Medicine & Physiotherapy - SRI LANKA Country Facts

Sri Lanka

Full name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Population: 19.4 million (UN, 2005) Capital: Colombo (commercial), Sri Jayawardenepura (administrative) Area: 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq miles) Major languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English Major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity Life expectancy: 71 years (men), 77 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: Sri Lankan rupee Main exports: Clothing and textiles, tea, gems, rubber, coconuts GNI per capita: US $1,160 (World Bank, 2006) Internet domain: .lk International dialling code: +94

Overview

Sri Lanka, Emerald Isle of the Indian Ocean, home to heavy warm air, sweet fruit scents, incense and bright colours pouring out of every nook and cranny; from the extraordinarily lush foliage and bright offerings of flowers outside temples, to orange robed monks under their umbrellas, and glamorous Sari's whizzing past on the back of motorbikes (normally with the limbs of their child peeping out between the mother and the driver!)

Sri Lanka is a land of contrasts, blink and you'll miss the transition from a bustling market with horns honking on all sides, noisy bus exhausts, sellers announcing their wares, to a quaint shady village where the only sound is the wind making ripples in the bowl of water and blowing the Jasmine flowers at the front door.

Three cultures, three languages, four religions, nearly ten ancient cities, architecture from hi-rise office blocks to mud huts, and every type of landscape imaginable; perfect sweeps of white sand fringed with tall palms, lush tropical rainforest reserves teeming with wildlife, dry savannah, eerie cloud and mountain forest, and beautiful hill scenery tripping over itself to impress you with it's endless tea plantations, huge waterfalls and steep ravines. Indeed Sri Lanka's most famous foreign resident, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, once wrote: "The Island is a small universe; it contains as many variations of culture, scenery and climate as some countries a dozen times its size."

Geography

Sri Lanka is in Southern Asia and is located south of India. It is an island in the Indian Ocean and has 1340km of coastline. The land is mainly low and flat with rolling plains and mountains in the south-central interior. Sri Lanka's climate is tropical, with cooler weather at higher elevations. The northeast monsoon is from December to March and the southwest monsoon from June to October. Natural resources include limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems, phosphates and clay. Sri Lanka suffers from occasional cyclones and tornadoes.

Sri Lanka has over two hundred and forty known species of butterflies, over four hundred recorded species of birds and a number of species of mammals and reptiles. Wildlife includes crocodiles, the sloth bear, deer, elephants, leopards, monkeys, porcupines, wild boar and the Star Tortoise.

People

Sinhalese and Tamil are the official languages and are spoken by 74% and 18% of the population respectively. English is spoken by a large proportion of the population. There are four distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Sinhalese who make up 73.8% of the population. 7.2% are Sri Lankan Moors, 4.6% are Indian Tamil and 3.9% are Sri Lankan Tamil. 70% of the people are Buddhist, 15% are Hindu, 8% are Christian and 7% are Muslim. The literacy rate is 92.3%.

Food

Sri Lankan people are some of the most friendly in the world, they welcome you into their homes, lives, and perhaps most importantly, their kitchens! The food is heaven for curry lovers - a melee of flavours and textures, all mixed expertly together with the right hand...! And when curry isn't on the menu, its fish so fresh it's veritably twitching, or fruit salad with all kinds of unthinkably sweet offerings, fresh juices or the best tea in the land. Yes, Sri Lanka satiates your palette and brings untold joy!

Brief History

In the 5th century BC migrants from India settled on the island. Among them the most prominent group was the Sinhalese. The 3rd century BC saw the beginning of Tamil migration from India. In 1505 the Portuguese arrived in Colombo but it was the British who, in 1815, became the first European power to win control over the whole island. At this time the island was called Ceylon. Tamil labourers were brought from southern India to work the tea, coffee and coconut plantations. In 1833 English was made the official language. In 1931 the British granted the native people the right to vote and introduced power sharing, and in 1948 Ceylon gained full independence. In 1949 the Indian Tamil plantation workers were disenfranchised. The first post-independence president, Solomon Bandaranaike, elected in 1956, was intent on bolstering Sinhalese and Buddhist feeling and made Sinhala the sole official language. In 1959 he was assassinated by a Buddhist monk. His widow, Srimavo, succeeded him - becoming the country's firstfemale PM - and continued his Sinhala nationalist policies. In 1972 the county's official name changed to Sri Lanka and Buddhism was named the main religion, further antagonising the Tamil minority. Ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese and the minority Tamil population in the north has been and still is the biggest problem facing Sri Lanka. In 1976 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were formed after tensions increased in the Tamil-dominated areas of the north and east. The Tamil Tigers have been the root of much violence in Sri Lanka and occasionally southern India. Among the actions of the Tamil Tigers are the bombing of Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist site and suicide attacks on its international airport. The civil war has so far claimed over 65,000 lives. Between 2001 and 2004 was a period without violence during which the rebels dropped their demand for a separate state and at a peace talk in Norway agreed to share power. Under the deal, Tamils were given autonomy in the mainly Tamil-speaking north and east. 2004 saw an end to relative peace with a suicide bomb blast in Colombo followed by the assassination of the foreign minister. The new wave of violence continued into 2006 with explosions, rioting and suicide bombing in which hundreds were killed and thousands fled their homes.

Politics

Sri Lanka is a republic. The current president is Mahinda Rajapakse who was elected in 2005. He is a Buddhist lawyer and before his election had been prime minister since 2004. He is a strong advocate of economic liberalisation and has promised to take a hard line in any peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Economy

During the 1990's Sri Lanka's economy was growing at a rate of 5.5%. The economy experienced problems in 2001 due to power shortages, budgetary problems, global slowdown and civil strife.
Despite having since improved Sri Lanka's economy still experiences problems: about 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad (about 90% in the Middle East) and between them they send home about $1 billion a year; there is a continuing struggle by the Tamil Tigers for a largely independent homeland; the 2004 Tsunami took thousands of lives and destroyed $1.5 billion worth of property. Unemployment stands at about 7.7% and roughly 20% of the population live below the poverty line.

Sri Lanka's main exports are textiles and apparel, tea and spices; diamonds, emeralds, rubies; coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish, one third of which go to the US with the rest going to the UK, India, Belgium and Germany. The majority of Sri Lanka's imports come from India and China and include textile fabrics, mineral products, petroleum, foodstuffs, machinery and transportation equipment.