arranged, and propitious dates for
Sri Lankan
contemporary
society
Modern Sri Lanka is a cats cradle of
contradictions at once traditional and
modern, conservative and cosmopolitan,
fundamentally peace-loving and yet
scarred by the turmoil of civil war.
Sri Lanka, where contradictions
abound
In the smart restaurants of Colombo, the
English-speaking business elite talk
share prices over power lunches, while
a hundred kilometres away peasants in
loincloths wade through flooded rice
paddies and the Veddhas gather wild
honey in the lowland jungles.
In Galle, wealthy European expats plot
the opening of a luxury beachside villa,
while in the north, where until recently
desperate Tamil refugees risked death
on an hourly basis, dodging the guns
and artillery of the Sri Lankan Army and
LTTE (Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam),
the slow rebuilding of everyday life has
begun. In short, whatever generalisation
you try to make about Sri Lanka, the
opposite will also be true.
Ancient and modern
Large parts of Sri Lanka remain deeply
rural. Much of the population does what
it has always done: working in the fields,
visiting the local temple, and dining daily
on rice and curry. Marriages are
nuptials (and other important events)
determined after consultation with a
professional astrologer even the days
of elections and the opening of
parliament are still often fixed according
to the stars.
Meanwhile, in the chic cafs of
Colombo, a very different version of
modern Sri Lanka is in progress. English
is the preferred language here, an
obligatory status symbol; while sharp
suits and gorgeous outfits, from chic
boutiques like Barefoot and Odel, are
the order of the day, with the latest
smartphone as an essential designer
accessory. This is the other Sri Lanka
cosmopolitan, liberal and
internationalist, and a world away from
the rice paddies and Buddhist temples
of the hinterlands.
Workers of the world
Tea and tourism still play a crucial role in
the economic life of Sri Lanka, but the
island increasingly relies on its cheap
labour and the financial desperation of
its impoverished inhabitants to make
ends meet. The countrys leading export
industry is now garment-making, with
hundreds of factories churning out
clothes for major Western chains. Most
of the employees are women under the
age of 25, often working for a pittance in
insalubrious surroundings although
conditions are gradually improving.
And then theres the countrys second-
largest export, the thousands of
workers who leave their families at
home to labour in the Gulf and
elsewhere and whose remittances
provide another important prop to the
massively indebted Sri Lankan
economy. A lucky few manage to secure
remunerative white-collar jobs; but the
majority, mainly women, go abroad to
work in low-paid positions as
housemaids and nannies, frequently
suffering abuse by their employers
who often seem to regard Sri Lankan
expats as little better than indentured
slaves and further exploited by the
agents who take a significant slice of
their earnings.
Dysfunctioning democracy
country on the mend, but serious
questions remain about deep-seated
flaws in the islands economy.
Meanwhile, the question of Tamil
autonomy and self-determination
remains unresolved, and most Sri
Lankans have already resigned
themselves to living under a quasi-
dictatorship as the necessary price to be
paid for continued peace and stability.
The battle, in short, may have been
won, but the future of post-war Sri Lanka
remains far from clear.
https://www.insightguides.com/destinatio
ns/asia-pacific/sri-lanka/cultural-
features/sri-lankan-contemporary-
society

President Mahinda Rajapakse and his

government may have won the military
battle against the LTTE in the north and
the east but have yet to prove that they
are capable of delivering lasting peace
and justice for all members of Sri
Lankan society. The islands proud
democratic traditions are also beginning
to look increasingly frayed as Mahinda,
his brothers Basil and Gotabhaya and
other members of the extended
Rajapakse clan exercise an increasingly
suffocating influence on all affairs of
state.

