 6.619 billion kWh (2000) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 31.86% hydro: 68.14% other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0% Electricity - consumption: 6.156 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef
Exports: $4.9 billion (f.o.b., 2001)
Exports - commodities: textiles and apparel 15%, tea, diamonds, coconut products, petroleum products
Exports - partners: US 39%, UK 13%, Middle East 8%, Germany 4%, Japan 4% (2000)
Imports: $6 billion (f.o.b., 2001)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, textiles, petroleum, foodstuffs
Imports - partners: Japan 9%, India 8%, Hong Kong 7%, Singapore 7%, South Korea 5% (2000)
Debt - external: $9.9 billion (2000) Economic aid - recipient: $577 million (1998)
Currency: Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)
Currency code: LKR
Exchange rates: Sri Lankan rupees per US dollar - 93.383 (January 2002), 89.383 (2001), 77.005 (2000), 70.635 (1999), 64.450 (1998), 58.995 (1997)
Fiscal year: calendar year Communications Sri Lanka Telephones - main lines in use: 494,509 (1998) Telephones - mobile cellular: 228,604 (1999)
Telephone system: general assessment: very inadequate domestic service, particularly in rural areas; likely improvement with privatization of national telephone company and encouragement to private investment; good international service (1999) domestic: national trunk network consists mostly of digital microwave radio relay; fiber-optic links now in use in Colombo area and two fixed wireless local loops have been installed; competition is strong in mobile cellular systems; telephone density remains low at 2.6 main lines per 100 persons (1999) international: submarine cables to Indonesia and Djibouti; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) (1999) Radio broadcast stations: AM 26, FM 45, shortwave 1 (1998)
Radios: 3.85 million (1997) Television broadcast stations: 21 (1997)
Televisions: 1.53 million (1997)
Internet country code: .lk Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (2000)
Internet users: 121,500 (2001) Transportation Sri Lanka
Railways: total: 1,463 km broad gauge: 1,404 km 1.676-m gauge narrow gauge: 59 km 0.762-m gauge (2001)
Highways: total: 11,285 km paved: 10,721 km unpaved: 564 km (1998 est.)
Waterways: 430 km (navigable by shallow-draft craft)
Pipelines: crude oil and petroleum products 62 km (1987)
Ports and harbors: Colombo, Galle, Jaffna, Trincomalee
Merchant marine: total: 18 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 137,321 GRT/233,367 DWT ships by type: bulk 1, cargo 15, container 1, petroleum tanker 1, includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Germany 9, Hong Kong 1, United Arab Emirates 1 (2002 est.)
Airports: 15 (2001) Airports - with paved runways: total: 14 over 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 7 914 to 1,523 m: 6 (2001) Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 1 under 914 m: 1 (2001) Military Sri Lanka
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Police Force Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age (2002 est.) Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 5,347,153 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military males age 15-49: 4,148,825 (2002
service: est.) Military manpower - reaching military males: 193,522 (2002 est.)
age annually: Military expenditures - dollar $719 million (FY98)
figure: Military expenditures - percent of 4.2% (FY98)
GDP: Transnational Issues Sri Lanka Disputes - international: none

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officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka formerly Ceylon

Island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of India.

Area: 25,332 sq mi (65,610 sq km). Population (2004 est.): 19,218,000. Capitals: Colombo (executive), Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial). About three-fourths of the population is Sinhalese; other ethnic groups include Tamils and Muslims. Languages: Sinhalese and Tamil (both official); English also is widely spoken. Religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. Currency: Sri Lanka rupee. Highlands make up Sri Lanka's south-central region and core, with narrow gorges and deep river valleys. The surrounding lowlands include hills and fertile plains. The country has a developing mixed economy, largely based on agriculture, services, and light industries. Tea, rubber, and coconuts are exported. The island is world-famous for its gemstones, which include sapphires, rubies, and topaz. It leads the world in the production of high-grade graphite. Sri Lanka is a republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime minister. The Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka probably originated with aboriginal inhabitants blending with migrating Indo-Aryans from India с 5th century BC. The Tamils were later immigrants from Dravidian India, migrating over a period from the early centuries AD to с 1200. Buddhism was introduced during the 3rd century BC. As Buddhism spread, the Sinhalese kingdom extended its political control over the island but lost it to invaders from southern India in the 10th century AD. Between 1200 and 1505 Sinhalese power gravitated to southwestern Sri Lanka, while a southern Indian dynasty seized power in the north and established the Tamil kingdom in the 14th century. Foreign invasions from India, China, and Malaya occurred in the 13th–15th centuries. In 1505 the Portuguese arrived, and by 1619 they controlled most of the island. The Sinhalese enlisted the Dutch to help oust the Portuguese, and the island eventually came under the control of the Dutch East India Company, which relinquished it in 1796 to the British. In 1802 it became the British crown colony of Ceylon, which gained independence in 1948. It became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 and took its present name in 1978. Civil strife between Tamil and Sinhalese groups has beset the country since the early 1980s, the Tamils demanding a separate autonomous state in northern Sri Lanka. In 2004 Sri Lanka was struck by a tsunami that badly damaged much of the coastline and killed tens of thousands of people.

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▪ 2009

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2008 est.): 19,394,000
Capitals:
Colombo (executive and judicial); Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative)
Head of state and government:
President Mahinda Rajapakse, assisted by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake

      Sri Lanka's civil war, which began in 1983 and had claimed more than 70,000 lives and caused untold suffering, intensified in 2008, making the 2002 cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a dead letter. The government launched a renewed offensive and captured extensive areas of formerly rebel-controlled territory in the north and northeast of the country. The LTTE fought back fiercely by executing yet another wave of suicide bombings throughout Sri Lanka and by carrying out attacks on government naval forces. By late in the year, the government was claiming (to widespread acclaim in the Sinhalese south) that final military victory was near, while skeptics contended that only a political settlement could provide a lasting solution. Settlement involving substantial devolution of power to the regions seemed unlikely. Military setbacks not only weakened the position of the LTTE but made it even less likely that the organization would soften its long-standing demand for complete independence.

      Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse strengthened his grip on Sri Lankan politics during the year. His United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won three provincial elections, whereas the opposition United National Party (UNP) appeared to be in disarray. Although the UPFA did not command a majority in Parliament, it continued to receive support from its Marxist ally, the People's Liberation Front (JVP).

      Although Sri Lanka had maintained reasonably high rates of economic growth throughout the civil war, the rate was much lower than what could have been expected to be achieved in the absence of conflict. Economic growth in 2008 was anticipated to exceed 6%. Exports of garments were flat, but tea production enjoyed an unexpectedly good year, and remittances were up from Sri Lankans working abroad. As a result of large government deficits and rising world prices for petroleum as well as rice and other foodstuffs, inflation rose past 20%. There remained a large balance-of-payments deficit and a low rate of private investment, and the rupee was under pressure. In an effort to win the loyalty of residents in areas recently freed from LTTE control, development of the Eastern province was advocated.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2008

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2007 est.): 20,102,000
Capitals:
Colombo (executive and judicial); Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative)
Head of state and government:
President Mahinda Rajapakse, assisted by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake

 In 2007 the civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that had continued at varying levels of intensity since 1983 flared up again. While neither side explicitly abrogated the 2002 cease-fire, it died in practice as the fighting, suicide bombings, assassinations, and abductions increased during the year. Both sides launched attacks, including daring and unprecedented LTTE air raids on government air bases at Katunayake and Anuradhapura. Later in the year, however, the government seemed to be gaining the upper hand. With the aid of the dissident Karuna faction of Tamil fighters, it cleared the LTTE from the eastern region of the country. In November the government killed S.P. Thamilselvan, the leader of the LTTE's political wing.

      Politically, Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse faced little challenge in early 2007. Urged on by militant Buddhist monks and other Sinhalese nationalists and buoyed by military successes, he felt little incentive to negotiate with the rebels over a possible compromise solution to their demand for independence. Continuing international pressure, including a partial aid freeze, did not avail. The opposition United National Party was in disarray and suffered defections to the ruling People's Alliance. Later, however, a new opposition alliance (the National Congress) was formed, and the Ceylon Workers Congress, which represented legal migrants from India, deserted the ruling coalition (though its lawmakers rejoined late in the year).

      The social costs of ongoing war and unrest were high. Reportedly, 350,000 people had been displaced and 5,000 had died in the latest fighting, bringing cumulative deaths since 1983 to more than 67,000. In addition, more than 1,000 individuals had been abducted in 2007. Press freedom was curtailed, and for the first time, the government of Sri Lanka faced concerted international criticism for its human rights record.

      Economic growth, which had held up remarkably well over the course of the war, slowed to approximately 6% in 2007. Adverse weather hampered agricultural production, and the prevailing insecurity hurt tourism. The garment sector continued to thrive, and worker remittances provided valuable foreign exchange. Inflation resulted from large government deficits, spiraling defense expenditure, and expansion of the armed forces. Private and public investment remained very low. The government followed a generally market-oriented economic policy, but further economic reform was stalled by its reliance in the parliament on the People's Liberation Front, its Marxist partner.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2007

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2006 est.): 19,879,000
Capitals:
Colombo (executive and judicial); Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative)
Head of state and government:
President Mahinda Rajapakse, assisted by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake

      Following his election as president in 2005, Mahinda Rajapakse attempted in 2006 to restart progress toward a settlement of the dispute with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a conflict that had plagued Sri Lanka since 1983. Meetings held in Geneva in February reportedly went well, but the security situation had already begun to deteriorate. Suicide bombings targeted high-ranking officers, and government convoys and gunboats were attacked. International monitors blamed government troops for the deaths of 17 aid workers, mostly ethnic Tamils. Fighting broke out on the Jaffna Peninsula in the north and later around Trincomalee in the northeast, where the government accused the rebels of cutting off irrigation water to an area cultivated by Muslim and Sinhalese farmers. Although neither side formally renounced the cease-fire agreed to in 2002, observers deemed that it was dead in all but name. In May the European Union declared the LTTE a terrorist organization, a step taken earlier by the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. This made it harder for the Tigers to press members of the Tamil diaspora for financial support.

      President Rajapakse's political position strengthened during the year. His People's Alliance (PA) dominated the governing United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) but needed support from small and radical partner parties to command a majority in Parliament. Although the 2005 presidential election was closely contested and probably would have been won by the opposition United National Party (UNP) candidate if the LTTE had not prevented Tamils in the areas they control from voting, support for the opposition waned in 2006. The UPFA took 225 of 266 contested seats in local elections held in March. The UNP did poorly even in its stronghold of Colombo, which led to calls for the resignation of its leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

 The PA government retained the open-market policies introduced by its opponents in the 1990s, and Sri Lanka's economy continued to do well. Economic growth was projected to exceed 6%. The garment industry, which provided more than 60% of Sri Lanka's export earnings, held its own against fierce competition from China, India, and Vietnam. Tea production rose. Tourism, which was blighted by the December 2004 tsunami, recovered strongly. The current-account deficit ballooned, pushed by higher expenditures on imported fuels and vehicles, yet remittances from overseas workers kept the balance of payments strong.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2006

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2005 est.): 20,743,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
Presidents Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, and, from November 19, Rajapakse, assisted by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake from November 21

 Sri Lanka entered 2005 still reeling from the disastrous Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, which caused at least 31,000 deaths along the country's coasts. It damaged schools, hospitals, tourist facilities, and some 99,000 dwellings, displaced 443,000 people, and destroyed two-thirds of the fishing fleet. Donors pledged $3 billion in reconstruction aid. A dispute arose over how to handle assistance to areas controlled by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), where two-thirds of the assistance needs were located. The government, led by Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga, signed a cooperative agreement with the LTTE, causing the government's coalition partner, the Janata Vikmuthi Permuna, to withdraw its parliamentary support in June. This left Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in a minority position.

      In August the Supreme Court rejected Kumaratunga's claim that she could remain in office until late 2006, ruling that she had to leave office as scheduled on Dec. 22, 2005. In presidential elections held on November 17, UPFA nominee Mahinda Rajapakse, a hard-liner in dealings with the LTTE, scored a narrow victory over United National Party candidate Ranil Wickremasinghe. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was appointed prime minister on November 21.

      A February 2002 truce between the government and the separatists held, despite the suspension of Norwegian-brokered peace negotiations in April 2003, but ethnic tensions rose during 2005. One reason was the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on August 12. Although the LTTE denied responsibility for the minister's death, many blamed it for the crime.

      Economic growth in 2005 sagged to about 4.7% (from the 5.4% in 2004), primarily because of a drop in tourism following the tsunami. If violence did not resume, a recovery was expected in 2006. Inflation spiked, owing to a large government deficit and rising oil prices. According to the Asian Development Bank, political instability, poor access to finance, and weak infrastructure (particularly frequent power cuts) combined to make Sri Lanka less attractive to investors than some other Asian countries.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2005

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2004 est.): 19,218,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Ministers Ranil Wickremesinghe and, from April 6, Mahinda Rajapakse

      In 2004 Sri Lanka experienced political turmoil, violence, and frustration over the seemingly endless complications of trying to arrange negotiations between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end the conflict that had raged sporadically since 1983 and cost more than 60,000 lives. Then on December 26 coastal areas were swept by a tsunami that killed more than 30,000 Sri Lankans. (See Disasters: Sidebar (Deadliest Tsunami ).)

      The bitterly personal conflict between Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who uncomfortably shared power in Sri Lanka's complex political system until April, continued to dominate national politics. In January, Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) struck an accord with the left-wing People's Liberation Front (JVP), and on February 7 Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament and called for an election on April 2. The LTTE expressed dismay, and the Colombo stock exchange fell 10.5%, its largest one-day loss ever. The election included more than 6,000 candidates from 24 parties and 192 independent groups in competition for 225 seats. During the campaign Kumaratunga stirred fears in the majority Sinhalese community by calling Wickremesinghe's government soft on the Tamil separatists. Other issues under debate included employment, inflation, and the impact of globalization in formerly socialist Sri Lanka.

      In a generally peaceful vote on April 2, Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats and replaced Wickremesinghe's United National Front, whose allotment fell to 82 seats, as the strongest party in Parliament. When Parliament reconvened, support for the new minority government proved unreliable; differences between its two principal factions persisted, and minor parties offered or withdrew their support. On the critical issue of peace negotiations, repeated efforts by Norwegian mediators to bring the parties to the bargaining table proved fruitless. Even the $4.5 billion in potential foreign assistance that was offered by donors in 2003 conditional on a peace settlement could not induce negotiations.

      On July 7 a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing four policemen, after trying to assassinate a government minister. It was the first suicide bombing in nearly three years.

      Despite the unresolved conflict with the LTTE and the damage the tsunami did to the fishing and tourism industries, annual growth for 2004 appeared to be running at 5–5.5%. Manufacturing was the most dynamic export sector, while agriculture provided the most employment. Several global service companies launched operations in Sri Lanka. The World Bank made two loans in support of rural development and the tsunami prompted relief contributions, but significant foreign aid and private investment both remained dependent on the elusive peace settlement.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2004

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2003 est.): 19,065,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

      Negotiations to end Sri Lanka's 20-year civil war continued in early 2003 between the United National Party (UNP) government (headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), led by Vellupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE temporarily withdrew from the talks after being denied a seat at foreign-aid discussions held in April in Washington, D.C. There the Sri Lankan government offered limited and temporary administrative autonomy to the northern and eastern sections of the country, but the LTTE said that the offer was not specific enough. Aid pledges totaling $4.5 billion would be disbursed, but only after the two sides agreed on a peace plan. Later in the year, senior LTTE officials met in Dublin to develop what they insisted would be a realistic power-sharing proposal.

      Since the UNP gained control of Parliament in the general election of December 2001, there had been tension between Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga, who led the rival People's Alliance (PA). This tension boiled over in early November 2003, after the LTTE presented a proposal for regional autonomy. Saying that the UNP government threatened national security, President Kumaratunga dismissed three ministers with security-related portfolios and declared a short-lived state of emergency. Negotiations between the president and prime minister led to a deadlock that persisted to the end of the year. Peace talks stalled, and Norway pulled back from its mediating role.

      Military conflict, terrorism, and assassinations diminished in 2003 compared with previous years. There were several minor incidents, mostly involving the Sri Lankan navy and LTTE vessels bringing in arms and ammunition. Two anti-LTTE Tamil politicians were assassinated in Jaffna in June.

      Trade, foreign investment, and tourism all rebounded before the crisis hit. GDP, which had contracted in 2001 and had grown by 4% in 2002, had been expected to rise by 5.5%. In April the IMF approved a $567 million support package, to be disbursed semiannually through February 2006. Financial reforms would be introduced as part of the IMF agreement. Also promised were reforms in civil service, trade, taxes, and the labour market as well as additional privatization. Investors remained reluctant, however, and became even more hesitant following the November crisis.

