Travel

Sri Lanka has more than 3,550 years of continuous written history by means of the Mahawansha, and was also mentioned in several ancient Indian texts. One of the most famous is the Ramayana. in which the island, which was referred to as Lanka, was the island fortress of the king Ravana, who captured the wife of Rama an incarnation of the Hindu God, Vishnu. Legend has it that Hanuman the monkey god flew over to Lanka and destroyed the capital by setting it on fire, while Rama and his remaining troops later crossed over from the mainland by building a land bridge across the sea.

The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century BC, probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced beginning in about the mid-3rd century BC, and a great civilization developed at such cities as Anuradhapura (kingdom from c. 200 BC to c. 1000 AD) and Polonnaruwa (c. 1070 to 1200). Other notable but relatively more recent kingdoms are Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Gampola, Kandy and Jaffna Kingdoms.

Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and by the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded to the British in 1796, and became a crown colony in 1802. As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948; the name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.

In May 2009 government military forces defeated the Tamil Tigers' separatist movement and ended a brutal 26 year-long war that began in 1983, thus opening up a new chapter in its history.

Since Sri Lanka is a tropical country, you can expect the rain anytime of the year in most parts. However, the two major rainy seasons are North-East monsoon (October to January) and South-West monsoon (May to July).

Being an island, the climate of Sri Lanka changes dramatically from one part of the country to another. For example at Nuwara Eliya. in the hills of Central Sri Lanka. has a temperature around -5-20°C throughout the year, whereas Hambanthota, located in the dry zone, has a temperature consistently around 30-35°C.

Mostly low, flat to rolling plain with mountains in the south-central interior rising to 2,524m at Piduruthalagala .

Sinhala. spoken by the majority Sinhalese, and Tamil. spoken by the minority Tamil and Muslim groups, are Sri Lanka's two official languages. English is commonly used in most cities, especially Colombo. Kandy and Galle. and by government and tourism officials. But while most of the people in Colombo can speak English, don't expect everyone, everywhere to be able to speak it fluently. In the beach and tourist areas you will have no problem with English. Most people in rural villages, however, cannot speak any English, beyond a few simple words.

• Sinhala Language The greeting in Sinhala is "ayubowan". It means "May you live longer"; 'Thank you' is "Bohoma sthuthi" and "how are you" is "kohomada", pronounced "Ko homede""
• Tamil Language. The greeting in Tamil is "Vanakkam"; 'Thank you' is "Nandri"

Sinhala writing is much more curved than Tamil. After a while, you'll learn how to distinguish between the two.