The peace that Sri Lankans have

dreamed of for a generation has finally
arrived, but now carries an ambiguous
flavour. A spate of ambitious new
infrastructure projects and a booming
tourist industry give the impression of a
Sri Lanka travel guide:
historical highlights
Veddhas, Sinhalese and Tamils
The first humans to arrive in Sri Lanka
were the Veddhas, who walked across
from India not later than around 16,000
BC, or perhaps as early as 125,000
BC. Around the 4th century BC, waves
of immigrants from north India began to
arrive in the island the ancestors of the
modern Sinhalese.
Although a few Tamils had settled in the
north of the island, and perhaps also in
the east in the 3rd century BC, the main
migrations did not occur until the 10th
century AD. Today they represent about
18 percent of the population.
The arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Gradually, the Sinhalese developed
skills in irrigation and the building of
reservoirs which allowed them to
convert the arid northern plains to
agricultural use. Moving slowly inland,
they established the first significant
Sinhalese capital at Anuradhapura (later
replaced by Polonnaruwa) in around 380
BC. The conversion of islanders to
Buddhism occurred around 250 BC.
The colonial years
From the 16th century onwards, waves
of Portuguese, Dutch and British
invaders successively came and
conquered Sri Lanka, or at least its
coastal lowlands; not till 1815 were they
able to subdue the remote Kandyan
kingdom, hidden in the hills at the centre
of the island. Following the Kandyan
Rebellion, Britain's control of the island
was never seriously tested.
Independence for Sri Lanka
When Ceylon, as it was then
called, embarked on Independence on 4
February 1948, it was in good shape.
However, the seeds of the conflict that
was eventually to engulf the island were
also being sown. Tamil disillusionment,
which grew throughout the 1970s in the
face of state-sponsored discrimination
and the heavy-handed behaviour of
Sinhalese policemen and soldiers
stationed in Tamil areas, was growing.
Civil war
The late 1970s saw the emergence of a
new generation of radical Tamils. One of
these groups was the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), popularly known
as the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE began
systematically attacking Sri Lankan
government targets, as well as
murdering all their Tamil political rivals,
and Sri Lanka plunged into civil war.
The end to the war finally came in May
2009, when the final patch of LTTE-held
territory was overrun by the Sri Lankan
Army (SLA), and the rebels reclusive
leader, Prabakharan, killed, finally
bringing to an end over 25 years of
fighting during which an estimated
80,000100,000 people died.
Sri Lanka today
Despite the outbreak of euphoria and
triumphalism following the end of the
war, serious questions remained to be
answered. However for all its proud
democratic traditions, Sri Lanka
increasingly feels like a quasi-
dictatorship although this is a price that
many of its citizens appear prepared to
pay in return for peace and stability.
Sri Lanka history timeline 3532 BC