      Though life expectancy was close to 75 years and fertility was near the replacement level, the quality of education declined and access to university was severely restricted. Unemployment was high, especially among educated youth, and labour emigration continued, mostly to the Middle East.

      In May floods and landslides struck Ratnapura district and other southern regions. Estimates varied, but as many as 300 people were thought to have been killed and 350,000 rendered homeless.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2003

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2002 est.): 18,870,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

      In 2002 hope of ending Sri Lanka's long-standing civil war, which had raged since 1983 and cost more than 60,000 lives, at last emerged. Following the return to parliamentary control of the United National Party (UNP) in December 2001 and weakened international support for the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Norwegian mediators negotiated an indefinite cease-fire in February. Internal political opposition delayed the start of peace talks, but in September the ban on the LTTE was lifted and talks began at a naval base in Thailand.

      Profound war weariness on both sides seemed to have motivated serious negotiations. Following the initial round of talks, the LTTE unexpectedly dropped its claim for independence, saying it would accept “genuine autonomy and self-determination” in place of a separate state. The two sides agreed to cooperate on such matters as clearing land mines and resettling displaced persons.

      After the initial talks, Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga, leader of the opposition People's Alliance, repeated earlier demands for the LTTE to disarm. Although seven people were killed in a brief clash on Sri Lanka's east coast in mid-October, efforts to incite opposition to the negotiations among southern Sinhalese made little headway. Additional negotiations occurred in October and December. Though many details were still unresolved, at year's end it seemed likely that peace would finally be achieved.

      Sri Lanka's economy contracted in 2001, but slow economic growth resumed in 2002, and tourism began to recover. The UNP government was committed to deregulation and privatization. Much needed to be done, however, to refurbish neglected infrastructure and restore business confidence. Population growth slowed to 1%, and the population was aging rapidly.

Donald Snodgrass

▪ 2002

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2001 est.): 19,399,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Ministers Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and, from December 9, Ranil Wickremesinghe

      Although in 2001 the Sri Lankan civil war entered its 19th year, by year's end there was new hope that a negotiated settlement might finally be attainable. In April the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had long fought to establish an independent nation in the north and east of the nation, canceled the cease-fire they had unilaterally declared the previous December, blaming the government for not reciprocating. Norwegian-brokered efforts to initiate peace talks had foundered because the LTTE demanded that the political ban on its organization and economic embargo against it be lifted and a cease-fire declared by the government, which in turn insisted that peace talks proceed without preconditions.

      Soon after the LTTE's cease-fire was canceled, the government launched an offensive in the area of Elephant Pass, which had been lost to rebel forces a year earlier. The offensive was repelled with heavy losses, and government troops were retreated to their original lines. Sporadic fighting continued throughout the year. The rebels scored a spectacular coup in July when they briefly seized Bandaranaike International Airport and its nearby air base, terrifying passengers and staff and destroying half of Air Lanka's Airbus fleet as well as military planes and an oil depot.

      Meanwhile, a prolonged political crisis began in June with the withdrawal of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress from Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance coalition. In an effort to survive, the president suspended Parliament and called for a national referendum, provoking further controversy. In August the crisis was temporarily relieved when the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) agreed to support the government in exchange for several concessions. In December, however, a general election returned control of Parliament to the opposition United National Party. The new government quickly declared a cease-fire, eased restrictions on internal movement, and took initial steps toward negotiations with the rebels.

      Economic growth declined sharply from the 6.9% real gross domestic product growth achieved in 2000. Dampening factors included a severe drought, which caused electricity shortages, and the need to pay war-risk insurance premiums on imports and exports. Hope for economic recovery rose at the year's end but remained dependent on the success of the peace effort and faced severe resource depletion in any case.

Donald R. Snodgrass

▪ 2001

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(2000 est.): 19,246,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Ministers Sirimavo Bandaranaike and, from August 10, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake

      Sri Lanka in 2000 completed its 17th year of civil war with no end in sight. Efforts to end the independence struggle of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), either through force of arms or through negotiation and constitutional reform, proved unsuccessful. At the front of the conflict in northern Sri Lanka, the army suffered a severe setback in April when its major camp at Elephant Pass fell to the rebels with heavy losses. Although military morale was badly shaken, later counteroffensives succeeded in retaking much of the lost ground. Meanwhile, following the attempted assassination of Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1999, a series of shootings, suicide bombs, and letter bombs terrorized the southern part of the nation, killing government ministers, parliamentary candidates, innocent civilians, and often the bombers themselves.

      In an attempt to placate the disaffected Tamil and Muslim communities and undercut support for the LTTE, President Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) government put forward a constitutional reform bill that would have established substantially autonomous regional councils. The support of the opposition United National Party (UNP) was essential, since the government lacked the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. This support was initially pledged, but after repeated protests by Buddhist clergy and other Sinhalese groups, it was withdrawn. The constitutional reform measure failed in an August parliamentary vote. A general election was then called in an effort by the PA to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority. Held in October amid considerable violence, the election weakened the PA slightly in Parliament while not greatly strengthening the UNP. President Kumaratunga was able to form a new coalition government, but it was no stronger than her previous one and left the proposed constitutional reform many votes short of approval. On October 19, as President Kumaratunga was swearing in her new cabinet, an LTTE suicide bomber shot down a helicopter gunship over Colombo. On election day Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the president's mother and until recently prime minister of Sri Lanka, died. (See Obituaries (Bandaranaike, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias ).) At year's end, the LTTE seemed more willing to negotiate with the government, but a new effort by Norway to help get talks started was blocked by the inability of the two sides to agree on preconditions.

      The Sri Lankan economy grew at about 5% in 2000 despite worsening fiscal and balance of payments deficits. The prevailing insecurity discouraged private investment and forced the government to postpone its privatization program for lack of buyer interest.

Donald R. Snodgrass

▪ 2000

Area:
65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)
Population
(1999 est.): 18,940,000
Capitals:
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)
Head of state and government:
President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike

      Sri Lanka's 16-year-old civil war dominated headlines in 1999. The brutal conflict involved the central government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which sought an independent homeland for the country's two million Tamils. There was little indication that any end was in sight.

      During the year both the LTTE and the government forces launched multiple attacks. The government lost 53 soldiers during one major offensive in September but managed to liberate about 1,750 sq km (675 sq mi), about one-third of the total territory held by the LTTE. In an offensive in early November, however, the LTTE overran several towns about 240 km (150 mi) north of Colombo, and the government sustained very heavy casualties before the fighting stopped.

      The LTTE sent a representative to London in midyear to try to find a neutral mediator. Meanwhile, nationalist elements among the majority Sinhalese demonstrated in Colombo in September, urging the government to step up military efforts against the LTTE rather than seek a negotiated peace. Outrageous incidents continued, however. In September Tamil fighters slaughtered nearly 60 unarmed Sinhalese villagers. The country was especially shocked by the LTTE's murder of Neelan Thiruchelvam, a member of Parliament and an internationally recognized human rights activist, on July 29. In mid-December Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by the LTTE by means of a human bomb that killed five security guards and a chauffeur.

      The government's lack of a two-thirds majority in Parliament continued to hinder its ability to implement a decisive strategy for bringing the war to an end. Pres. Kumaratunga continued to seek a constitutional or political solution and called national elections for December 21, almost a full year before they were due. She was reelected for a six-year term with 51.12% of the vote.

      Sri Lanka's economy looked promising in 1999. By encouraging foreign investments the government had enabled the country to achieve 4.7% economic growth, reduce inflation over the past five years from 13% to 9.8%, and bring the unemployment rate down to 9.1%.

Janadasa Peiris

▪ 1999

      Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)

      Population (1998 est.): 18,729,000

      Capitals: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)

      Head of state and government: President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike

      The 15-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka continued unabated in 1998. On January 25, 10 days before the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the nation's independence, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy was hit by a truck bomb, which killed at least 11 people, injured 23, and caused great damage to this holiest of Buddhist sites. Although responsibility for the attack was not claimed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the group that had been fighting the central government since 1983 in its quest for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's two million Tamils, the government suspected it of having perpetrated the act. Accordingly, it outlawed the LTTE. Until then the government had refused to do so for fear of jeopardizing future negotiations with the group. Soon afterward, the LTTE struck again. A bus loaded with two shrapnel-packed bombs exploded near the main train station in Colombo, killing 37 people and wounding more than 250.

      Throughout 1998 government forces continued their military campaign, Sure Victory, begun in May 1997 with the primary objective being the recapture of a 72.5-km (45-mi) strategic road linking the Jaffna Peninsula with the rest of the island. On September 11 the LTTE, with the aim of undermining the government's attempt to reinstate civil administration on the Jaffna Peninsula, killed the mayor of Jaffna City and the region's top army brigadier in a bomb attack. On September 28 the government admitted that at least 237 of its soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels had been killed when the LTTE attacked the defense lines around Kilinochchi, at the northern end of the strategic road. After three days of intense fighting, the LTTE managed to recapture Kilinochchi, their former headquarters, which they had lost to the Sri Lankan army in 1996. According to government sources, close to 600 people had been killed, including 377 rebels and more than 200 Sri Lankan soldiers. The loss of Kilinochchi was a major military and, more important, psychological blow to the morale of the Sri Lankan army. The government's capture of Manukalam at the southern end of the strategic road that same week was no substitute for the defeat in the north. On December 6 the government called off the Sure Victory campaign.

      There were indications in late October that the government and the LTTE were looking for an opening to resume peace talks. Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga insisted, however, that the government would reject LTTE calls for unconditional talks, stressing that the Tamil Tigers would have to first lay down their arms. (See Sidebar (Liberation Tigers ).)

CLAUDE RAKISITS

▪ 1998

      Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi)

      Population (1997 est.): 18,663,000

      Capitals: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative and judicial); Colombo (executive)

      Head of state and government: President Chandrika Kumaratunga, assisted by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike

      The 14-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka continued unabated in 1997. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the guerrilla group that had been fighting the central government since 1983 in its quest for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's two million Tamils, began the new year with an attack against the army's northern garrison at Paranthan. On January 9 about 3,000 LTTE fighters attacked the camp and captured its main weapons. More than 500 LTTE fighters and more than 200 government personnel died in the assault. Two months later the LTTE conducted simultaneous attacks on the army camp at Vavunatheevu, 217 km (135 mi) east of Colombo, and on the China Bay air force base, 80 km (50 mi) to the north. The LTTE's losses were great; of the 800 guerrillas who fought in the two battles, more than 200 were killed, and about 65 army personnel lost their lives.

      Determined to end these attacks, on May 13 the government launched the biggest military offensive yet in the civil war. Operation Sure Victory, which involved more than 20,000 troops, had the objective of recapturing a strategic 72.5-km (45-mi)-long road that linked Jaffna Peninsula with the rest of the island. Within five days government forces had captured Omanthai and Nedunkeni, two strategically located towns on the Vavuniya-Kilinochchi highway. The capture of these two towns cost the lives of more than 250 guerrillas and 53 government soldiers.

      On June 10 and June 25, the LTTE launched counterattacks on the army camp at Thandikulam, about five kilometres (three miles) from Vavuniya, the gateway to the Northern province. More than 600 LTTE guerrillas infiltrated government lines and destroyed the ammunition depot at the camp. The LTTE claimed that more than 376 government soldiers had been killed, and the government claimed that over 200 guerrillas had died in battle. More devastating to civilian morale was a powerful bomb that exploded on October 15 in a parking lot in the centre of Colombo, killing 18 and injuring more than 100.

      As a result of the bomb attack, the government offered to stop the military offensive if the LTTE was willing to discuss proposals that involved granting increased autonomy to the regional councils administered by Tamils and Muslims. The government, however, also maintained its basic position on talks with the LTTE—the guerrilla group would need to lay down its arms first and agree to arrive at a settlement within a stipulated time frame. This was unacceptable to the LTTE. On April 3 the government and the main opposition, the United National Party, with the help of the British government, agreed to present a common front in negotiations with the LTTE.

CLAUDE RAKISITS

▪ 1997

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka occupies an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of peninsular India. Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 18,318,000. Legislative cap., Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte; administrative cap., Colombo. Monetary unit: Sri Lanka rupee, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a free rate of SL Rs 57.05 to U.S. $1 (SL Rs 89.87 = £ 1 sterling). President in 1996, Chandrika Kumaratunga; prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

      Even though the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the guerrilla group that had been fighting the government since 1983 in its quest for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's two million Tamils, suffered a severe military defeat with the loss of Jaffna Peninsula in December 1995, it still managed to inflict significant blows on government forces in 1996, as well as carry out terrorist acts against the Sinhalese civilian population. On January 31 the LTTE claimed responsibility for a massive bomb explosion in Colombo's financial district at the central bank building, where Sri Lanka's gold reserves are held. The explosion killed more than 200 people and wounded over 1,400 others. Similarly, in July two bombs ripped through separate cars of a commuter train, killing 64 people and wounding more than 450. Although the LTTE did not claim responsibility for the train explosions, the government accused it of the terrorist acts.

      In July the LTTE conducted a weeklong operation against the military base of Mullaitivu, about 240 km (175 m), northeast of Colombo. An estimated 4,000 guerrillas attacked from the south and from the sea and eventually captured the fortified garrison, taking away large quantities of heavy weapons. Except for a handful of soldiers, all 1,200 military personnel in the base were killed. The LTTE lost about 200 fighters. This was the government's bloodiest and worst defeat in the civil war.

      In late September government forces launched a major offensive against Kilinochchi, about 230 km (170 m) north of Colombo and the only major urban centre still under LTTE control. Approximately 15,000 army personnel, using conventional military tactics, attacked the LTTE's headquarters. The LTTE, unable to hold on to the town, was forced out into the jungle. The government lost about 250 men and the LTTE more than 1,000. This was a major military blow for the Tamil Tigers, because by losing their last urban centre, they were deprived of an important recruitment ground. Despite the LTTE's complete rejection of Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga's 1995 peace plan, which would turn Sri Lanka into a loose federation of eight regions, Kumaratunga pledged to "restore complete peace" by the end of 1997.

      (CLAUDE RAKISITS)

▪ 1996

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka occupies an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of peninsular India. Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi). Pop. (1995 est.): 18,090,000. Legislative cap., Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte; administrative cap., Colombo. Monetary unit: Sri Lanka rupee, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of SL Rs 52.10 to U.S. $1 (SL Rs 82.36 = £ 1 sterling). President in 1995, Chandrika Kumaratunga; prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

      The 12-year-old civil conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who demanded an independent state for the two million Tamils, continued to be a major preoccupation for Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1995. Upon her election in 1994, Kumaratunga had pledged that she would seek a peaceful solution to the civil war, which by late 1995 had already claimed close to 50,000 lives.

      In January 1995 the government and the LTTE agreed to a truce, the first one in five years, opening the way for talks. Expectations were high as Canada, The Netherlands, and Norway sent monitors to supervise the cease-fire. The Colombo government sweetened the truce with a SL Rs 40 billion rehabilitation plan for the northern region, where the Tamils were concentrated. Public opinion, including that of Tamils living in LTTE-controlled areas, supported the talks.

      The LTTE unilaterally ended the truce on April 19, accusing the government of having failed to meet its demands, which included dismantling the Sri Lankan army camp at Pooneryn (located southwest of the LTTE's Jaffna stronghold) and a complete lifting of the government's trade embargo with the Tamil north. In a series of bold guerrilla attacks in April and May, the LTTE dealt severe military blows against the government armed forces.

      With the aim of regaining the initiative, the military launched its biggest offensive in eight years in July. Operation Leap Forward ran into serious trouble after a week, however, when it was confronted with daring LTTE counterattacks.

      On August 3 Kumaratunga unveiled a plan that would turn Sri Lanka into a federation of eight regions, each with considerable powers. The central government would be left with control over defense, foreign affairs, and international economic relations. To be accepted the plan would require the support of two-thirds of Parliament and a favourable vote in a national referendum. The Tamils in Parliament supported the plan, but the opposition United National Party was lukewarm to it. The LTTE responded by vowing to pursue a "protracted conflict." Undaunted, the government approved a $100 million weapons purchase, determined to deal the LTTE a military blow before resuming talks.

