Intro to Sri Lanka - by Tre

 Despite being only a few days into our stay in Sri Lanka, we've already had tons of crazy experiences and we're excited for more. If you don't know much about Sri Lanka, don't feel bad—if you can point it out as "that little island by India," you're already ahead of a lot of people. I thought it might be prudent to provide a quick overview of Sri Lanka for those who zoned out in 7th grade geography.

Geography:

Sri Lanka is a small, teardrop shaped island country located only 54.8 km off of India's South East coast, and it encompasses about 25,300 square miles. It is shaped with low plains near the coastline rising up to hills in the center of the island. A mountainous region is found in the south central area.

Located not far north of the equator, Sri Lanka's climate is tropical and hot, with its only seasons being the winter and summer monsoons. The monsoons bring constant, heavy winds and  rain, sometimes even up to a hundred inches of rain per month. Otherwise, Sri Lanka's climate is humid and hot, getting cooler as you approach the mountainous regions.

Population: 

Despite its small size, Sri Lanka has a population of more than 21 million people of varying groups and ethnicities. The two main ethnic groups are the Sinhalese, which make up about 75% of the population, and Sri Lanka Tamils, which make up about 11%. The two official languages are Sinhala and Tamil, but English is also spoken widely throughout the country. The two major religions in Sri Lanka are Buddhism and Hinduism, with most Sinhalese being Buddhist and most Tamils being Hindu.

(Extremely Abridged) History:

When the Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka around the 6th century B.C.E, the island's populations was probably small groups of hunter gatherers known as the Vedda. The Sinhalese quickly took over the island, but Tamil invaders from southern India later came and forced the Sinhalese into the south of the island. Sri Lanka (referred to as the island of Serendib by Arab merchants) became a center of trade for that half of the world, with merchants from everywhere from Persia to Indonesia stopping to gather supplies before continuing on their way. 

In 1505 the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) and introduced the Catholic faith, but were replaced by the Dutch in 1658. In 1796, the British came and seized control from the Dutch. At the time, Britain was fighting a war with France, and the French had taken control of the Netherlands, and through them the Dutch East Indies. The British feared that France might use their position in the Dutch East Indies to seize Ceylon, so they chose to seize it for themselves instead. Although originally intended to be a brief occupation, the British soon realized that between its rich natural recourses, valuable position for trade, and excellent agriculture, Ceylon was a colony worth keeping.

The British brought tea to Ceylon, which is now one of the country's biggest exports, and they also planted rubber, sugarcane, coconuts, and coffee (later wiped out by coffee rust and replaced with tea). They also enjoyed the benefits of the island's gemstone mining industry and prosperous trade ports. When the Second World War rolled around, Ceylon became an important point of European control and Lord Louis Mountbatten's headquarters for the Eastern Theater. While Britain used Ceylon's prospering economy to help fill their depleting treasury, Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, was bombed by the Japanese.

In 1948, after much rioting and lobbying, Ceylon followed India to independence from Britain. While that should've been the start of a new era for the country, its modern history is embroiled in just as much conflict as the old. In 1956, Sinhala was established as the official language due to the huge Sinhalese majority, and the Sinhala Only Act made Sinhala the preferred language for education and trade. This combined with the general view that Tamils were outsiders (Many Tamils were brought from South India to work the British Tea plantations), despite the fact that many Tamils had been in Ceylon for hundreds of years. This gave the Sinhalese a major leg up in their government position. In 1972, the country changed its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, and around this time much conflict was forming between the races and sporadic confrontations and skirmishes were becoming more common. Resistance organizations like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formed, who wanted to establish a separate Tamil state in the north of Sri Lanka. When Buddhism became the main religion, the conflict intensified (most Sinhalese are Buddhist while Tamils tend to be Hindu), becoming an outright civil war. The war continued for another 26 years until the LTTE surrendered due to the death of their leader.

In 2004, while the country was still fighting a civil war, a tsunami triggered by the world's most powerful earthquake since 1964 struck around 1000 miles of Sri Lankan coastline and resulted in the loss of 35,000 people, about 110,000 houses, more than 1 billion dollars in assets, and 330 million dollars in expected potential output.

On Easter Sunday, 2019, a series of bombings from an Islamic terrorist group occurred in Colombo. Coordinated suicide bombers attacked several churches and luxury hotels resulting in the deaths of 267 people.

Since 2010, Sri Lanka's foreign debt has been growing more and more. The recession triggered by Covid caused this to become even worse, and in 2021 the country's foreign debt hit 101% of the country's GDP, causing an economic crisis. The Sri Lankan government instituted power cuts as long as 12 hours a day, leading to many protests and even a storming of the president's house. The president was forced to flee the country and appoint the prime minister as acting president, who promptly declared a state of emergency in western provinces. The country defaulted on 51 billion USD in foreign debt and inflation hit 70% in September 2022. Things were looking bad for a time, however Sri Lanka seems to be emerging from their economic crisis. They managed this by taking very large loans from China. I'm not sure of all the tenants of the loan, but one of our drivers told us about China building many dams and causing conflicts over water rights. 

Hopefully this will provide some background for you in future posts. We've been having a great time in Sri Lanka with more details to come!