Pre- and Early History Pali scriptures committed to

writing.
c.10,000 BC
AD 276303
Sri Lankas first Stone Age
culture emerges. Reign of Mahasena;
foundation of the
543 BC
Jetavanarama, the largest
Death of the Buddha in India dagoba in the world.
and arrival of Sinhalese in Sri
30331
Lanka, led by Prince Vijaya.
Reign of Sirimeghavana;
Early Anuradhapura Period
arrival of the Tooth Relic;
c.250210 BC apogee of first Anuradhapura
period.
Reign of Devanampiya Tissa.
Indian emperor Asoka sends 43259
missions to Lanka and
Tamil invasion and end of first
converts population to
Anuradhapura period.
Buddhism.
Late Anuradhapura Period
161137 BC
45977
Reign of Dutugemunu. For the
first time Sri Lanka is unified Reign of Dhatusena; end of
under a single Sinhalese Tamil domination.
monarch.
47795
Reign of Kassapa and
construction of Sigiriya.
495512
Reign of Mogallan I; capital
returned to Anuradhapura.
61884
Internecine struggles; Tamil
interventions; finally Pallava
domination.
684718
Reign of Manavamma;
alliance with the Pallavas.
83553
Reign of Sena I. Pandyan
conquest.
c.947
Chola expedition;
Anuradhapura is plundered;
the king flees to Rohana.
9931017
Capture and sack of
Anuradhapura. Chola victory
at Polonnaruwa. Collapse of
irrigation system and
destruction of many religious
foundations.
Polonnaruwa Period 1073
1215
10551110
Reign of Vijayabahu; kingdom
liberated from Cholas.
1073
Capital transferred to
Polonnaruwa. Religious
foundations and irrigation
works.
115386
Reign of Parakrama I (the
Great). Polonnaruwa
becomes undisputed capital,
beginning a period of political,
religious and material
reconstruction.
118796
Reign of Nissanka Malla;
further grandiose buildings
erected.
Period of Ephemeral
Capitals 12141597
1214
Kalingan Invasion.
121536
Tyranny of Magha.
Destruction of Polonnaruwa.
1505
Portuguese arrive, establish
fort at Colombo, and soon
occupy the islands coastal
areas.
155097
Dom Jo Dharmapala set up
as puppet king by the
Portuguese.
Kandyan Period 15971815
1597
Capital moved to Kandy.
1619
Portuguese capture Jaffna.
1656
Dutch arrive and oust
Portuguese after both land
and sea battles.
1796
Dutch surrender to the British,
who have become interested
in Trincomalees fine harbour.
British Colonial Period
18021948
1802
Ceylon becomes a Crown
Colony.
1815
The last Sinhalese king, Sri
Wickrama Rajasinha,
deposed and exiled.
1867
First commercial planting of
tea and construction of first
railway line, from Colombo to
Kandy.
1919
Foundation of Ceylon National
Congress, first nationalist
political party.
1931
Universal franchise granted.
Independence 1948
Present
1948
Independence declared.
1959
Prime minister S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike assassinated
by Buddhist monk.
1960
Mrs Bandaranaike becomes
worlds first female prime
minister.
1971
Armed rebellion by Maoist
JVP in south leaves
thousands dead.
1972
Country changes its name
from Ceylon to Sri Lanka.
1983
Black July sees thousands
of Tamil civilians murdered by
Sinhalese mobs in Colombo.
Outbreak of civil war between
the Sri Lankan Army (SLA)
and the LTTE (Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in the
north.
1987
Indian peacekeeping troops
sent in.
198788
Second JVP insurrection.
Thousands more die in the
south.
1990
Departure of Indian troops.
1993
President Ranasinghe
Premadasa assassinated.
1996
World Cricket Cup victory.
2001
Truce agreed between
government and LTTE.
2004
Boxing Day tsunami ravages
coastline: 30,000 lives lost
and 100,000 left homeless.
2006
Mahinda Rajapakse becomes
president. Steady upsurge in
violence leads to renewed
fighting between SLA and
LTTE.
2007
SLA succeeds in driving LTTE
out of eastern Sri Lanka.
2009
In May, SLA defeats LTTE
forces in the north, reclaiming
all rebel-held territory and
killing Tiger supremo
Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
2010
Rajapakse re-elected
president, defeating former
army chief Sarath Fonseka.
2011
The final report of the Lessons
Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission clears
government of alleged war
crimes; the international
community remains
unconvinced.

2013

Thousands of Sri Lankan

lawyers and opposition
supporters clashed with
government supporters after
moves by parliament to
dismiss Chief Justice Shirani
Bandaranayake over claims of
financial irregularities.