      In October the government launched another offensive, causing both sides hundreds of casualties and forcing up to 300,000 people to flee the fighting. As government forces closed in on Jaffna, the LTTE forcefully depopulated the entire city of 140,000, using the Tamil refugees as a shield against government artillery fire. Government forces captured a deserted Jaffna on December 5, with the remaining inhabitants, numbering only 400, sheltering in the Catholic church. The LTTE rejected a government amnesty offer, emphasizing their determination to carry on with sporadic attacks throughout the month. On December 31, however, the LTTE offered to resume peace talks, in the presence of foreign mediators, if government troops would leave Jaffna. (CLAUDE RAKISITS)

▪ 1995

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka occupies an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of peninsular India. Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 17,830,000. Legislative cap., Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte; administrative cap., Colombo. Monetary unit: Sri Lanka rupee, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a free rate of SL Rs 49.24 to U.S. $1 (SL Rs 78.32 = £ 1 sterling). Presidents in 1994, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga and, from November 12, Chandrika Kumaratunga; prime ministers, Ranil Wickremasinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunga from August 19, and, from November 14, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

      Sri Lanka underwent a change of government in 1994 and found reason to be optimistic that the change might foreshadow the end of a decade-old civil conflict with Tamil separatists. The fighting had already claimed some 34,000 lives.

      In the August 16 general election, the People's Alliance—a coalition of nine left-leaning opposition parties headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga—won 105 of the 225 seats in Parliament. It was the first defeat in 17 years for the ruling United National Party (UNP), which captured only 94 seats. Sri Lankan law, however, did not require Pres. Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, the leader of the UNP, to step down. He was not even obliged to name a prime minister from the victorious People's Alliance. The post, however, was finally offered to Kumaratunga when outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe indicated that he would oppose any effort by the UNP to form a new coalition government.

      Kumaratunga quickly set to work to fulfill her pledge of unconditional negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a minority group of ethnic Indians who had been fighting to gain independence for the section of Sri Lanka they called their homeland. When the government partially lifted an embargo on goods entering the rebel-controlled Jaffna Peninsula in the north of the country, the insurgents released 10 policemen they had held captive for four years.

      Tamil guerrillas invited Kumaratunga to Jaffna to hold peace talks, but wave after wave of violence diminished the prospects for peace. On September 9 at least 35 Tamil rebels were killed by government troops. Several weeks later 13 soldiers died in an ambush. In a retaliatory attack, the army killed 20 guerrillas. The Tamil rebels also attacked and sank the navy's largest ship, which went down with at least 22 sailors aboard. When opposition UNP leader Gamini Dissanayake was assassinated in October, peace talks were halted, but the rebels proposed a cease-fire in November, and talks resumed in late December.

      During the campaign, Kumaratunga had also promised to support a free-market economy. At the same time, she planned to increase the welfare benefits of those who had not shared in the nation's growing prosperity. Sri Lanka could point to a sustained economic growth rate of between 5% and 7% in recent years. Soon after the new government assumed power, it reported that at least $700 million was missing from the national treasury. Kumaratunga, who also served as the country's finance minister, complained that so much was missing, "we cannot find the bottom of the well." The Justice Ministry also reported that it was being deluged with allegations of massive fraud, bribery, and corruption on the part of the previous regime. The treasury, moreover, had been seriously depleted by a sweeping welfare package that Wijetunga had approved two months before the parliamentary elections. His own political future would be decided by the November presidential election.

      The discovery of financial irregularities forced the new government to suspend payments on all agreements signed by the previous regime, including a $72 million arms deal with Russia. The chaotic financial situation also forced Kumaratunga to postpone ratification of a $291 million deal for five Airbus Industrie A340 jetliners for Air Lanka, which was owned by the state. (DILIP GANGULY)

▪ 1994

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka occupies an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of peninsular India. Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 17,616,000. Legislative cap., Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte; administrative cap., Colombo. Monetary unit: Sri Lanka rupee, with (Oct. 4, 1993) a free rate of SL Rs 48.56 to U.S. $1 (SL Rs 73.57 = £ 1 sterling). Presidents in 1993, Ranasinghe Premadasa until May 1 and, from May 7, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga; prime ministers, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga and, from May 7, Ranil Wickremasinghe.

      Pres. Ranasinghe Premadasa (see OBITUARIES (Premadasa, Ranasinghe )) was assassinated on May 1, 1993, by a suspected Tamil separatist suicide bomber who rode a bicycle into the president as he watched a May Day parade in Colombo. Premadasa had made relentless efforts to stem the bloodshed in Sri Lanka caused by secessionist insurrections. On May 7 Parliament unanimously elected Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, an ally of Premadasa, president; Wijetunga then appointed Ranil Wickremasinghe prime minister.

      After his election President Wijetunga made fresh peace overtures to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the major separatist group battling for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the nation, but little progress was made. Tamils, who formed 18% of Sri Lanka's 17.6 million population, claimed they were discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who controlled the government, the military, and a vast majority of the nation's businesses.

      A 45-member parliamentary committee appointed to find a solution to the decade-old ethnic conflict recommended two separate councils for the north and east and a quasi-federal system to meet the rebel demand for an independent homeland. The rebels rejected the offer, and in late September 9,000 government troops mounted a major offensive against them. A Tamil rebel sea base in Kilali on the Jaffna Peninsula was captured on October 1, and the government troops destroyed 120 boats. The capture of Kilali was a major setback for the rebels, who had used it as a base from which to reach the mainland. At least 114 government soldiers and 200 rebels were killed in the offensive, the largest in two years. Despite the loss of Kilali, most of the Jaffna Peninsula remained under the control of Tamil rebels.

      The Sri Lankan army on August 23 opened 21 centres to induct more than 10,000 soldiers to fight the Tamil rebels. To expand the army by 10 infantry battalions, the government lowered its recruitment standards. The new soldiers would reinforce the 42 battalions deployed mainly against Tamil rebels. By late 1993 Sri Lanka's mainly Sinhalese army had lost more than 4,250 soldiers, including those killed during a Tamil attack on a military base in mid-November.

      On August 17 Haniffa Mohamed, the speaker of the Parliament, named an 18-member parliamentary committee to look into constitutional reforms. Sri Lanka's present constitution, adopted in 1978, had long been criticized by the opposition, who said that it gave too much power to the president and too little to Parliament. The committee would have to submit proposals well ahead of the next presidential elections, scheduled for December 1994. (DILIP GANGULY)

* * *

Introduction
officially  Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , Sinhalese  Sri Lankā Prajathanthrika Samajavadi Janarajaya , formerly  Ceylon 
Sri Lanka, flag of  island country lying in the Indian Ocean and separated from peninsular India by the Palk Strait. It is located between latitudes 5°55′ and 9°51′ N and longitudes 79°41′ and 81°53′ E, and has a maximum length of 268 miles (432 kilometres) and a maximum width of 139 miles (224 kilometres).

      Proximity to the Indian subcontinent has facilitated close cultural interaction between Sri Lanka and India from ancient times. At a crossroads of maritime routes traversing the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka has also been exposed to cultural influences from other Asian civilizations. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobane. Arabs referred to it as Serendib. Later European mapmakers called it Ceylon, a name still used occasionally for trade purposes. It officially became Sri Lanka in 1972.

      The distinctive civilization of Sri Lanka, with roots that can be traced back to the 6th century BC, is characterized by two factors: the preservation of Theravāda Buddhism (the orthodox school of Buddhism having its literary traditions in the Pāli language) and the development over two millennia of a sophisticated system of irrigation in the drier parts of the country. This civilization was further enriched by the influences of Hinduism and Islām.

      In 1948, after nearly 150 years of British rule, Sri Lanka became an independent country, and it was admitted to the United Nations seven years later. The country is a member of the Commonwealth and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

       Colombo, which emerged as the main urban centre during British rule, remains the capital of Sri Lanka. For administrative purposes, the country has been divided into nine provinces and subdivided into 25 districts.

      Sri Lanka is densely populated. The majority of its people are poor, live in rural areas, and depend on agriculture for their livelihood. A physical environment of wide-ranging diversity makes Sri Lanka one of the world's most scenic countries. As the home of several ethnic groups, each with its own cultural heritage, Sri Lanka also has a highly varied cultural landscape.

The land

Relief
 

      A roughly triangular mountainous area known as the Central Highlands occupies the south-central region of Sri Lanka and is the heart of the country. This highland mass is surrounded by a diverse plain, the general elevation of which ranges from sea level to about 1,000 feet (300 metres). This plain accounts for about five-sixths of the country's total area.

      The Central Highlands have a highly dissected terrain consisting of a unique arrangement of plateaus, ridges, escarpments, intermontane basins, and valleys. Sri Lanka's highest mountains—Pidurutalagala at 8,281 feet (2,524 metres), Kirigalpotta (7,858 feet), and Adam's Peak (Sri Pada; 7,559 feet)—are found in this area. The highlands, except on their western and southwestern flanks, are sharply defined by a series of escarpments, the most spectacular being the so-called World's End, a near-vertical precipice of about 4,000 feet.

      The plain that surrounds the Central Highlands does not have an entirely flat and featureless terrain. To the north and northeast of the highlands, the plain is traversed by low ridges that decrease in altitude as they approach the coast. The western and southwestern parts of the plain feature alternating ridges and valleys running parallel to the coast and increasing in elevation toward the interior to merge imperceptibly with the highland mass. Elsewhere the flatness of the plain is sporadically interrupted by rocky buttes and mounds, some of which reach elevations of more than 1,000 feet. The plain is fringed by a coast consisting mostly of sandy beaches, spits, and lagoons. Over a few stretches of the coast there are rocky promontories and cliffs, deep-water bays, and offshore islets.

      Geologically, the island of Sri Lanka is considered a southerly extension of peninsular India (the Deccan), with which it shares a continental shelf and some of its basic lithologic and geomorphic characteristics. Hard, crystalline rock formations, such as granite, gneisses, khondalite (a type of metamorphic rock), and quartzite, make up about nine-tenths of the island's surface and subsurface.

Drainage
      The surface drainage of Sri Lanka is made up of about 100 “rivers,” most of which are mere wet-season rivulets. Twelve major rivers account for about 75 percent of the mean annual river discharge of the country, with those that flow entirely through the Wet Zone (the highlands and the southwestern part of the country; see below) carrying about half the total discharge. With the exception of the 208-mile-long Mahaweli (Mahaweli Ganga) River, all major rivers flow radially from the Central Highlands to the sea. The Mahaweli, which originates on the western slopes of the highest areas of the highlands, follows a circuitous route in its upper reaches before it enters the plain to the east of the highlands and then flows toward the northeast coast. Because a part of its catchment is well within the Wet Zone, this river has a larger and less seasonally varied flow than the other Dry Zone rivers and so is a major asset for irrigation in the drier parts of the country (the Dry Zone includes the northern part of the country and much of the east and southeast; see below).

Soils
      Variations of soil within Sri Lanka reflect the effects of climate, lithology, and terrain on the soil-forming processes. The climatic influences are reflected in the dominance of red-yellow podzolic soils (podzolic soil) (leached lateritic soils) in the Wet Zone and of reddish brown earths (nonlateritic loamy soils) in the Dry Zone. In parts of the Central Highlands there are reddish brown latosolic soils (partially laterized soils) or immature brown loams (clayey loams). Among the other important soil types are the alluvials that occur along the lower courses of rivers and the regosols (sandy soils) of the coastal tracts.

      Most of the soils of Sri Lanka are potentially suitable for some kind of agricultural use. However, depletion of the natural fertility of the soil has occurred extensively, especially on the rugged terrain of the highlands, owing to poor soil conservation.

Climate
      Sri Lanka's tropical location ensures perennially high temperatures, with monthly averages between 72° F (22° C) and 92° F (33° C) in the lowlands. In the Central Highlands, higher altitudes account for lower temperatures, with monthly averages between 44° F (7° C) and 71° F (21.6° C).

      Rainfall is the conspicuous factor in the seasonal and diurnal variations of the climate of Sri Lanka. Most parts of the country receive an average annual rainfall of more than 50 inches (1,270 millimetres). However, regional differences in the amount of rain, its seasonality, and its variability and effectiveness have formed the basis of a distinction in Sri Lanka between a Wet Zone and a Dry Zone. In the former area, which covers the southwestern quadrant of the island (including the highlands), the rainfall is heavy (annual averages range from 98 inches along the coast to more than 150 inches in the highlands) and seasonally well distributed (although a greater part of the rain comes from the southwest monsoon from May to September). Rainfall deviates relatively little each year from the annual averages and is effective enough to maintain soil moisture and surface drainage throughout the year. Over the rest of the island—the Dry Zone—annual totals of rain range from 30 to 70 inches in the different areas (much of it being received during the northeast monsoon season from November to January). Droughts that persist for more than three months are common.

Plant and animal life
      Sri Lanka's natural vegetation covers about one-third of the total land area. The climax vegetation (i.e., natural vegetation permitted to develop uninterrupted) in most parts of the country is forest. In the Wet Zone, tropical wet evergreen forest dominates in the lowlands, and submontane and montane evergreen forests prevail in the highlands. The Dry Zone has a climax vegetation of dry evergreen forest and moist deciduous forest, with forests giving way to a stunted, shrubby, xerophytic (drought-tolerant) vegetation in its driest parts. In the highest areas of the Central Highlands, forests tend to be sparse and interspersed with grasslands.

      Most of Sri Lanka's climax vegetation cover has been heavily depleted by extensive clearing of forests for settlements, extraction of timber, and agriculture. Only the Sinharaja forest and the Peak Wilderness of the southwestern interior remain as significant remnants of the Wet Zone's original evergreen forests. The forests found in most parts of the Dry Zone are secondary vegetation, which probably developed after hundreds of years of repeated clearing and cultivation.

      The virgin forests of Sri Lanka are rich in their variety and profusion of flora and fauna. Wildlife, including elephants, leopards, bears, buffalo, and peafowl, and tree species such as ebony, mahogany, satinwood, and teak are being rapidly depleted by indiscriminate exploitation.

Settlement patterns
      The Colombo Metropolitan Region dominates the settlement system of Sri Lanka. It includes the legislative capital, Kotte (Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte). It is also the foremost administrative, commercial, and industrial area and the hub of the transport network of Sri Lanka. Urban settlements outside this area are much smaller and less diversified in functions.

      About three-fourths of all Sri Lankans live in rural settlements, of which there are several types. In areas of high rural population density—the entire Wet Zone, the Jaffna Peninsula, and a few coastal localities in the east—villages merge with one another, each a conglomerate of homestead gardens interspersed with tracts of paddy. Villages of the Wet Zone interior also contain smallholdings monocropped with rubber or coconut and terraced paddy land. In the Central Highlands this type of rural landscape gives way to extensive plantations under tea or rubber cultivation. Here the villages are dense clusters of barrack-type structures, each cluster occupying no more than 2.5 acres (1 hectare) but accommodating up to several hundred plantation worker families. A third major type of rural settlement is found in the Dry Zone where the majority of people live in colonization schemes (irrigation-based, planned settlements). Each colony, a distinct entity, features agricultural allotments of near-uniform size with large stretches of paddy occupying the irrigable land.

The people

Ethnic composition
      Ethnic, religious, and linguistic distinctions in Sri Lanka are essentially the same. Three ethnic groups—Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim—make up more than 99 percent of the country's population, with the Sinhalese alone accounting for nearly three-fourths of the people. The Tamil segment comprises two groups—Sri Lankan Tamils (long-settled descendants from southeastern India) and Indian Tamils (recent immigrants from southeastern India, most of whom were migrant workers brought to Sri Lanka under British rule). Slightly more than one-eighth of the total population belongs to the former group. Muslims (Islāmic world), who trace their origin back to Arab traders of the 8th century, account for about 7.5 percent of the population. Burghers (a community of mixed European descent), Parsis (Parsi) (immigrants from western India), and Veddas (Vedda) (regarded as the aboriginal inhabitants of the country) total less than 1 percent of the population.

      The Sinhalese constitute the majority in the southern, western, central, and north-central parts of the country. In the rural areas of the Wet Zone lowlands, they account for more than 95 percent of the population. The foremost concentration of the Sri Lankan Tamils lies in the Jaffna Peninsula and in the adjacent districts of the northern lowlands. Smaller agglomerations of this group are also found along the eastern littoral where their settlements are juxtaposed with those of the Muslims. The main Muslim concentrations occur in the eastern lowlands. In other areas, such as Colombo, Kandy, Puttalam, and Gampaha, Muslims form a small but important segment of the urban and suburban population. The Indian Tamils, the vast majority of whom are plantation workers, live in large numbers in the higher areas of the Central Highlands.

Language and religion
      Among the principal ethnic groups, language and religion determine identity. While the mother tongue of the Sinhalese is Sinhala (Sinhalese language)—an Indo-Aryan language—the Tamils (Tamil language) speak the Dravidian language of Tamil. Again, while more than 90 percent of the Sinhalese are Buddhists (Buddhism), both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils are overwhelmingly Hindu (Hinduism). The Muslims—adherents of Islām—usually speak Tamil. Christianity draws its followers (about 7 percent of the population) from among the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Burgher communities.

