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SRI
LANKA > HISTORY
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HISTORY OF SRI LANKA IN BRIEF
Sri Lanka or "Ceylon" as it is still remembered
by some, is a rich mix of nationalities and cultures.
Descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch and British who ruled
the country at various times, Moorish and Indian traders
and visiting Chinese and Malaysians who opted to stay
on, maintain their customs, traditions and religious beliefs
brought in over the centuries by their ancestors. This
adds not only variety, but also spice to island life.
Legend has it that Prince Vijaya from India (543 BC),
the first recorded Aryan settler, kissed the shores of
this island on which he landed and called her "Thambapani"
meaning "The Golden Island." To early Greek
and Roman travellers she was "Taprobane", to
Arab sailors of Sindbad's vintage she was "Serendib"
which added a new word to dictionaries - "Serendipity"
- the way of making happy and unexpected discoveries by
accident." To the Portuguese and Dutch she was "Ceylao"
and "Zeilan" and to the British she was "Ceylon"
until in 1972, the Government of the time renamed the
island "The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri
Lanka."
Descendants of Prince Vijaya and Kuveni, a Raksha princess
who became enamoured of this handsome invader, formed
the Sinhala race, displacing the original inhabitants
of the land, the "Veddhas".
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Today there are around 100 families or less of these hunter-gatherers,
who maintain their primitive lifestyle in pockets of land
east of the Central Province. An event of enormous importance
occurred in the middle of the 3rd Century BC when Buddhism
was first introduced to the island. The Indian Emperor
Asoka sent his son, the Thera Mahinda to convert King
Tissa of Lanka. The King later became known as "King
Devanampiyatissa" meaning "Tissa, who is dear
to the Gods." The advent of Buddhism became the impetus
for the development of a Buddhist culture and the Sinhala
identity.
It also inspired the development of Anuradhapura, the
first royal capital. Impressive monuments, religious and
secular, were built during this period - from the 3rd
Century BC lasting about 1,500 years - and these magnificent
dagobas and temples still stand as testimonials to a magnificent
period in the history of the island. Relations between
Sri Lanka and neighbouring India were not cordial and
repeated invasions from southern India were repelled until
the 11th century when Chola warriors succeeded in destroying
Anuradhapura. For 75 years the Cholas ruled Sri Lanka
as a province of South India - the only instance of direct
Indian control in the island's history. A second royal
capital rose at Polonnaruwa, when the Cholas moved the
island's power base to this town, nearer to the Mahaweli
River. They made the switch largely for security reasons.
The river afforded some protection and the city commanded
a strategic location from which they could guard against
an invasion from Ruhuna, the refuge of any potential Sinhalese
liberation force, since it lay near the main crossing
on the Mahaweli which an advancing army from Ruhuna would
have had to ford. The Cholas were ultimately unsuccessful
in defending themselves against the nationalistic drive
of Sri Lanka's indigenous people. Vijayabahu I mounted
a long offensive against Polonnaruwa. The Cholas surrendered
in 1070 and left the island for good.
Although Anuradhapura had been captured by Vijayabahu
early in his campaign, he never restored it to its former
glory, recalling how vulnerable it had been in the past
to invasions from India. Polonnaruwa he felt, had the
virtue of greater protection from invading forces. He
concentrated his efforts on rebuilding the damage Polonaruwa
had undergone under Chola rule. This city too had its
own share of magnificent Buddhist architecture and an
irrigation network built up over the centuries by earlier
Sinhalese leaders such as Mahasena, who had constructed
its famous Minneriya Tank in the 3rd century A.D. In 1500
there were three different kingdoms on the island. The
King of Kotte controlled the western plains while the
King of Jaffna ruled the north. In the central hills,
an almost impenetrable area of thick jungle and wooded
steep slopes concealed a new kingdom asserting independence
based in Kandy. This proved to be the strongest since
it was the last bastion to fall to British invaders in
later years. Portuguese merchant ships arriving by accident
in 1505 on the shores of Sri Lanka, decided to establish
a trading settlement in the growing port city of Colombo
on the southwest coast. Gradually acquiring more land
and consolidating their positions by building small forts
and churches along the coastline, they converted almost
the whole of the west coast population of fishing communities
to Roman Catholicism, showing great intolerance towards
other religions. After a few successful battles and alliances,
the Portuguese became rulers of the island's coastal areas,
more by chance that strategic planning! The Dutch who
had by now consolidated their power in other parts of
Asia, turned envious eyes on the profitable spice trade
monopolised by the Portuguese. Signing a treaty with the
King of Kandy in 1638, they promised to help him rid the
island of the Portuguese. This they did with difficulty
in 1658. However, the King of Kandy soon realised that
he had exchanged one set of despots for another. Revoking
the terms of the original treaty, the Dutch set out to
secure the lucrative Indian Ocean trade. This resulted
in a long drawn out battle between the Dutch and the King
of Kandy. Strengthening the existing Portuguese forts,
the Dutch to all intents and purposes were here to stay.
