Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southern tip of India, from which the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait divide it. It was called Ceylon until it became a republic in 1972.

Colombo is the largest city and the seat of the executive and the courts, while parliament sits in neighboring Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages, and English is the link language. Tradition dates Sinhalese history from Prince Vijaya in 543 BCE. Anuradhapura, founded as a royal capital in 380 BCE, kept that role for nearly 1,400 years, and around 29 BCE the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism was written down on the island. Parākramabāhu the Great, who ruled from 1153 to 1186, built some 1,470 reservoirs. The Portuguese and then the Dutch held the coasts, the British took Kandy, the last kingdom, in 1815, and independence came on 4 February 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon.

The state is a unitary democratic republic with a semi-presidential system. In 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike became prime minister, the first woman elected to lead a government anywhere. In the 19th and 20th centuries the island grew into a plantation economy built on cinnamon, rubber and Ceylon tea, which remains its trademark export. Clothing, rice, tourism, food processing, telecommunications and finance are now major sectors, and the island has graphite, ilmenite and other minerals. Radio Ceylon, founded in 1923, is the oldest radio station still running in Asia.

King Kashyapa I, who reigned from 477 to 495, built the rock fortress of Sigiriya, ringed by walls and moats. In Kandy the Temple of the Tooth has held the sacred Tooth Relic since 1595, and each July and August the Esala Perahera fills the city with dancers and decorated elephants. Kandyan dance, with its elaborate headdresses for men, is the leading classical style. Rice and curry, string hoppers, kottu and the coconut pudding watalappam are everyday dishes. Volleyball is the national sport, and the cricket team won the World Cup in 1996 and the World Twenty20 in 2014.