Ethnic relations
      Sri Lanka's ethnic relations are characterized by periodic disharmony. Since independence, estranged relations between the Sinhalese and the Tamils have continued in the political arena. Intensifying grievances of the latter group against the Sinhalese-dominated governments culminated in the late 1970s in a demand by the Tamil United Liberation Front, the main political party of that community, for an independent Tamil state comprising the northern and eastern provinces. This demand grew increasingly militant and eventually evolved into a separatist war featured by acts of terrorism. The violence to which the Tamils living in Sinhalese-majority areas were subjected in 1983 contributed to this escalation of the conflict. The secessionist demand itself has met with opposition from the other ethnic groups.

Demographic trends
      At independence Sri Lanka had a population of about 6.5 million, which by the early 1990s had increased to more than 17 million. The rate of population growth averaged about 2.6 percent annually up to the early 1970s and declined to about 1.7 percent over the next two decades. In Sri Lanka the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas has remained a slow process. The pronounced trend has been that of migration into the Dry Zone interior, which has doubled its share of the country's population since independence.

The economy
      The economy that evolved in Sri Lanka under British rule consisted of a modern sector, the main component being plantation agriculture, and a traditional sector comprising subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing was an insignificant segment of the economy. Banking and commerce were, for the most part, ancillary to plantation agriculture. Nearly all foreign earnings were derived from the three staple plantation crops—tea, rubber, and coconut. The country depended on imports for nearly three-fourths of its food requirements and almost all of its manufactured goods.

      During the first three decades after independence, development policy focused on two themes, equity through social welfare and substitution of imports with local products. Government price subsidies on food, statutory price controls on consumer goods, and the provision of free education and health services by the government were the principal measures guided by equity considerations. Stimulating local production to cater to an increasing share of domestic consumption and imposing diverse restrictions on imports were the main elements of the import substitution policy. The pursuance of these policies required increased government intervention in the economy.

      The social welfare policies achieved a measure of success in lowering mortality rates and in increasing life expectancy and literacy rates to levels seldom matched by other developing countries. However, the restrictive impact that the policies had on domestic capital accumulation and investment retarded economic growth, leading not only to soaring unemployment but also to the persistence of low incomes. The achievements of the import substitution policies were even less tangible, except perhaps in the production of rice and subsidiary food crops. Industry, starved of imported inputs and domestic investment and often mismanaged under state control, failed either to grow or to achieve acceptable standards of product quality or to remain commercially viable. The policy focus on import substitution also meant the relative neglect of plantation agriculture, which, nevertheless, had to carry a heavy burden of taxation.

      After the late 1970s there was a shift away from the earlier policies toward ones aimed at liberalizing the economy from excessive government controls. The new policies were designed to accelerate economic growth by stimulating private investment and to increase the country's foreign earnings by promoting export-oriented economic activities.

      The liberalization policies succeeded initially. Stimulated by a substantially enhanced level of foreign aid and investment, the economy became buoyant, recording, up to about 1984, real growth rates of about 6 percent per annum. Thereafter, however, there was a marked deceleration of growth, caused mainly by the disruptive effects of the ethnic conflict on economic activity.

Resources
      In Sri Lanka the resource potential in minerals such as gemstones, graphite, ilmenite, iron ore, limestone, quartz, mica, industrial clays, and salt is large. Small but commercially extractable amounts of nonferrous metals and minerals like titanium, monazite, and zircon are contained in the beach sands of a few localities. Of fossil fuels, the only known resource is the low-grade peat found in a swampy stretch along the west coast.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
      Rice production is the most important economic activity of Sri Lanka's peasantry. Since independence there has been an impressive increase of paddy production. The factors that contributed to this were, first, the opening of 248,000 acres for paddy in the colonization schemes of the Dry Zone (including those of the Mahaweli Development Program launched in the early 1970s) and, second, the adoption of yield-increasing technology. Other important changes in peasant agriculture during postindependence times included diversification of production as well as increased commercialization of production transactions.

      In terms of product value, contribution to export earnings, and the size of the work force, plantation agriculture has continued to figure prominently in the economy of Sri Lanka; however, its long-term trend has been one of relative decline.

      Tea (tea production), the preeminent crop of the plantation sector, grows in many parts of the Wet Zone. Crops that are concentrated at higher altitudes supply some of the best-quality black teas to the world market. The main rubber-growing area is the ridge-and-valley country of the Wet Zone interior. Coconut is grown mainly in the hinterland of the western seaboard.

      Plantations represent a segment of the economy that has failed to make significant advances since the time of independence. This is largely attributable to the persistently low rates of investment in this sector. Sri Lanka's land reforms of 1972–75, through which the government acquired the ownership of about 60 percent of the total tea acreage and 30 percent of the rubber acreage, also contributed to the decline in productivity and commercial viability of the plantation sector.

      Forestry and fishing are relatively insignificant components of the economy. Forests had been cleared for settlement and agriculture at an estimated rate of 104,000 acres annually between 1956 and 1981. Extraction of timber and fuelwood from forests is constrained by environmental conservation. In fisheries, the resource potential is abundant, particularly on the north and northwest coasts. Constraints on development are largely technological. Fishing, however, is an important occupation for the people living along the coastal fringe.

Industry
      Sri Lanka's mineral-extraction industries include mining of gemstones and graphite; excavation of beach sands containing ilmenite and monazite; and quarrying kaolin, apatite, quartz sand, clay, and salt. Among them, gem mining is the most important, producing high-value gemstones such as sapphire, ruby, and topaz, in addition to a variety of semiprecious stones, most of which reach foreign markets. Graphite, ilmenite, and monazite, exported in semiprocessed form, contribute on a small scale to Sri Lanka's foreign earnings. The other minerals are used locally as raw materials in the manufacturing and construction industries.

      Until the late 1970s, manufacturing in Sri Lanka was dominated by several large-scale enterprises developed within the state sector to produce goods such as cement, fabricated steel, ceramics, fuel and lubricant oils, paper, leather, tires, textiles, sugar, and liquor. Only a few factory-based industries, most of them producing light consumer goods, were in private hands.

      The liberalization policies adopted in 1977 brought significant changes. Some state-owned industrial enterprises were privatized. Fiscal and other concessions were offered to prospective private investors, particularly to attract foreign investments. These included a package of incentives provided at several investment promotion zones. The low wage rates prevalent in the country were an added attraction to the industrial ventures that responded to these incentives. By the early 1990s new industries employed a work force of more than 70,000 and had nearly equaled tea in gross export earnings. Many of them, however, depend on imported inputs and involve considerable repatriation of profits. Hence, they generate relatively low net returns to the economy.

      Among the industries that flourished under the liberalization policies was tourism, which, however, remains highly sensitive to political instability. The expansion of tourism, along with the massive irrigation and housing projects undertaken since 1978, have contributed substantially to the growth of the construction industry.

      The rivers that cascade down the Central Highlands offer prospects for hydropower development. Some of it is being harnessed at large power stations, including those established under the Mahaweli Development Program. Hydropower provides nearly three-fourths of the country's electricity supply. Imported crude oil is being converted to gasoline and other petroleum products at the state-owned refinery. Some of these products are reexported. Fuelwood continues to be the major source of energy in rural areas.

Finance
      Banking and the issue of currency are controlled by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Until the late 1970s, commercial banking was the near-exclusive monopoly of two state-run banks, the Bank of Ceylon and the People's Bank. The postliberalization period allowed the establishment of several private commercial banks and an overall expansion in banking, particularly with the government's decision in 1979 to allow foreign banks to open branches in Sri Lanka. These same trends were replicated in other spheres of commerce such as insurance and wholesale trade in imported goods. The increased participation of the private sector in industry and commerce has led to the emergence of a small but vibrant stock market in Colombo.

Trade
      Changes in agriculture and industry have brought about a decline in the relative importance of plantation products among the exports and of food commodities among the imports. This, however, has not reduced the adverse balance in foreign trade from which the economy continues to suffer. Most of the trade deficit results from transactions with the industrialized countries of East Asia from which the bulk of imported manufactured goods originate. Usually, small surpluses are generated in the transactions with other major trading partners—France, Germany, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

Transportation
      Road and rail transport accounts for an overwhelmingly large share of the movement of people and commodities within Sri Lanka. In rail transport the government holds a monopoly. Passenger transport by road is shared by the government and the private sector. The private automobile remains a luxury that only the affluent can afford. The bicycle and the bullock cart are important modes of conveyance, especially in rual areas.

      Air Lanka, the national airline, operates regularly between its base at Colombo and several major cities in Asia and Europe. Other airlines that frequent Colombo include the national carriers of Singapore, Thailand, India, The Netherlands, and Britain. The seaport of Colombo handles the bulk of Sri Lanka's shipping, including some transshipments of the Indian ports. International cargo is also handled by the ports at Trincomalee and Galle.

Administration and social conditions

Government
      A representative, democratic system of government has existed in Sri Lanka since the termination of British rule in 1948. Elections are regularly held, and citizens over 18 years of age may vote. Fairly contested elections have resulted in several orderly changes of government since independence.

      As provided for by the constitution of 1978, the government is headed by an executive president elected directly by popular vote from a national electorate. The president selects a cabinet of ministers and other noncabinet ministers from the parliament. The president is also the commander in chief of the armed forces—army, navy, and air force.

      The national parliament consists of more than 200 members. The system of proportional representation that operates at these elections ensures that the number of parliamentary seats secured by each party is roughly proportional to the number of votes received by the party at the polls.

      Among the political parties in Sri Lanka, the conservative United National Party and the more liberal Sri Lanka Freedom Party have dominated the political arena since independence. Successive governments have been led by one or the other of these two parties, which, at times, formed coalitions with the smaller parties.

      Sri Lanka's constitution provides for certain functions of government to be devolved to provincial councils (palāth sabhā). In addition, the country has a system of local government comprising municipal councils and urban councils.

      The independence of Sri Lanka's judiciary is protected by the constitution. The Supreme Court is the highest appellate court and the final arbiter in constitutional disputes. The Court of Appeal, High Court, district courts, magistrate's courts, and primary courts occupy, successively, the lower levels of the hierarchy. The common law of Sri Lanka is based largely on Roman-Dutch law. Principles drawn from indigenous legal traditions are applied to aspects of civil law concerning certain communities.

Education
      The government controls the educational system and offers free education from primary schools through university levels and in certain professional and technical fields. The country has a relatively well-developed system of primary and secondary education with high rates of student enrollment in most parts of the country. More than 85 percent of the population is literate, giving Sir Lanka one of the highest literacy rates among developing countries. Tertiary education (including universities), however, caters to only the small proportion that completed secondary education. Formal higher education in the country has a strong academic bias, making the large majority of university graduates suitable for only a limited number of white-collar jobs; this has caused widespread frustration, especially among the educated unemployed youth. Major universities include the University of Ruhuna (1978); the University of Jaffna (1974); and the University of Kelaniya and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, both of which were centres of Buddhist learning until they were elevated to university status in 1959.

Health and welfare
      In Sri Lanka, government-sponsored health services are free and are delivered through an extensive network of hospitals and dispensaries. Several special campaigns in preventive health care, and a program of family planning—all based on Western medical technology—have significantly improved health conditions in Sri Lanka. These services coexist with a smaller private sector in Western medicine. Several indigenous traditions of curative health care, some of which receive government sponsorship, remain largely in the private sector but play an important role in Sri Lankan medical practices. Practitioners of traditional medicine (ayurveda) outnumber Western-trained physicians. Major health problems include malnutrition and various gastrointestinal infectious diseases.

Cultural life
      Sri Lanka is a land of great cultural diversity. Religion pervades many aspects of life and constitutes a basic element of this diversity. Buddhist and Hindu temples, as well as mosques and churches, with their own colourful rituals, are the most readily visible features of the cultural landscape. Varying degrees of colonial impact, modernizing influences, and wealth and income add other shades to the cultural mosaic.

The arts
      In architecture, sculpture, and painting, Sri Lanka's traditions extend far back into antiquity. The remnants of ancient works restored and preserved at archaeological sites, while reflecting Indian influences, also bear testimony to the inspiration derived from Buddhism. Classical literature, too, presents a blend of stylistic influences from India with Buddhist themes. Since the beginning of the 20th century, with the literati being exposed to European literature, local creative writing has acquired greater diversity in style and has become more secular in content.

      In the performing arts there are several Sinhalese and Tamil folk traditions and a host of recent imports and imitations. Among the folk dance forms, for example, one finds the highly refined Kandyan dancing, which has been associated over several centuries with state ceremony and religious ritual in and around the historic hill capital of Kandy. The more improvised “devil dancing” is performed at healing rites and exorcisms. In drama, modernized versions of folk theatre share the limelight with modern original works and adaptations from Western dramatists. Both Indian and Western influences are strongly apparent in the popular forms of music.

Cultural institutions
      Government assistance to the arts is channeled through several institutions under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Art, music, and dancing are included in the school curriculum. Advanced training in these and several other fields of fine arts is provided at the Government College of Fine Arts, the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, and several private institutions. The Department of National Archives and the National Museum, both in Colombo, are the main repositories of historical documents and archaeological treasures of the country.

Recreation
 Many internationally recognized sports have found participants in Sri Lanka. The most popular among them are volleyball, cricket, football (soccer), bicycle racing, and various water sports.

      The sites of ancient cities and other religiocultural centres such as Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Kataragama, and Adam's Peak attract thousands of tourists and pilgrims.

Press and broadcasting
      Print and broadcast media reach all parts of the country in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. The government controls radio and television broadcasting and several widely circulated daily newspapers. Several private daily and weekly newspapers operate independently of the government and exercise considerable freedom of expression. However, the government is empowered to impose censorship under the Public Security Act.

Gerald Hubert Peiris

History
 Sri Lanka has had a continuous record of human settlement for more than two millennia, and its civilization has been shaped largely by that of the Indian subcontinent. The island's two major ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils (Tamil), and its two dominant religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, made their way to the island from India, and Indian influence pervaded such diverse fields as art, architecture, literature, music, medicine, and astronomy.

      Despite its obvious affinities with India, Sri Lanka nevertheless developed a unique identity over the ages that ultimately set it apart from its neighbour. Cultural traits brought from India necessarily underwent independent growth and change in Sri Lanka, owing in part to the island's physical separation from the subcontinent. Buddhism, for instance, virtually disappeared from India, but it continued to flourish in Sri Lanka, particularly among the Sinhalese. Moreover, the Sinhalese language, which grew out of Indo-Aryan (Indo-Aryan languages) dialects from the mainland, eventually became indigenous solely to Sri Lanka and developed its own literary tradition.

      Also important to Sri Lanka's cultural development has been its position as the nexus of important maritime trade (international trade) routes between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Long before the European discovery of an oceanic route to India in the 15th century, Sri Lanka was known to Greek, Roman, Persian, Armenian, Arab, Malay, and Chinese sailors. With the coming of the Europeans, however, the strategic importance of Sri Lanka increased, and Western maritime powers fought to control its shores. Both Sri Lanka and India came under European influence and colonial rule. This common experience worked to tighten the long-standing links between the two countries, and, with the attainment of independence in the mid-20th century, Sri Lankan and Indian social institutions and ideologies began to resonate more closely with each other.

Prehistoric record
      Geologically, Sri Lanka is an extension of peninsular India that separated from the mainland perhaps as recently as the Miocene Epoch (roughly 25 to 5 million years ago). Archaeological excavations undertaken since the late 20th century have indicated that the island already supported human inhabitants some 75,000 to 125,000 years ago. The earliest occupants of the region were, like other Paleolithic (Paleolithic Period) peoples, hunters and gatherers who made and used fairly rough stone tools. Finer tools made of quartz and occasionally of chert become visible in the archaeological record about 28,000 years ago. The artifacts from this era, which include many microliths (very small, sharp flakes of stone that can be used individually or hafted together to make a serrated edge), have been found throughout the country, especially among the grasslands of the hills and the sandy tracts of the coast. By about the 9th century BCE, people had begun to experiment with food production and irrigation and had gained access to some of the iron tools produced on the continent.

Early settlement and the spread of Buddhism
      The earliest human settlers in Sri Lanka were likely peoples of the proto-Australoid group, perhaps akin to the indigenous hill peoples of southern India. Links with peoples from the Southeast Asian archipelago also are possible, however. Remnants of these early inhabitants were absorbed by the Indo-Aryans—or, more precisely, speakers of Indo-Aryan languages—who immigrated from northern India about the 5th century BCE and developed into the Sinhalese. The Tamils (Tamil) were probably later immigrants from areas of central, eastern, and southern India where Dravidian (Dravidian languages) languages were spoken; their early migrations spanned a period from about the 3rd century BCE to about 1200 CE.