2015

Maithripala Sirisena ends

Rajapakses presidency in
what is regarded to be the
most significant election for
decades. Pope Francis visits
Sri Lanka and canonises.
Established deep in the impenetrable
hills at the heart of the island, the
kingdom resisted repeated attacks by
the Portuguese and the Dutch, clinging
stubbornly to its independence
throughout the dark centuries during
which other parts of the island fell, one
after another, to the invading
Europeans.
The enduring Kingdom of Kandy
Protected by its geographical position
and physical remoteness, the Kandyan
Kingdom remained a stable point of
reference in the islands turbulent
colonial history, preserving ancient
religious and cultural traditions, which
were subdued elsewhere by corrosive
Western influences, until it, too, finally
succumbed to the British in 1815.
A centre for the arts, culture and
religion
This long history of political
independence still informs many aspects
of life in Kandy. The city remains a
bastion of Sinhalese culture and religion,
home to the islands most revered
Buddhist temple, the Temple of the
Tooth, its most sacred relic and its most
magnificent festival, the Esala Perahera.
Its also the undisputed arts and crafts
capital of the island, filled with myriad
temples and palaces built in the
distinctive Kandyan architectural style,
adorned with elaborate murals and finely
carved wooden pillars, and often
echoing to the unmistakeable sound of
the citys virtuoso drummers beating out
rhythms.
The charm of Kandy
Despite now being the islands second-
largest city, Kandy retains a surprisingly
small-town feel. The centres modest
grid of low-rise streets is lined with
characterful colonial-era buildings and
preserves a certain old-fashioned,
countrified charm, which even the often
dense throngs of traffic and pedestrians
cant entirely obscure.
Places to visit in Kandy
Temple of the Tooth
Perched on the lakeside at the eastern
end of the town centre are the serene
white buildings of the Temple of the
Tooth (Dalada Maligawa). This is Sri
Lankas most important Buddhist temple
and home to one of Buddhisms most
sacred objects, the Tooth Relic of the
Buddha, which attracts pilgrims from all
over the island and many other places in
Asia besides. It also serves as an
important symbol of Sinhalese identity
and pride traditionally, whoever had
the relic was believed to have the right
to rule the island, giving its possession a
political, as well as a religious,
dimension.
The four devales
The area immediately west of the
Temple of the Tooth is covered by the
rambling enclosures belonging to three
of the citys four principal devales, or
temples (the fourth devale is in the city
centre on Kotugodelle Vidiya). The four
gods worshipped in these
four devales were traditionally believed
to protect Kandy, and processions in
their honour still form a major part of the
great Esala Perahera festival. The
temples are nominally Buddhist, but the
gods worshipped in them have strong
Hindu roots, a reminder of the time
when the kings of Kandy were Tamils
from South India.
Esala Perahera festival
The number of visitors to the city
reaches a spectacular peak in July and
August, when thousands of people
descend on Kandy for the great Esala
Perahera festival in honour of the citys
revered Tooth Relic. The festival is held
over 10 days, with a procession every
night which grows gradually larger. By
the last couple of nights it features 100
or more elaborately caparisoned
elephants accompanied by as many as
1,000 dancers, drummers and other
performers, all following the principal
elephant, the Maligawa Tusker, who
carries a replica of the relic in a casket
on his back.
Peradeniya Botanical Gardens
About 6km (4 miles) southwest of
Kandy
Enclosed in a loop of the Mahaweli
Ganga River, the lush 60-hectare (147-
acre) gardens are stuffed with a baffling
array of Sri Lankan, Asian and
international flora. From the entrance
the stately, much-photographed Royal
Palm Avenue leads down to the Great
Circle at the centre of the gardens; while
the Great Lawn is home to a famous
giant Javan fig tree sometimes claimed
to be the largest tree in the world. North
of here, the gardens become wilder, with
troupes of macaque monkeys foraging
in the bushes and huge clusters of flying
foxes dangling from the trees overhead.
Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage
About 40km (25 miles) west of Kandy
Elephants young and old are given
sanctuary in a natural habitat at the
massively popular Pinnawela Elephant
Orphanage. The orphanage cares for
almost 100 elephants, many of whom
were either orphaned or injured in the
wild. Its a good idea to time your visit to
coincide with either the morning or
midday meals, after which the elephants
are led over to the river to take a bath in
the shallow waters of the Ma Oya the
unique spectacle of 90-odd elephants
splashing around together in the river is
one of Sri Lankas most entertaining and
impressive sights, and not to be missed.