Sri lanka is situated in the Indian Sub continent on the tip of south India between 7 to 10 Degrees north of the Equator .
Land extent area is 65,000sq k meters and the highest altitude is 2500 meters above the sea level.The hill country is covered up with Tea plantations of 250,000 hectares where the finest quality of tea being produced among the tea producing countries in the world.Hundreds of tea factories and tea pluckers brings unparalleled beauty, with the number of waterfalls all around the region.
The capital of the country is
Colombo. Population is 1 million
Historical cities were Anuradhapura (400 years BC to 1300 years AC)
Second capital was Polonnaruwa (1155 to1186)
The last capital of the Sinhalese kingdom was Kandy (1500 TO 1815)
The most sacred Temple of Tooth of Buddha is in the hill capital of Kandy.
The population is over 20 million and 74% are called Sinhalese a race of Indo-Aryans,11.5% of the population are Tamils who are called as Dravidian,in addition to the 4.5% of Indian Tamils who were brought by the British ,the colonial masters of the country in the 19th century after Portuguese and the Dutch.
There is a Muslim population of 7% which consists from the descendants of the Arab traders who came and settled in Sri lanka and the Malay Muslims came from Malaya which is called today as Malaysia.
History of Sri lanka goes back to 6th century BC. A north Indian Prince called "Wijaya" who came with seven hundred of his followers, became the first king of Sri lanka.
During 23centuries of Sinhalese dynasty there were ups and downs prosperity and the destruction prevailed in sri lanka .
Buddhism was introduced to the country in3rd century BC.In the 3rd century BC the son of Emperor Asoka of India who became a Buddhist monk named as Arahath "Mahinda" is the noble person who introduced Buddhism to the country.Today the population consists of Buddhist, Hindus ,Muslims and Christians.
There are lot of historical monuments and temples of Buddhist Hindus Muslims and Christians live all over the country.There are lot of Cultural and Religious festivals through out the year.The Buddhist Procession called The Kandy perahera of the Sacred Temple of Tooth of Buddha is the largest and most beautiful among the world of its kind.
The golden Beaches of 1200 kms brings lot of beauty to the island.
After the year 1505 Portuguese merchants came to Sri lanka and later-on colonized the southwestern coastal region of the country.Hundred and fifty years later Dutch from Holland chased away Portuguese and stayed for another 150 years.Finally British came here they colonized whole island in 1815 .
In 1948 Sri lanka became an independent nation and now called as the Democratic socialist republic of Sri lanka.We have today a Government elected by the popular vote and the President is elected for every six years.The staple food is Rice.Which is called paddy when it is in the field, which we have 650,000 hectares of fields or plantations.
After the independence our economy was based on three agricultural products ,which are,
Tea,Rubber and Coconut etc.
There are 250,000 hectares of Tea plantations in law level(0-600 meters altitude), medium level (600-1300 meters altitude)and high grown(1300-2000 meters altitude) etc.
Coconut plantations are another 250,000 hectares and Rubber(Hevea)another 200,000 hectares of plantations spread all over the country in low and medium altitude areas.
During the last three decades the agricultural based economy was diversified to the various sectors as textile ,ready made garments,information technology,and various other field.
Recently elected government and the President encouraged the agricultural sector by giving the fertilizers with 96% of subsidiary to the local farmers.In the recent world food crisis Sri lanka was less affected because we were self-sufficient in our staple(main)food,which is mainly rice.
Apart from these agricultural products Sri lanka is rich in minerals like Manganese, Rutile,
plumbago and the one of the largest phosphate deposit in the world.
Country is well known for its
Precious stones which are called as Gems namely: Ruby, Blue sapphire,Alexandrite,Topaz,Aquamarine, Tourmaline and Moonstone (Only found here) and other number of varieties. Now there are oil explorations in Manar basin up to the down south of the country.
Malki