      Sri Lanka possesses a historical tradition preserved in written form by Buddhist chroniclers. The earliest of the extant chronicles is the Dipavamsa (Dīpavaṃsa) (“Island's Chronicle”), compiled probably by Buddhist nuns in the 4th century CE. The Dipavamsa was followed by the Mahavamsa (Mahāvaṃsa) (“Great Chronicle”) and its continuation, called the Culavamsa (Cūlavaṃsa) (“Little Chronicle”). Together, these chronicles constitute a literary record of the establishment and growth of Sinhalese political power and of Sri Lankan Buddhism; however, the documents must be used with caution and always in conjunction with archaeological—especially epigraphic—material.

Legendary origins
      According to the Sinhalese tradition, as recorded in the Mahavamsa, the first Indian settlers on Sri Lanka were Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers, who landed on the west coast near Puttalam (5th century BCE). They had been banished for misconduct from the kingdom of Sinhapura in northern India by Vijaya's father, King Sinhabahu, who put them all in a ship and drove them away. When Vijaya's band landed on the island, it was inhabited by yakshas (a type of spirit; perhaps referring here to human members of a cult of yaksha devotees), whom they defeated and chased into the interior. Vijaya married a yaksha princess and had two children by her. Later he drove her and the children away and sent to the Madurai court in India for a Pandu (probably referring to the Pandya dynasty (Pāṇḍya Dynasty)) princess and for wives for his 700 followers. Vijaya settled down to reign as king after a ceremonial enthronement and marriage and founded a dynasty. He had no heir to the throne, and toward the end of his reign he sent for his younger brother at Sinhapura. The brother, unwilling to leave his native land, sent his youngest son, Panduvasudeva, to Sri Lanka. Panduvasudeva landed with 32 followers at Gokanna (now Trincomalee) on the east coast. He was enthroned at Upatissagama and continued the Vijaya dynasty.

Indo- Aryan settlement
      The account of Sri Lanka's settlement as presented in the Mahavamsa contains an element of historical fact—the settlers were Indo-Aryan peoples from northern India. However, controversy exists as to the exact provenance of the early settlers; the legends contain evidence pointing to both the northeastern and the northwestern parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Vijaya's ancestors hailed from Bengal, in the northeast, but his father established himself subsequently in Gujarat (Gujarāt), the area in northwest India from which the adventurers were put out to sea. Before arriving in Sri Lanka, their ship called at Supara, on the west coast of India. Their landing in Sri Lanka, at Tambapanni, near Puttalam, would indicate their arrival from western India. Some early tribal names occurring in Sri Lanka also suggest connections with northwestern India and the Indus River region.

      While considerable evidence points to western India as the home of the first immigrants, it seems probable that a subsequent wave arrived from the vicinity of Bengal and Orissa in the northeast. One band of settlers landed in Sri Lanka at the east-coast port of Gokanna, a natural port of disembarkation for vessels arriving from the Bay of Bengal (Bengal, Bay of). The traditional accounts of the arrival of Panduvasudeva may portray a second wave of migration following the first mentioned in the Vijaya legend. Linguistic affinities between the early Sinhalese- and Prakrit (Prākrit languages)-speaking peoples of eastern India strengthen the hypothesis of a migration from this area.

      The tradition speaks primarily of settlement by conquest, and tribes of conquerors led by a warrior nobility would certainly have propelled the Indo-Aryan migration southward. Also important, however, was the pursuit of trade (as opposed to military conquest). Indo-Aryan merchants probably reached Sri Lanka while sailing down the Indian coast, and some of these merchants, motivated by a lucrative trade in Sri Lanka's natural products, may have founded settlements.

      The view that Indo-Aryan migrants laid the foundations of Sinhalese civilization increasingly has come into question since the late 20th century. Archaeological evidence has indicated that settled agriculture, tank irrigation, use of iron, and pottery were features present before the Indo-Aryan migrations. During the early phases of these migrations, a synthesis seems to have taken place between Indo-Aryan, pre-Indo-Aryan, and possibly Dravidian elements to create the early Sinhalese culture of the Anuradhapura (Anurādhapura) period, which spanned the 3rd century BCE to the 10th century CE. The chronicled account of Vijaya's confrontation with the yakshas and the search for consorts in the Pandu kingdom of Madurai (if this may be presumed to be the Pandya (Pāṇḍya Dynasty) Tamil kingdom of southern India) point to such integration.

      In any case, Indo-Aryan settlements grew in different parts of the island from about the 5th century BCE. The settlers came in numerous clans or tribes; the most powerful were the Sinhalese, who eventually gave their name to the descendants of the various groups. The earliest settlers were those on the west-central coast, who pushed inland along the Malwatu River and founded a number of riverbank villages. Their seat of government was Upatissagama.

      Tradition attributes the founding of the kingdom of Anuradhapura (Anurādhapura) to Pandukkabhaya, the third king of the Vijaya dynasty. With its growth as the strongest Sinhalese kingdom, the city of Anuradhapura and the nearby settlements flourished. Kings built up the city and developed it for urban life as they extended royal control over villages and outlying settlements. With the establishment of strong government, the population grew and the kingdom expanded into the north-central region.

Conversion to Buddhism
      According to Sinhalese tradition, Buddhism was first brought to Sri Lanka by a mission sent out from eastern India during the reign of the Mauryan (Mauryan empire) emperor Ashoka (c. 273–232 BCE). The leader of the mission to Sri Lanka, Mahendra (Mahinda), is described as Ashoka's son. Mahendra and his colleagues traveled to the Mihintale hill (the site of some of the earliest inscriptions), 8 miles (13 km) from Anuradhapura. There they chanced to meet the Sinhalese king Tissa, to whom they delivered a sermon on Buddhism. The king was brought into the Buddhist fold, and he invited Mahendra and his followers to the city. The missionaries were settled in a royal pavilion in the city park of Mahamegha, where they preached first to members of the royal family and then to the common people. Many embraced the new religion, some taking holy orders and joining the Buddhist sangha (community of monks). The king donated the Mahamegha park to the sangha. Meanwhile, the monastery of Mahavihara was established, and it became the prime centre of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Mahendra sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who arrived with a branch of the Bo tree (at Bodh Gaya), under which the Buddha had attained enlightenment. The sapling was ceremonially planted in the city. Sanghamitta founded an order of nuns, and a stupa (shrine), the Thuparamacetiya, was built by the king for popular worship. Thus, with the founding of these and other institutions, Buddhism became an established religion in Sri Lanka.

      Through the conversion of King Tissa and the missionary activity of monks in the villages, by the 2nd century BCE the Sinhalese had accepted Buddhism, and this faith helped produce a unity and consciousness on which subsequent political and economic strength was founded. However, it should be recognized that while the monastic chronicles accord the pride of place to Buddhism, other religions also were practiced on the island. Jainism, for instance, probably represented another major religious tradition, and a Jain monastery is mentioned in the Mahavamsa. The chronicle also indicates the presence of Brahmans (Brāhmaṇa)—Hindus of the highest social rank—in Sri Lanka.

Early growth and political centralization, c. 200 BCE–1255 CE
      Expansion of Buddhism preceded political unification; many of the areas embraced by the new religion were still ruled by a multitude of chiefs. The ruler of Anuradhapura (Anurādhapura), Duttagamani Abhaya (reigned 161–137 BCE), was preeminent among these chiefs, and, as Buddhism spread, the Anuradhapura kingdom extended its political control over the rest of Sri Lanka.

The Anuradhapura period
 The Vijaya dynasty of kings continued, with brief interruptions, until 65 CE, when Vasabha, a member of the Lambakanna royal family, founded the Lambakanna dynasty. The Lambakannas ruled for about four centuries. Their most noteworthy king was Mahasena (reigned 276–303), who constructed many major irrigation systems and championed heterodox Buddhist sects.

 A Pandyan (Pāṇḍya Dynasty) invasion from southern India put an end to this dynasty and, briefly, to Sinhalese rule in 432. Dhatusena (reigned 459–477) defeated the Pandyas and reestablished Sinhalese rule with the line of Moriya kings. His son Kashyapa I (reigned 477–495) moved the capital from Anuradhapura to the rock fortress of Sigiriya. After Kashyapa's dethronement the capital was returned to Anuradhapura.

      From the 7th century there was an increase in the involvement of south Indian powers in the island's politics and in the presence of Tamil mercenaries in and around the capital. Manavamma, a Sinhalese royal fugitive, was placed on the throne in 684 with the support of the Pallava (Pallava Dynasty) rulers of south India.

      Manavamma founded the second Lambakanna dynasty, which reigned in Anuradhapura for about 400 years. The dynasty produced a number of distinguished kings, who consolidated and extended Sinhalese political power. During this period, Sinhalese involvement with southern India was even closer. Sinhalese kings were drawn into the dynastic battles between the Pandyas, Pallavas, and Colas (Chola dynasty). Invasions from south India to Sri Lanka and retaliatory raids were a recurrent phenomenon. In the 10th century the island's political and military power weakened because of regional particularism and internecine warfare; the Colas—hostile because of the Sinhalese alliance with Pandya—attacked and occupied the Sinhalese kingdom in 993 and annexed Rajarata (in the north-central region of Sri Lanka) as a province of the Cola empire. The conquest was completed in 1017, when the Colas seized the southern province of Ruhuna.

The Polonnaruwa period
      The Colas occupied Sri Lanka until 1070, when Vijayabahu liberated the island and reestablished Sinhalese power. He shifted the capital eastward to Polonnaruwa, a city that was easier to defend against south Indian attacks and that controlled the route to Ruhuna. The capital remained there for some 150 years. The most colourful king of the Polonnaruwa period was Parakramabahu I (Parākramabāhu I) (reigned 1153–86), under whom the kingdom enjoyed its greatest prosperity. He followed a strong foreign policy, dispatching a punitive naval expedition to Myanmar (Burma) and sending the army to invade the Pandyan kingdom; however, these initiatives achieved no permanent success. After Parakramabahu I the throne passed to the Kalinga dynasty, and the influence of south India increased. Nissankamalla (reigned c. 1186–96) was the last effective ruler of this period. The last Polonnaruwa king was Magha (reigned 1215–36), an adventurer from south India who seized power and ruled with severity.

Government and society
 Kingship (king) was the unifying political institution in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods, a symbol of the aims and achievements of the Sinhalese people. The kingship was essentially Brahmanic (hereditary within the priestly social class), with strong Buddhist influences; all the kings were practicing Buddhists and patrons of Buddhist institutions. The support and blessing of the clergy, moreover, were perceived as essential to a peaceful and continuous reign. This connection between kingship and Buddhism enabled Buddhism to flourish. Kings built, maintained, and endowed many shrines and monasteries, and they intervened to establish order and prevent schism within the Buddhist community. Nobles and commoners too were lavish in their support, and thus Buddhist institutions prospered. Many beautiful temples were built with finely carved sculpture, and monasteries thrived as centres of learning in the Pali (Pāli language) and Sinhalese (Sinhalese language) languages and in Buddhist philosophy.

      The king was supported by an inner administrative hierarchy consisting of members of his family and influential nobles. The yuvaraja, the king's chosen heir to the throne, was given responsible office. The army was the major prop of royal absolutism, and the senapati, or commander in chief, was the king's closest counselor and confidant.

      Sinhalese society was segmented into social classes—castes (caste)—each of which performed a particular occupation. (The caste system in Sri Lanka, however, was not as rigid as its counterpart in India.) The Govi, or cultivators, made up the highest caste in Sri Lanka, but many other castes also engaged in farming. Administrative officials were drawn from the Govi caste, which was stratified into chiefs, titled men, and peasants. Chiefs were important supporters of royal absolutism and helped administer the government. Nonagricultural people, the Hina, were considered of lower rank and were divided into occupational groups. These caste groups were endogamous; each lived in its own section, along particular streets. Castes were stratified in terms of status, with the lowest on the scale—the candala (caṇḍāla)—performing the most menial of jobs.

The advent and impact of irrigation (irrigation and drainage)
      The Sinhalese civilization was hydraulic, based on the storage and use of water for the regular cultivation of wet fields (agriculture, origins of). The early Indo-Aryan settlers cultivated rice and settled along river valleys and other suitable lands. They began with simple schemes for damming rivers and storing water below them. Small systems for storing water in reservoirs by tapping seasonal streams later became a feature of nearly every village; these waterworks probably were managed communally by the landowners of the village. With the increase in royal power, the attraction of greater revenue through greater production made kings play an active role in the construction of large-scale irrigation schemes. Beginning about the 1st century CE during the reign of King Vasabha, large perennial rivers were blocked with massive earthen dams to create colossal reservoirs. With increasingly sophisticated irrigation technology, water from these reservoirs was delivered through canals to distant fields and through underground channels to the capital city.

      Further technological progress was achieved in the 3rd century during the reign of King Mahasena; a number of storage tanks and canals are attributed to him, the most outstanding of which is the Minneriya tank and its feeder canals. The construction and maintenance of monumental irrigation works became a regular preoccupation of kings. Reservoirs and canals studded the northern and north-central plains, tapping every source of water. Among the most noteworthy was the magnificent Parakrama Samudra in Polonnaruwa, the crowning glory of Parakramabahu I's reign, with a storage area of more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) for the irrigation of 18,000 acres (7,300 hectares).

      Operation of the large works demanded a great deal of coordination and central control; mobilization of labour and technical skill was required at the construction stage, and bureaucratic machinery was essential to keeping the system in repair. Among the primary functions of the central administration was the enforcement of regulations to coordinate cultivation of irrigated plots, to control the flow of water, and to collect water dues from the irrigation operators. Such effective and efficient water management led to increased productivity, which ultimately increased the power of the king.

      Many medium and small irrigation works were, however, initiated and managed by regional and village authorities, who became important props of royal authority. When rights to revenue were devolved to these local notables, a feudal system began to emerge, with feudal relations proliferating especially rapidly after 1200.

      A grain tax, the water dues, and trade in surplus grain were major sources of the king's revenue. They sustained strong political and military power for more than a millennium and enabled the dispatch of expeditions abroad. Increased revenue also made possible widespread religious construction, which, along with remarkable accomplishments in the plastic arts and irrigation, was a hallmark of the reign of Parakramabahu I (Parākramabāhu I).

The fall of Polonnaruwa
      When Parakramabahu I died in 1186, the throne passed to the non-Sinhalese Kalinga dynasty—to Nissankamalla, brother of Parakramabahu I's Kalinga queen. Following the death of Nissankamalla in 1196, the Polonnaruwa kingdom was weakened by a succession of ineffective rulers. Non-Sinhalese factions such as the Kalingas and Pandyas of India gained power in Sri Lanka as a result of dynastic marriages with south Indian royalty; conflict between these factions was common. South Indian notables occupied positions of influence under Kalinga kings, and their power was buttressed by mercenaries of various origins. In 1214 Magha of the Kalingas invaded Sri Lanka with the help of thousands of such mercenaries, and he took control of the whole island. Magha's rule, a veritable reign of terror, lasted until 1255 and was marked by bold disregard of traditional authority and of established religion. Polonnaruwa itself fell into the hands of non-Sinhalese elements, each vying with the others for power and office.

Drift to the southwest (1255–1505)
Political changes
      With central control from Polonnaruwa further weakened after the death of Magha and ruling kings of foreign descent being unable to exercise political control over outlying provinces, members of the traditional ruling class gravitated to centres of Sinhalese power located away from the reach of Polonnaruwa. Such centres generally lay to the southwest, in strategic, relatively inaccessible areas that were defensible from attack. Dakkhinadesa, a region to the west of the central mountains, was one such area. The first site chosen to reestablish the Sinhalese kingdom, however, was Dambadeniya (Dambadeṇiya Dynasty), about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Polonnaruwa; Vijayabahu III (reigned 1232–36) and his three successors (all part of the Dambadeniya dynasty (Dambadeṇiya Dynasty)) ruled from there. They made occasional successful raids into Rajarata to attack the Kalinga and Tamil rulers but did not attempt to reoccupy Polonnaruwa. Under Parakramabahu II (reigned 1236–70) the Dambadeniya kingdom achieved great power; it was able to expel the Kalingas from the island with Pandyan (Pāṇḍya Dynasty) help and to repel an invasion by Malays (Malay) from Southeast Asia.

      Bhuvanaika Bahu I (reigned 1272–84) moved the capital northward to Yapahuwa, an isolated rock, which he strengthened with ramparts and trenches. His successors moved the capital southward again to Kurunegala and then to Gampola toward the Central Highlands about 1344. Meanwhile, the Alagakonara, a powerful Sinhalese family, attained a strong position at Rayigama, near the west coast; the Muslim traveler Ibn Baṭṭūṭah, who visited Sri Lanka in 1344, referred to one of the Alagakonaras as a sultan named Alkonar. In 1412 the capital was taken by Parakramabahu VI (reigned 1412–67) to Kotte, a few miles from present-day Colombo; for a brief period under this king, the Kotte kingdom expanded and acquired sovereignty over the island.

