Sri Lanka has had a continuous record of settled and civilized life for more than two millennia. The content and direction of this civilization has been shaped by that of the Indian subcontinent. The island's two major ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils, and its two dominant religious cultures, Buddhist and Hindu, made their way onto the island from India. The various expressions of literate culture parallel those of India, and overall the culture and civilization of Sri Lanka are of the Indic pattern.
The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka
late in the 6th century B.C., probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced around the mid-3rd century B.C., with the first
entries in the Mahavamsa or "Great History" dated from
543 B.C., and resulted in a great civilization developing at the
cities of Anuradhapura (kingdom from circa 200 B.C. to circa A.D. 1000) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070 to 1200).
In the 14th century, a south Indian
dynasty seized power in the north and established a separate Tamil
kingdom.
Occupied by the Portuguese in the early 16th century and by
the Dutch in the mid-17th century, the island was ceded to the
British in 1796, became a crown colony in 1802 and was united
under British rule by 1815 when the last Kandyan King was deposed
and exiled.
As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948; its name was changed
to Sri Lanka in 1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority
and Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands
have died in an ethnic conflict that continues to fester. After
two decades of fighting, the Government and Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Ealam formalized a cease-fire in February 2002, with
Norway brokering peace negotiations.
Unfortunately the conflict has flared up again and the fighting in the east and the north of Sri Lanka still goes on.