      The effective control of the Sinhalese kings from roughly 1200 to 1505 generally did not extend far beyond their capital cities, though extravagant claims were often made to the contrary. Taking advantage of the collapse of the Polonnaruwa kingdom after Magha's fall and of the drift of Sinhalese political authority to the southwest, a south Indian dynasty called the Arya Chakaravartis seized power in the north. By the beginning of the 14th century, it had founded a Tamil kingdom, its capital at Nallur in the Jaffna Peninsula. The kingdom of Jaffna soon expanded southward, initiating a tradition of conflict with the Sinhalese, though Rajarata—by then a largely depopulated country—existed as a buffer between them.

      A politically divided and weakened island was an enticement to foreign invasions in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The second Pandyan empire was constantly interfering in the affairs of Sri Lanka; its forces often supported rival claimants to power and took back considerable sums in payment and booty—including on one occasion the Tooth Relic, venerated as a tooth of the Buddha and a sacred symbol of Sinhalese sovereignty. The Malay ruler Chandrabhanu invaded the island in 1247 and 1258, for reasons not altogether clear. Forces of the Vijayanagar empire in south India invaded Sri Lanka on a few occasions in the 15th century, and for a brief period the Jaffna kingdom became its tributary. Zheng He, the great admiral of the third Ming (Ming dynasty) emperor of China, led a series of expeditions into the Indian Ocean. On his first expedition (1405–07) Zheng landed in Sri Lanka but withdrew hastily; he returned in 1411, defeated the ruler Vira Alakeshvara, and took him and his minister captive to China.

Social and economic changes
      The drift of Sinhalese political power to the southwest following the collapse of Polonnaruwa in the mid-13th century had drastic social and economic consequences. Population gradually shifted in the direction to which the capital was shifting; this led to neglect of the interconnected systems of water storage. The once-flourishing Rajarata became a devastated ruin of depopulated villages, overgrown jungle, and dried-up tank beds as the centres of Sinhalese population arose in the monsoon-watered lands of the south, the southwest, and the Central Highlands. Consequent changes in agricultural techniques, land use, ownership patterns, and ways of life followed swiftly.

Collapse of the Dry Zone civilization
      A combination of factors brought about the demise of the hydraulic civilization that had once flourished in Sri Lanka's Dry Zone—primarily in the northern and eastern parts of the island. Most notable of these factors were the depletion of the treasury and the failure of the irrigation (irrigation and drainage) system. Under Parakramabahu I the pursuit of an active foreign policy and the many wars it involved were serious burdens on the treasury; indeed, the maintenance of a strong standing army and navy was a great expense for all the Polonnaruwa kings. The construction and upkeep of the magnificent Buddhist monuments of the Polonnaruwa period also likely strained Sri Lanka's economy.

      The most visible sign of the collapse of the hydraulic civilization was the breakdown of its elaborate system of irrigation, on which agricultural productivity depended. The operation of the system was disrupted when the traditional Sinhalese aristocracy was eased out of authority. In place of the aristocracy, mercenary military officers were dispersed throughout the country to uphold law and order and to assume administrative functions. Meanwhile, the Sinhalese noble families withdrew from Rajarata to the courts of Sinhalese leaders who had set themselves up in other parts of the country. Thus, the managerial network that had maintained the agricultural and irrigation systems disappeared, and operations broke down. The new military administrators had neither the capacity nor the interest to maintain the irrigation system. Many of the larger reservoirs were breached, and smaller tanks that were fed by excess waters from them also lost their supply. (Some of the destruction was deliberate, caused by rival armies to flood a part of the country.) The amount of water stored for cultivation was reduced, which in turn reduced the area of cultivable land. Agriculture became dependent on the uncertain rains, and the people waged a losing battle against the advancing forest. The country could not maintain its previous population density. Consequently, people started following their leaders toward areas with greater rainfall.

New cultivation techniques
      Population centres formed in the hospitable areas of the south, the southwest, and the Central Highlands. The marked difference in climate and topography required new techniques of cultivation. Though rice cultivation continued as an important activity, paddies had to be terraced, and the flow of water had to be regulated to suit the undulating land. These changes in agricultural (agriculture, origins of) methods demanded a different irrigation system that could not attempt to rival the scale of the Dry Zone schemes. Other grains amenable to the highland climate were grown as a supplement to rice, and garden cultivation—helped by excessive rains—became significant. Coconut, easily grown in the wetlands of the coast and the highlands, became an important food. Because of the abundance of land, shifting agriculture was practiced along the slopes of the hills. Farming was generally of a subsistence character.

Foreign trade
      With the decline in agricultural productivity, trade became an important source of state revenue, and spices were the most important exports. cinnamon, indigenous to the southwestern forests, became an export commodity in the 14th century, while pepper and other spices increased in export value. Trade in these items was monopolized by the royalty; kings entered into contracts with foreign merchants, fixed prices, and received the revenue. The people of the land were not involved in any aspect of this trade, nor did they benefit directly from it. Colombo and Galle became prominent ports of external trade; smaller ports in the southwest became centres of coastal and Indian trade. Almost all the traders were foreigners who settled in colonies in and around these ports.

      The major international traders were the Arabs (Arab), who had been attracted by the luxury products of Sri Lanka since about the 10th century. Arabs were interested in cinnamon and spices, which began to fetch good prices in Western markets. In 1283 the Sinhalese king Bhuvanaika Bahu I sent an embassy to the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt to seek a commercial agreement.

Land control
      Some significant changes took place in land relations and land control during this period. The grain tax—payable directly to the state in cash or in kind—that had been central to the land revenue system in the northern regions diminished in importance as the Sinhalese relocated southward. In part this was attributable to a breakdown in the administration; kings could no longer maintain a specialized machinery for the assessment and collection of the grain tax and other land taxes. The tax system therefore was replaced by a system of service tenure, under which a large proportion of the land was held on the basis of an obligation of service to the state. This service could be used by the state to various ends, including the cultivation of royal lands, the payment of officials (through assignment of service), and the maintenance of public utilities. Taxpaying lands and service lands were gradually merged. Each plot had a fixed service attached to it, and anyone who enjoyed that land had to perform a particular service. These services were extensively assigned to village and regional notables in order to attract their support. The commutation of tax for service also meant a decrease in the circulation of money; copper coins replaced those of gold and silver.

Cities (city)
      Capitals were now selected (and constructed) for their military defensibility; they were relatively small, located in difficult terrain, and somewhat isolated from populated areas. Communications between settlements were difficult, and excessive mobility was discouraged for military reasons. Moreover, the subsistence character of farming curtailed internal trade. Consequently, cities were not centres of economic life as in the past; they no longer attracted large groups of artisans, merchants, servants, and others dependent on the ruling groups. Rather, they were primarily of military importance.

Religious and ethnolinguistic changes
      The Buddhist (Buddhism) monasteries and temples had been beneficiaries of the hydraulic system of the Dry Zone. Lands, taxes, and water dues were assigned to temples. In addition, the temples had accumulated assets by making their own investments in land and by excavating their own tanks. With the changes in irrigation and agricultural practices, however, these sources of revenue declined. Kings continued their patronage of Buddhism, but their wealth and power diminished. Nobles and commoners were not rich enough to make substantial benefactions. The great monasteries of Anuradhapura (Anurādhapura) and Polonnaruwa were disbanded. New institutions arose in and around the capitals of Dambadeniya, Kurunegala, Gampola, Rayigama, and Kotte, but they were not of the size or stature of their predecessors in the Dry Zone. The absence of strong political authority also affected the unity and coherence of the monastic organization itself. In this period there was a greater incidence of indiscipline and schism than before, and kings were called upon frequently to purge the sangha (monkhood) of undesirable elements.

      The influence of Hinduism on Buddhist institutions, theology, and ways of life was more marked during this period as well. The ruling classes mixed extensively with Tamil royal and noble families, and there was an influx of Brahmans (Brahman) from south India to all parts of the country. Vedic (Vedic religion) (pertaining to the religion that predated Hinduism in the Indian subcontinent) and post-Vedic gods now assumed importance and were worshipped by kings and commoners in elaborate festivals. For instance, the worship of entities called devas (deva) became a prominent feature of popular Buddhism.

      One of the consequences of the drift of the Sinhalese kingdoms to the southwest and the establishment of the Tamil kingdom in the Jaffna Peninsula to the north was the division of the island into two ethnolinguistic areas. Before this division occurred, Tamil settlements were interspersed among the Sinhalese throughout the island. Then the northern and eastern areas became predominantly Tamil; their numbers were strengthened by fresh migrations from south India after the collapse of the Pandyan (Pāṇḍya Dynasty) kingdom in the 14th century.

       Jaffna, as the capital of the Tamil kingdom, became the seat of Tamil Hindu culture, with a social organization somewhat akin to that of the Tamil districts of south India. The caste of landowning cultivators—the Vellala—formed the pivot of the social structure, and its members held both political and economic power. A number of lesser castes stood in varying degrees of service relationship to the Vellala. Hindu institutions were supported by the kings and the people and were strengthened by the influx of Brahmans (Brahman). Brahmanic temples sprang up in many parts of Jaffna, and rituals and sessions of public worship were held regularly. The Tamil language established deep roots in the island and became one of Sri Lanka's indigenous languages. Tamil literature was fostered by the support of the Jaffna kings and was enriched by constant contact with south India, yet it developed an individuality in idiom and speech and acquired some linguistic characteristics that distinguished it from its south Indian parent.

The Portuguese in Sri Lanka (1505–1658)
The expansion of Portuguese control
      By about 1500 trade in the Indian Ocean was dominated by Arab, Indian, Malay, and Chinese merchants, who together used various seafaring craft to transport a spectrum of cargo, from spices to elephants. In the early 16th century a new force, in the form of Portuguese ships with mounted guns, arrived in the ocean. These vessels, with their firepower and capacity for high speeds, helped implement a policy of control that began to undermine the region's long-standing, relatively open trade competition.

      In 1505 a Portuguese fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida (Almeida, Lourenço de) was blown into Colombo by adverse winds. Almeida received a friendly audience from the king of Kotte, Vira Parakrama Bahu, and was favourably impressed with the commercial and strategic value of the island. The Portuguese soon returned and established a regular and formal contact with Kotte. In 1518 they were permitted to build a fort at Colombo and were given trading concessions.

      In 1521 three sons of Vijayabahu, the reigning king of Kotte, put their father to death and partitioned the kingdom among themselves. The oldest of the brothers, Bhuvanaika Bahu, ruled at Kotte, and the two others set up independent kingdoms at Sitawake and Rayigama. Mayadunne, the king of Sitawake, was an ambitious and able ruler who sought to expand his frontiers at the expense of his brother at Kotte. Bhuvanaika Bahu could not resist the temptation of seeking Portuguese assistance, and the Portuguese were eager to help him. The more he was pressed by Mayadunne, the greater was his reliance on Portuguese reinforcement. Bhuvanaika Bahu defended his kingdom against Mayadunne, who in turn allied himself with an inveterate enemy of the Europeans, the zamorin (member of the Zamorin dynasty) of Kozhikode (also known as Calicut, in southwestern India).

      Bhuvanaika Bahu was succeeded by his grandson Prince Dharmapala, who was even more dependent on Portuguese support. An agreement between Bhuvanaika Bahu and the king of Portugal in 1543 had guaranteed the protection of the prince on the throne and the defense of the kingdom; in return the Portuguese were to be confirmed in all their privileges and were to receive a tribute of cinnamon. The prince was educated by members of the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church (Roman Catholicism); in 1556 or 1557, when his conversion to Christianity was announced, he became easily controlled by the Portuguese. Dharmapala's conversion undermined the Kotte dynasty in the eyes of the people. Mayadunne's wars of aggression were now transformed into a struggle against Portuguese influence and interests in the island, and he annexed a large part of the Kotte kingdom. After Mayadunne's death, his son Rajasinha continued these wars successfully on land, though, like his father, he had no way of combating Portuguese sea power.

      At the death of Rajasinha in 1593, the Sitawake kingdom disintegrated for want of a strong successor. The Portuguese captured much of the land of the Kotte royal lineage and emerged as a strong power on the island. In 1580 Dharmapala had been persuaded to deed his kingdom to the Portuguese, and when he died in 1597 they took formal possession of it. Meanwhile, a Portuguese expedition to Jaffna in 1560 had no lasting success. A second invasion of 1591, undertaken at the instigation of Christian missionaries, succeeded in installing a Portuguese protégé. Continued unrest and succession disputes prompted the Portuguese to undertake a third expedition, and the kingdom of Jaffna was annexed in 1619.

      The Portuguese now controlled a considerable part of the island, except the Central Highlands and eastern coast, where an able Sinhalese nobleman, Vimala Dharma Surya, had established himself and consolidated his authority. The Portuguese were eager to establish hegemony over the entire island, and their attempts to do so led to protracted warfare. The Portuguese expanded to the lower reaches of the Central Highlands and annexed the east coast ports of Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

      Although Portuguese possessions in Sri Lanka became a part of the Portuguese Estado da India (State of India), the administrative structure of the Kotte kingdom was retained. The island was divided into four dissavanis, or provinces, each headed by a dissava. Other territorial subdivisions also were retained. Portuguese held the highest offices, though local officials came from the Sinhalese nobility loyal to the Portuguese.

      The Sinhalese system of service tenure was maintained, and it was used extensively to secure the essential produce of the land, such as cinnamon and elephants. The caste system remained intact, and all obligations that had been due to the sovereign now accrued to the Portuguese state. The payment in land to officials also was continued and was extended to Portuguese officials as well.

      The Portuguese generally lacked a proper understanding of traditional Sinhalese social and economic structure, and excessive demands put upon it led to hardship and popular hostility. cinnamon and elephants became articles of Portuguese monopoly; they provided good profits, as did the trade in pepper and betel nuts (areca nuts). Portuguese officials compiled a tombo, or land register, to provide a detailed statement of landholding, crops grown, tax obligations, and nature of ownership.

      The period of Portuguese influence was marked by intense Roman Catholic missionary activity. Franciscans established centres in the country from 1543 onward. Jesuits (Jesuit) were active in the north. Toward the end of the century, Dominicans (Dominican) and Augustinians (Augustinian) arrived. With the conversion of Dharmapala, many members of the Sinhalese nobility followed suit. Dharmapala endowed missionary orders lavishly, often from the properties of Buddhist and Hindu temples. After the Portuguese secured control of Sri Lanka, they used their extensive powers of patronage and preference in appointments to promote Christianity. Members of the landed aristocracy embraced Christianity and took Portuguese surnames at baptism. Many coastal communities underwent mass conversion, particularly Jaffna, Mannar (Mannar Island), and the fishing communities north of Colombo. Catholic churches with schools attached to them served Catholic communities all over the country. The Portuguese language spread extensively, and the upper classes quickly gained proficiency in it.

Kandy and its struggle with European powers
      Rajasinha occupied Kandy, a Sinhalese kingdom in the Central Highlands, about 1580, and its ruler took refuge with the Portuguese. In 1591 the Portuguese launched an expedition to Kandy to enthrone Dom Philip, an heir of the dispossessed ruler. They were accompanied by an ambitious and distinguished Sinhalese military nobleman, Konnappu Bandara. Dom Philip was installed as king but died under suspicious circumstances, and Konnappu Bandara enthroned himself, proclaiming independence from the Portuguese and taking the regnal name of Vimala Dharma Surya. The demise of Sitawake after Rajasinha's death left Kandy the only independent Sinhalese kingdom.

      The Portuguese launched another expedition to Kandy, in 1594, under Gen. Pedro Lopes de Sousa, planning to enthrone Dona Catherina, a baptized Sinhalese noblewoman. Popular hostility soon built up toward the seemingly ever-present Portuguese troops. Vimala Dharma Surya took advantage of the agitated atmosphere and, making use of guerrilla warfare tactics, routed the Portuguese army in 1594. He captured Dona Catherina, made her his queen, and legitimized and consolidated his rule. He expanded into the old Sitawake kingdom and emerged as the leader of resistance to the Portuguese. The Portuguese made a few subsequent attempts to subjugate Kandy, but none were successful.

      Vimala Dharma Surya realized that without sea power he could not drive the Portuguese out of Sri Lanka. He saw the arrival of the Dutch as an excellent opportunity to gain naval support against his adversaries. The first Dutch envoy, Joris van Spilbergen, met the king in July 1602 and made lavish promises of military assistance. A few months later another Dutch official, Sebald de Weert, arrived with a concrete offer of help and, in view of favourable terms offered by the king, decided to launch a joint attack on the Portuguese. However, a misunderstanding between the king and de Weert caused an altercation between the Kandyans and the Dutch, and de Weert and his men were killed.

      King Senarat succeeded to the Kandyan throne in 1604 and continued to solicit Dutch support. In 1612 a Dutch envoy, Marcelis Boschouwer, concluded a treaty with Senarat. The king granted the Dutch extensive commercial concessions and a harbour for settlement on the east coast in return for a promise of armed assistance against Portuguese attack. The Dutch ultimately were unable to offer adequate assistance, and so Senarat turned to the Danes. By the time a Danish expedition arrived in May 1620, however, Senarat had concluded a peace agreement with the Portuguese. The truce was short-lived, and in 1630 the Kandyans, taking the offensive, invaded Portuguese territory and laid siege to Colombo and Galle. Again the absence of sea power proved a handicap, and another peace was concluded in 1634.

      In 1635 Senarat was succeeded by his son Rajasinha II. The Dutch were now firmly established in Batavia (now Jakarta) in Java and were developing their trade in southern Asia. The king sent emissaries to meet the admiral of the Dutch fleet, Adam Westerwolt, who was then blockading Goa, India. The fleet came to Sri Lanka and captured Batticaloa. Westerwolt and Rajasinha II concluded a treaty on May 23, 1638, giving the Dutch (Dutch Republic) a monopoly on most of Sri Lanka's cinnamon and a repayment in merchandise for expenses incurred in assisting the king. In May 1639 the Dutch fleet captured Trincomalee, and in February 1640 the Dutch and the Kandyans combined to take Negombo. But differences arose over the occupation of captured forts. The Dutch refused to give Trincomalee and Batticaloa to the king until their expenses were paid in full, and Rajasinha II realized that what the Dutch really wanted was to replace the Portuguese as the rulers of the coast.

      Rajasinha II nevertheless continued to work with the Dutch to expel the Portuguese. In March 1640 Galle was taken, but the progress of the allies soon was temporarily halted by a truce declared in Europe between the Dutch Republic and Spain, which at that time ruled Portugal and its overseas possessions. In 1645 the boundaries between Portuguese and Dutch territory in Sri Lanka were demarcated. Jan Thijssen was appointed the first Dutch governor.

      The Dutch peace with the Portuguese and occupation of captured territory incensed the Kandyan king and strained relations between him and the Dutch. In May 1645 war broke out between them. Though Rajasinha II could not conquer the occupied lands, he made them worthless to the Dutch by destroying crops and depopulating villages. The Dutch then realized the advantage of coming to terms with the king. In 1649 a revised treaty was signed. The Dutch agreed to hand over some of the lands but again delayed it because of the immense debt the king was held to owe them.

      The Dutch truce with the Portuguese expired in 1652, leaving the Dutch free to resume the war. Kandyans launched attacks on Portuguese positions in the interior provinces of Seven Korales, Four Korales, and Sabaragamuwa and pushed the Portuguese back to their coastal strongholds, despite fierce resistance. Rajasinha II was anxious to attack Colombo, but he was put off by the Dutch. He tried to secure guarantees from them for the return of that city after its conquest, and the Dutch made lavish promises. In August 1655 the Dutch were strengthened by the arrival of a large fleet under Gen. Gerard Hulft, and they laid siege to Colombo by sea and by land. In May 1656 the Portuguese surrendered the city to the Dutch, who shut the Kandyans out of its gates. Requests for the cession of Colombo met with evasive replies. Highly incensed, Rajasinha II destroyed the lands around Colombo, removed its inhabitants, and withdrew to his mountain kingdom.

      After a brief respite the Dutch resumed the expulsion of the Portuguese from Sri Lanka. Adm. Ryckloff van Goens arrived with a fleet to continue the attack on Portuguese strongholds in northern Sri Lanka. The Dutch took Mannar in February 1658 and Jaffna in June. They had replaced the Portuguese as masters of coastal Sri Lanka.

Dutch rule in Sri Lanka (1658–1796)
      Dutch rule in Sri Lanka was implemented though the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-indische Compagnie; commonly called VOC), a trading company established in 1602 primarily to protect Dutch trade interests in the Indian Ocean. Although the VOC first controlled only the coastal lands, the Dutch gradually pushed inland, occupying considerable territory in southern, southwestern, and western Sri Lanka. In 1665 they expanded to the east coast and thus controlled most of the cinnamon-growing lands and the points of exit and entry on the island.

      The Dutch governor, residing in Colombo, was the chief executive; he was assisted by a council of the highest officials. The country was divided into three administrative divisions (named after their principal cities): Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna. Colombo was ruled by the governor, Galle and Jaffna by commanders. The three divisions were subdivided into dissavanis (provinces) and, further, into korales (districts) in the traditional manner. The ruler of each dissavani was invariably a Dutch officer; subordinate offices were held by Sinhalese or Tamils loyal to the Dutch.

      The period of Dutch rule was of great significance to Sri Lanka's economic development. It was during this time that decisive steps were taken toward the incorporation of the island into the emerging world economy. Rain-fed commercial crops such as cinnamon and betel had become important items in the export trade, as had high-value gemstones from mines in the Central Highlands and pearls from fisheries on the northwestern coast. Because the processing of cinnamon demanded a moderately skilled labour force, many workers were recruited from the neighbouring subcontinent. Miners were drawn from the local population, but a good number of divers came from south India to participate in pearl-collecting operations. Exports also included other spices, lacquer, coconut oil, ropes of coconut fibres, and such sea products as cowrie and conch shells. Elephants were among the most important items of trade during this period; there was consistently a high demand, especially in Golconda in south India and Bengal in the northeast, where elephants were valued as war vehicles.

      The link between trade and agriculture, which strengthened considerably during this period, was evident especially in the increased production of two new cash crops, tobacco and coffee—the cultivation of which was encouraged by the VOC. Tobacco, which thrived in the Jaffna Peninsula, found good markets in the kingdom of Travancore in south India as well as in Southeast Asia, especially at the port of Aceh (Acheh) in northern Sumatra and at various ports in the southern Malay Peninsula. Production of coffee (coffee production), grown extensively across Sri Lanka, rose sharply in the first half of the 18th century; the island's coffee found markets in Europe, the Middle East, and the neighbouring subcontinent.

      The Dutch continued the Portuguese policy of respecting the traditional land structure and service relationship but used it more methodically to enhance revenue. Taxes in kind collected for the state were used in trade. Remuneration of Sinhalese officials in land and obligatory services to the state were continued. The Sinhalese nobility also was retained because the Dutch depended on the rural nobility for knowledge of the system.

      Although the Dutch tried to promote trade with neighbouring countries, it was under a strictly controlled system. They sought to monopolize the export of major commodities, but this effort led to a decline in trade with India, which, in turn, resulted in a shortage of essential goods, such as rice and textiles. In the early 18th century some relaxation occurred, and private traders from India were admitted into the island's trade system. Nevertheless, the Dutch retained their export monopolies in some areas, and they continued to control trade commodities and prices through a system of passes and inspection.

      The expansion of Sri Lanka's trade called for the development of a more extensive infrastructure and more-sophisticated transport facilities. The VOC developed three major canal systems in the western, southern, and eastern parts of the island. The western system, which linked the city of Colombo with Kalpitiya to its north and Bentota to its south, was the most complex. Somewhat less complex was the eastern system, which linked the commercial centre of Batticaloa with the Vanderloos Bay to the north and the minor port of Sammanturai to the south. The least intricate of the systems was in the south, where canals linked the city of Matara with the township of Valigama. While the three canal systems attested to the technological achievement of the hydraulic engineers of the VOC, a chain of solidly built and well-equipped forts displayed a matching level of accomplishment among the VOC's military engineers.

      The use of cannons, as well as guns and other smaller firearms, was introduced by the Portuguese and spread rapidly once the rulers of local kingdoms grasped the significance of the new technology. Guns enabled the centralization of storage and control of commodities and thus represented a strategic resource by which to boost the power of the rulers. The new military technology also created a demand for specialists, who were recruited from among the Europeans; under the direction of such specialists, the island's metalworkers developed a capacity for the production of high-quality guns.

      The Dutch judicial system was well organized. There were three major courts of justice, in Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna; appeals were heard by the Colombo court. In the various districts, the provincial head (the dissava) presided over the circuit court, called the Land Raad. Native chiefs were invited to hear cases involving local custom. The customary law of the land was administered in the courts, unless it clashed violently with Dutch jurisprudence.

      Increasingly in the 18th century, Roman-Dutch law was used in the Sinhalese areas of the southwest and south. This had important social consequences. Private property rights in land spread more widely in these areas, and property transfers were subject to Roman-Dutch law. Moreover, where Sinhalese society had been polygynous to some degree, a gradual shift toward monogamy occurred under the influence of the new legal system.

      Some attempt was made to codify customary law. The Thesawalamai (Thesavalamai)—laws and customs of the Tamils of Jaffna—was codified in 1707. Because of the difficulty in codifying Sinhalese law and custom in view of its regional diversity and complexity, Roman-Dutch law was increasingly applied to the Sinhalese of the cities and the seacoast, especially to those who professed Christianity.

      The Netherlands was ardently Protestant (Protestant Heritage)—specifically, Calvinist (Calvinism)—and in the early years of Dutch rule an enthusiastic effort was made to curtail the missionary activities of the Roman Catholic (Roman Catholicism) clergy and to spread the Reformed church in Sri Lanka. Roman Catholicism was declared illegal, and its priests were banned from the country; Catholic churches were given to the Reformed faith, with Calvinist pastors appointed to lead the congregations. Despite persecution, many Catholics remained loyal to their faith; some nominally embraced Protestantism, while others settled within the independent Kandyan kingdom. In their evangelical activities the Protestant clergy were better organized than their Catholic counterparts; in particular they used schools to propagate their faith.

      During the period of Dutch rule in the coastal areas there was a revival of Buddhism in the Kandyan kingdom (Kandy) and in the southern part of the island. While the Dutch felt great antipathy toward Catholicism, they indirectly contributed to the revival of Buddhism by facilitating transport for Buddhist monks between Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Arakan (Rakhine) region in southwestern Myanmar (Burma). Such services helped the Dutch maintain good relations with the king of Kandy.

      Representing a new strand in the traditions of both Sinhalese and Tamil literature, Christian writings began to appear during the Dutch period. Although most of these new works were translations of basic canonical texts, some were polemics that targeted both Buddhism and Hinduism. The 18th-century writer Jacome Gonƈalves was among the most notable figures in Sri Lankan Christian literature. The VOC's establishment in 1734 of the first printing press in Sri Lanka—used to meet the needs of missionaries as well as administrators—aided the proliferation of Christian texts.

British Ceylon (1796–1900)
      The British East India Company's conquest of Sri Lanka, which the British called Ceylon, occurred during the wars of the French Revolution (French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars) (1792–1801). When the Netherlands came under French control, the British (British Empire) began to move into Sri Lanka from India. The Dutch, after a halfhearted resistance, surrendered the island in 1796. The British had thought the conquest temporary and administered the island from Madras (Chennai) (Chennai) in southern India. The war with France revealed Sri Lanka's strategic value, however, and the British consequently decided to make their hold on the island permanent. In 1802 Ceylon was made a crown colony, and, by the Treaty of Amiens (Amiens, Treaty of) with France, British possession of maritime Ceylon was confirmed.

Control of Kandy
      Not long after their arrival in 1796, the British established contact with the king of Kandy and contracted to replace the Dutch as protectors of the kingdom. As they began to organize the administration, the British realized that the continuing independence of Kandy posed problems: the frontier with Kandy had to be guarded at much expense; trade with the highlands was hampered by customs posts and political insecurity; and land communications between west and east would be quicker if roads could be built through the centre of the island. The advantages of political unification were obvious to the British, but the Kandyans remained deeply suspicious of all foreigners.

      The first attempt by the British to capture the kingdom, in 1803, ended in failure; the king was popular with the nobility, who united behind him to rout the British forces. Subsequently, though, growing dissensions within the kingdom gave the British an opportunity to interfere in Kandyan affairs. With the help of local Kandyan chiefs whose relations with the king had been deteriorating, the British succeeded in taking over the kingdom in 1815. Soon after the acquisition the British guaranteed Kandyans their privileges and rights, as well as the preservation of customary laws, institutions, and religion. Initially, Kandy was administered separately, without any abrupt change from traditional patterns. However, the trend toward reducing the status of the nobility and of the Buddhist faith was unmistakable; this led to a popular rebellion against British control in 1818. After it was suppressed, the Kandyan provinces were integrated with the rest of the country.

Social and administrative reforms
      Though reluctant to upset traditional Sinhalese institutions, the British quickly began a reform process. They abolished slavery, an institution that existed primarily as a consequence of unpaid debt (although in Jaffna, it was part of the caste system), relieved native officials of judicial authority, paid salaries in cash, and relaxed the system of compulsory service tenure. Agriculture was encouraged, and production of cinnamon, pepper, sugarcane, cotton, and coffee flourished. Internal communications were extended. Restrictions on European ownership of land were lifted, and Christian missionary activity became intensive.

      The early changes under British rule were systematized by a series of reforms enacted in 1833, which laid the foundation for the subsequent political and economic structure of Ceylon. Steps were taken to adopt a unitary administrative and judicial system for the whole island. The reforms reduced the autocratic powers of the governor and set up Executive and Legislative councils to share in the task of government; unofficial members (not officials of the government) were gradually appointed to the Legislative Council. English became the language of government and the medium of instruction in schools.

Emergence of capitalist agriculture
      The British eliminated restrictions on Ceylon's economy by abolishing all state monopolies and eliminating compulsory labour service. They also promoted the liberation of the economy, which led to new economic enterprises. Land belonging to the British crown was sold cheaply to cultivators to encourage plantation agriculture, and the enterprise proved lucrative. Coffee (coffee production) plantations were particularly profitable.

      From about 1830 through the mid-19th century coffee production spearheaded Ceylon's economic development. Acreage under coffee cultivation expanded, and roads were constructed to fulfill the needs of coffee planters. Because of a labour shortage on the plantations, indentured workers came from southern India in large numbers beginning in the 1840s. In the 1870s, however, coffee was destroyed by a leaf disease. Experiments with tea (tea production) as a plantation crop in the 1880s were immediately successful, and tea spread along the upper and lower slopes of the hill country. About the same time, rubber and coconuts also were cultivated as plantation crops.

      Tea and rubber attracted extensive capital investment, and the growth of large-scale industries created a demand for a permanent workforce. Steps were taken to settle Indian labour on the plantations. Ancillary services soon arose in response to these developments. Increasing export trade led to the expansion of the harbour at Colombo and to railway and road construction. Opportunities were created for Ceylonese entrepreneurs, and for the English-educated, employment was readily available.

      Capitalist enterprise introduced changes in agricultural practices and horticultural techniques, but these developments were essentially restricted to the urban areas and the plantation country. The rest of the country continued with subsistence farming, using traditional methods. However, roads and railways helped to reduce the isolation of the villages, and increased trade gradually pulled the rural population into the monetary economy.

Constitutionalism and nationalism (c. 1900–48)
      By the end of the 19th century a nationalist (nationalism) sentiment had come to permeate the social, religious, and educational fronts of Ceylonese society. Meanwhile, revivalist movements in Buddhism and Hinduism sought to modernize their institutions and to defend themselves against Christian inroads by establishing schools to impart Western education unmixed with Christianity. This agitated atmosphere set the stage for social and political changes in the first half of the 20th century.

Constitutional reforms
      Nationalist consciousness gradually spread to the political arena in the early 1900s. Regional and communal associations were founded within formally educated communities, and they began to voice proposals for reform. They asked for Ceylonese participation in the executive branch, a wider territorial representation in the legislature, and the adoption of the elective principle in place of nomination. These demands showed a common ideology and approach and revealed a desire to advance within the framework of the colonial constitution.

      Because demands were neither coordinated nor vociferous, the imperial government generally ignored them, and constitutional reforms passed in 1910 retained the old structure, with an appointed executive and a legislature with an appointed majority. There was, however, a limited recognition of the elective principle; an “educated Ceylonese” electorate was established to elect one member to the Legislative Council. Other Ceylonese members were to be nominated on a communal basis.

Growth of nationalist power
      During World War I (1914–18) the forces of nationalism in Ceylon gathered momentum, propelled largely by civil disturbances in 1915 and subsequent political repercussions. British arrests of prominent Sinhalese leaders during what was at first a minor communal riot provoked widespread opposition. Leaders of all communities, feeling the need for a common platform from which to voice a nationalist viewpoint, came together in 1919 to form the Ceylon National Congress, which united Sinhalese and Tamil organizations. In a series of proposals for constitutional reforms, the Congress called for an elected majority in the legislature, control of the budget, and partial control of the executive branch.

      A new constitution was promulgated in 1920 under the governor Sir William Manning, and in 1924 it was modified to satisfy nationalist demands. The revised document provided for an elected majority in the legislature, an increase in the number of territorially elected members, and the election of communal representatives. Ceylon thus attained representative government. A finance committee of the legislature, consisting of three unofficial and three official members, also was formed; the committee had the authority to examine the budget. However, no major concessions were made in the executive branch, which remained under the British governor and the official Executive Council.

      The allowance of greater power to the nationalists produced the first fissures among them. While Sinhalese leaders wanted to do away with communal representation and make territorial representation universal, minorities aimed to retain it to secure power for their own communities. Minorities broke away from the Congress to form their own organizations.

      A new constitution, framed in 1931 on the recommendations of a commission appointed to examine constitutional reform, gave Ceylonese leaders opportunities to exercise political power and to gain governmental experience with a view toward eventual self-government. It provided for a State Council with both legislative and executive functions. In addition to being a legislative council with an overwhelming majority of territorially elected members, the State Council was divided for executive work into seven committees, each of which elected its own chairman. These chairmen, or ministers, formed a board of ministers to coordinate the activities of the council and to present an annual budget. The constitution, which remained in effect for more than 15 years, also granted universal suffrage, thus bringing all Ceylonese into the democratic political process.

Social and cultural changes
      Economic development and the spread of education brought about changes in society, including changes in the relationships between social groups. Upper elements of the dominant castes (caste) solidified their positions by taking advantage of new developments. Castes traditionally of lower status also made use of these opportunities to move upward, creating tensions within the caste system. A community of capitalist entrepreneurs and professionals who were proficient in English emerged as a new class that transcended caste boundaries. Generally referred to as the “middle class,” this group produced the leaders of many political and social movements in the 20th and 21st centuries.

      Social change since 1915 also included the intensification of interethnic rivalries. Although clashes in the early 20th century involved relatively small groups of people, these conflicts marked the beginning of a trend that was to grow progressively in scale and momentum.The growing distrust and mutual antipathy between ethnic groups was reflected in (and exacerbated by) the formation in 1936 of a board of ministers composed entirely of Sinhalese members of the State Council.

Dominion status
      In response to Ceylonese nationalist leaders—who exerted pressure behind the scenes while cooperating with British efforts during World War II (1939–45)—the British in 1944 appointed the Soulbury Commission to develop a new constitution for Ceylon. The Soulbury constitution gave the colony internal self-government but retained some imperial safeguards in defense and external affairs. In 1947 the Ceylon Independence Act conferred dominion status on the colony, whereby Ceylon was recognized as an autonomous entity with allegiance to the British crown.

      Ceylon held elections for the parliament outlined in its new constitution in August 1947, shortly after its acquisition of dominion status. The United National Party (UNP), a coalition of a number of nationalist and communal parties, won the majority; it chose Don Stephen Senanayake (Senanayake, D S) as prime minister and advocated orderly and conservative progress. The UNP was dominated by the English-educated leaders of the colonial era, who were familiar with the British type of parliamentary democracy that had been established on the island, and it included people from all the ethnolinguistic groups of Ceylon. Its members were bound by the common ideals of Ceylonese nationalism, parliamentary democracy, and gradual economic progress through free enterprise.

Independent Ceylon (1948–71)
      Actual independence for the dominion of Ceylon came on Feb. 4, 1948, when the constitution of 1947 went into effect. The constitution provided for a bicameral legislature with a popularly elected House of Representatives and a Senate that was partly nominated and partly elected indirectly by members of the House. A prime minister and his cabinet, chosen from the largest political group in the legislature, held collective responsibility for executive functions. The governor-general, as head of state, represented the British monarch. In matters that the constitution failed to address, the conventions of the United Kingdom were observed.

      The UNP had a substantial majority in the legislature and attracted support as it governed. There were, however, some basic weaknesses in the political structure. The consensus that the government represented embraced only a small fraction of the population—the English-educated, Westernized elite groups that shared the values on which the structure was founded. To the great mass of Sinhalese- and Tamil-educated residents and unschooled citizens, these values appeared irrelevant and incomprehensible. The continued neglect of local culture as embodied in religion, language, and the arts created a gulf that divided the ruling elite from the ruled. Inevitably, traditionalist and revivalist movements arose to champion local values.

      The island's three export products—tea, rubber, and coconuts—were doing well in world markets, providing some 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Nevertheless, the country began to face economic difficulties. A rapidly increasing population and the free import of consumer goods swiftly ate into earnings from foreign trade. The falling price of Ceylon's rubber and tea and the increase in the price of imported food added to the acute foreign exchange problem. Additionally, the expanded school system produced a large number of educated persons who could not find employment.

 The various factors of political and economic discontent converged after 1955, and a new Sinhalese nationalism was unleashed. It found a spokesman in S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike (Bandaranaike, S.W.R.D.). In the 1956 elections the UNP was defeated, and Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) came to power. The new government immediately set about changing the political structure. With the Sinhala Only Bill, it made Sinhalese the sole official language, and it took measures to provide state support for Buddhism and for Sinhalese culture. It also wedded the new nationalism to a form of socialism, in which the state was given a powerful role in economic development and the creation of economic equality.

      The period of Sinhalese nationalism was also a time of political instability. The language policy alienated the Tamils, who, under the Federal Party, carried on a bitter opposition. Educational policies angered the small but influential Christian community. Reforms of Buddhist and other cultural practices offended different factions within the Sinhalese community.

 Bandaranaike was assassinated in September 1959, and the nationalist movement suffered a setback and languished for want of a leader. After a period of political instability, his widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Bandaranaike, Sirimavo R.D.), was persuaded to gather together the fragments of the SLFP. In 1960 she formed a government, thus becoming the first woman in the world to hold the office of prime minister. Continuing the program of Sinhalese nationalism, she implemented policies to nurture and protect local industry and to extend the state sector. Partly in response to pressure from the Buddhist community to reduce the prominence of Christian missions in the country's educational system, most private schools were nationalized, and state subsidies to any remaining private schools were discontinued.

      By 1965 the tide of Sinhalese nationalism had begun to recede. Language and religion had become less important as political issues. An economic crisis—caused by increasing unemployment, the rising cost of living, an acute shortage of consumer goods, and the failure of state enterprise in industry and trade—made people look back to the UNP. This party gained the support of minorities, and in 1965 it returned to power under Dudley Shelton Senanayake, who, as the son of Don Stephen Senanayake, had served as prime minister (1952–53) after his father's death and briefly in 1960. Senanayake's government enjoyed a five-year term of office, during which it encouraged private enterprise and made an effort to extend agricultural productivity. These measures, while having moderate success, also tended to create inflation and to increase social inequality. The SLFP formed an alliance with Marxist parties and waged a campaign against the government that called for increased state control of the economy. In 1970 this coalition won a landslide victory, and Sirimavo Bandaranaike again became prime minister.

      The Bandaranaike government enacted reforms that restricted private enterprise and extended nationalization to embrace various private industries and foreign-owned plantations as well as a large part of the wholesale and distributive trade. Measures aimed at reducing social inequality were enacted, and an ambitious program of land reform was put into effect. Although these reforms benefited the vast majority of the underprivileged, they did nothing to address basic economic problems such as the mounting trade deficit. The educated youth, impatient for radical change, became disillusioned. Their discontent was mobilized by the People's Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna; JVP), a group of revolutionary youth who launched an unsuccessful armed rebellion in 1971.

The Republic of Sri Lanka
      In a new constitution proclaimed in 1972, Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka, while maintaining its link with the British Commonwealth. The constitution changed the bicameral legislature to a unicameral body and replaced the governor-general (who had been an extension of the British crown) with a president as head of state. Effective executive power, however, remained with the prime minister and cabinet, and all existing restraints on the lawmaking powers of the new unicameral legislature were removed. Buddhism was given “the foremost place,” and Sinhalese (Sinhalese language) again was recognized as the official language.

      As Sri Lanka's economic decline continued, the immense economic power held by the state provided the party in power with the opportunity for patronage, nepotism, and corruption. By 1977 unemployment had risen to about 15 percent. In July of that year the SLFP was defeated by a reorganized UNP under the leadership of J.R. Jayawardene (Jayewardene, J.R.), who became prime minister.

      The Jayawardene government sought to reverse trends toward state control of the economy by revitalizing the private sector and attracting foreign capital. It also set about writing a new constitution, promulgated in 1978, which renamed the country the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and introduced a system under which the president remained head of state but was given new executive power as head of government. Although Sinhalese (Sinhalese language) and Tamil (Tamil language) were recognized as the national languages, Sinhalese was to be the official language. In 1978 Jayawardene was elected the first president under the new constitution, and Ranasinghe Premadasa, also of the UNP, became prime minister.

      However, political unrest escalated in the 1980s as groups representing the Tamil minority moved toward organized insurgency. Tamil bases were built up in jungle areas of the northern and eastern parts of the island and increasingly in the southern districts of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nādu), where Tamil groups received official and unofficial support. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) (LTTE)—popularly known as the Tamil Tigers—was the strongest of these, but there were other competing groups, which were sometimes hostile to each other.

      The Sri Lankan government responded to the unrest by deploying forces to the north and the east, but the eruption of insurgency inflamed communal passions, and in July 1983 there were extensive, organized anti-Tamil riots in Colombo and elsewhere. Sinhalese mobs systematically attacked Tamils and destroyed Tamil property, and the riots forced refugees to move within the island and from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu.

      The Jayawardene government, facing a simultaneous resurgence of Sinhalese militancy by the JVP, became receptive to initiatives by the Indian government. After prolonged negotiations, an accord signed between India and Sri Lanka on July 29, 1987, offered the Tamils an autonomous integrated province in the northwest within a united Sri Lanka. Later that year, Tamil also was recognized as an official language (alongside Sinhalese) by constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, the accord had provided for the introduction of an Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to enforce the terms of the agreement. However, the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE, and the IPKF disagreed over implementation of the accord; the LTTE resumed its offensive, this time against the IPKF, which was trying to disarm it.

Sinnappah Arasaratnam
      In January 1989 Jayawardene retired and was succeeded by Premadasa, who had defeated Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the December 1988 elections. Premadasa negotiated a withdrawal of the IPKF, which was completed in March 1990, and the battle against Tamil insurgency was taken up by the Sri Lankan army. On May 1, 1993, Premadasa was assassinated by a suicide bomber, who allegedly was linked to the LTTE. The prime minister, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, was appointed acting president. In 1994 Chandrika Kumaratunga (Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike), the daughter of S.W.R.D. and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became the country's first female president. Rebel activity continued, and in 1999 Kumaratunga was injured in an assassination attempt blamed on the LTTE. She won reelection later that year.

      In 2002 a landmark cease-fire was negotiated between the war-weary LTTE and the government. Within just a few years, however, violence had resumed, and the cease-fire had virtually dissolved. In 2005 Mahinda Rajapakse, known for his strong stance against the LTTE, was elected president. Meanwhile, the conflict between the Tamil rebels and the government raged on, and in 2006 the LTTE was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union. In January 2008 the government formally abandoned the 2002 cease-fire agreement, and the fighting intensified, with both sides experiencing many casualties. Over the following months, the government captured major strongholds of the LTTE. The town of Kilinochchi, the administrative centre of the LTTE, came under government control in January 2009.

      In addition to struggling with ongoing political unrest in the early 21st century, Sri Lanka was rattled by a tremendous natural disaster. In December 2004 the island was struck by a large tsunami that had been generated by an earthquake centred in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia. The wave killed tens of thousands of people and severely damaged the country's northern, eastern, and southern coastal areas.

Sinnappah Arasaratnam Ed.

Additional Reading

General works
Coverage of the geographic, economic, demographic, social, cultural, and historical aspects of the country is found in K.M. De Silva (ed.), Sri Lanka: A Survey (1977), a collection of studies; The National Atlas of Sri Lanka (1988), containing 59 maps accompanied by authoritative texts covering the same range of subjects; and Russell R. Ross and Andrea Matles Savada (eds.), Sri Lanka, a Country Study, 2nd ed. (1990). H.A.I. Goonetileke, A Bibliography of Ceylon, 5 vol. (1970–83), is a comprehensive annotated bibliography of writings on Sri Lanka in the Western languages from the 16th century onward.

Geography
As a basic geographic text on the country, Elsie Kathleen Cook, Ceylon: Its Geography, Its Resources, and Its People, 2nd ed., rev. by K. Kularatnam (1951), remains significant for its detail and depth. B.H. Farmer, “Ceylon,” chapter 26 in O.H.K. Spate, A.T.A. Learmonth, and A.M. Learmonth, India and Pakistan: A General and Regional Geography, 3rd ed. rev. (1967); and B.L.C. Johnson and M.LeM. Scrivenor, Sri Lanka: Land, People, and Economy (1981), are other outstanding works of this genre. An elegant interpretation of the evolution of Sri Lanka's modern economy is presented in Donald R. Snodgrass, Ceylon: An Export Economy in Transition (1966). A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Politics in Sri Lanka, 1947–1979, 2nd ed. (1979), provides a useful introduction to the subject. Further insights into the ethnic dimensions of the country's politics can be gained from K.M. De Silva, Managing Ethnic Tensions in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Sri Lanka, 1880–1985 (1986); S.J. Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (1986); and Nira Wickramasinghe, Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (2005).Gerald Hubert Peiris

History
Surveys of historical development include Sydney D. Bailey, Ceylon (1952), stronger on the period of Western impact than on early history; S. Arasaratnam, Ceylon (1964, reprinted 1970); S.A. Pakeman, Ceylon, rev. and updated ed. (2005); E.F.C. Ludowyk, The Story of Ceylon, rev. ed. (1985); and K.M. De Silva, A History of Sri Lanka (1981), a comprehensive survey.Early history to 1500 is explored in G.C. Mendis, The Early History of Ceylon and Its Relations with India and Other Foreign Countries (1932, reprinted 1998), offering critical treatment of the pre-European period; C.W. Nicholas and S. Paranavitana, A Concise History of Ceylon (1961); Wilhelm Geiger, Culture of Ceylon in Mediaeval Times, ed. by Heinz Bechert (1960), a social history of the Sinhalese from the 5th century BCE to the 15th century CE; Amaradāsa Liyanagamagē, The Decline of Polonnaruwa and the Rise of Dambadeniya, Circa 1180–1270 AD (1968), an authoritative study of a hitherto neglected period; and R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (1979), an intensely analytical study of the development of Buddhist institutions in their economic context.Histories of the periods of Western impact, bringing the developments into the 20th century, include Tikiri Abeyasinghe, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, 1594–1612 (1966); Chandra R. DeSilva, The Portuguese in Ceylon, 1617–1638 (1972), a detailed study; Sinnappah Arasaratnam, Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1658–1687 (1958, reprinted 1988), a study of political, economic, and social effects; Ralph Pieris, Sinhalese Social Organization: The Kandyan Period (1956), covering Kandyan society from the 16th to the 18th century; Lorna S. Dewaraja, A Study of the Political, Administrative, and Social Structure of the Kandyan Kingdom of Ceylon, 1707–1760 (1972), a pioneer study of the last independent Sinhalese kingdom; S.B.D. De Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (1982), a theoretically rich analysis of the plantation economy under British rule; Alicia Schrikker, Dutch and British Colonial Intervention in Sri Lanka, 1780–1815: Expansion and Reform (2006); Kitsiri Malalgoda, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 1750–1900 (1976), a study of religious revival and change under the impact of colonialism; Lennox A. Mills, Ceylon Under British Rule, 1795–1932 (1933, reissued 1965); E.F.C. Ludowyk, The Modern History of Ceylon (1966), on the 19th and 20th centuries; and Michael Roberts, Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500–1931 (1982, reissued 2007), a study of the rise of Sri Lankan elites and intercaste relationships in the context of modernization.The contemporary period is studied in W. Howard Wriggins, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation (1960, reissued 1980), an analysis of developments after independence; Robert N. Kearney, Communalism and Language in the Politics of Ceylon (1967); Calvin A. Woodward, The Growth of a Party System in Ceylon (1969); James Jupp, Sri Lanka: Third World Democracy (1978); Jonathan Spencer, A Sinhala Village in a Time of Trouble: Politics and Change in Rural Sri Lanka (2000), an examination of rural religious, economic, and social dynamics through the window of an election campaign; and Nalani Hennayake, Culture, Politics, and Development in Postcolonial Sri Lanka (2006), an assessment of the interrelationship of culture and politics in contemporary Sri Lankan society.Works that focus on ethnic tensions include “Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian State,” special issue no. 1 of Race & Class, vol. 26 (Summer 1984); James Manor (ed.), Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis (1984), a collection of essays on the 1983 communal riots, their causes and consequences; Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka (1987), a study of the conflict's geographic and economic roots; Jonathan Spencer (ed.), Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict (1990), a review of the growth of ethnic identity; Satchi Ponnambalam, Sri Lanka: National Conflict and the Tamil Liberation Struggle (1983), an explanation of the rise of Tamil militancy from a stridently Tamil point of view; and A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-Up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict (1988), a political and constitutional discussion.Sinnappah Arasaratnam

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