The one in Colombo was extended to cover the whole area
now simply known as "Fort". This was almost
totally destroyed by the British when they built the harbour
in Colombo in 1870. The Dutch fort in Galle is the best
preserved in South Asia, and designated the only UNESCO
Living World Heritage Site on the island. Much of the
old town still stands with its whitewashed old houses
and church intact. Developing inland commerce, the Dutch
built up the cinnamon trade, and the residential area
of Cinnamon Gardens is a reminder of the plantations established
by them at the time. As colonisers they brought along
their knowledge of water systems and land reclamation,
turning swampland into productive fields. A superb network
of canals extended from Colombo to Puttalam, a distance
of 120 km. During this period the Dutch also introduced
slavery to the island. Some of these slaves were local
criminals while others were imported from Africa. A slave
rebellion in the 18th century resulted in the rebels being
kept on an island in the crocodile infested Beira Lake
at night, and sent to their workplaces in the morning.
Although the island and the slaves no longer exist, the
area is still called "Slave Island", one of
the most intriguing areas in the city of Colombo. The
influence the Portuguese and the Dutch had on the island
is insignificant in comparison to that of Great Britain.
The British took just two years - 1795 and 1796 - to drive
the Dutch away from the island they called Ceylon, seizing
the strategic ports on the coast themselves. In 1802 King
George III formally declared Ceylon a crown colony. In
the following year, 1803, the Kandyans managed to beat
back the first British attack force. But dynastic divisions
that arose in the kingdom led to the fall of Kandy to
the British in 1815. The elimination of the Kandyan monarchy
fanned new flames of resistance that exploded in to the
"Great Rebellion" of 1817 - 1818, recognised
as the most formidable insurrection of the whole British
colonial period. Only a long, ruthless campaign enabled
the British break the resistance of the Kandyans and for
the first time since the rule of Parakramabahu I and Nissanka
Malla, the entire island came under the control of a single
power. The humiliating difference was that the rulers
this time around, were the British. The new rules encouraged
settlers move all over the island and introduced the plantation
system. Cinnamon, coconut, rubber and coffee estates were
established in suitable areas and over 200,000 Indian
workers imported as an indentured labour force to work
on them. The descendants of these migrants still work
the estates and unified under a strong union, yield considerable
political clout as many a successive government has discovered.
Although a subjugated people under alien rule, the Ceylonese
experienced a period of relative peace and stability.
A disastrous bout of coffee blight resulted in tea replacing
the original coffee plantations and Ceylon Tea is even
today much sought after, with more tea being produced
on this tiny island than anywhere else in the world! Internal
trade was further developed, the British building an extensive
road and rail network. This paved the way to consolidation
of the island's rule under a single administration. One
of the secrets of Kandy's long survival over the previous
centuries was the fact that most of its country was wilderness
suited to guerrilla warfare techniques mastered by them.
Governor Sir Edward Barnes, by constructing a road system
that opened the Kandyan provinces to the rest of the island,
effectively eliminated the potential threat of these guerrilla-type
activities indulged in by the Kandyans The plantation
agriculture established by the British still maintains
its pattern.
Three crops - tea, rubber and coconut - formed the foundations
of the economy then, and continue to do so even today.
Other useful legacies included methods of governance,
institutionalised education and health services and the
widespread use of the English language. The 133 years
of British rule ended as independence came peacefully
to Ceylon on the 4th of February 1948. Sri Lanka's first
Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake inherited a healthy economy
and a solid infrastructure. D.S. Senanayake's mature statesmanship
provided a reliable base from which Ceylon could begin
the difficult process of nation building. On his death
in 1952, the momentum of his party - the United National
Party - and its early achievements swept his son Dudley
into the Prime Minister's chair. But the seeds of civil
war, sown over centuries of mistrust through the country's
history, and which had until now been lying dormant, began
to germinate. As religious, cultural and language issues
gathered steam and reached gale force proportions, it
proved to be too powerful for the existing social and
political structure to withstand. The first major challenge
to the UNP government came from one of its former members,
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, a senior cabinet colleague of the
senior Senanayake. Defecting to the opposition with a
small group of supporters in 1951, he formed the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party (SLFP) fashioning it into a political force
which appealed to all those dissatisfied with the UNP
but opposed to Marxist solutions. In 1956 Bandaranaike
and his SLFP, with the aid of smaller splinter parties,
won a landslide victory in the general election. Introducing
the Official Languages Act resulted in the displacement
of many minority communities from the top jobs given them
by the British, relegating them instead to second class
status. Existing cracks deepened, leading to violent protests
and rioting. Eventually demands for a separate homeland
in the north grew as more radical Tamil political groups
were formed over the years. To add to the existing turmoil,
a Sinhalese Marxist group known as the JVP launched a
counter offensive in the south, which provoked rioting
and terror in 1971. The Government crushed the rebellion
imposing a state of emergency that lasted many years.
The JVP opposed any concessions to Tamils undermining
Sinhalese dominance. As the situation continued to deteriorate,
one Tamil group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
or LTTE, soon asserted dominance over the competition,
terrorising or assassinating them to become the de facto
rulers in the north and some parts of the east.
During the late 1980s, an Indian peacekeeping force was
stationed in Jaffna, slightly easing the situation in
the north. However, shades of the past seemed to cast
their shadows over the Sinhalese who fiercely resented
a foreign force on its shores, and the Indian army, here
to keep the peace or not, provoked a resurgence of JVP
activity. Southern resentment grew against an Indian army
on Sri Lankan soil, and a gruesome period of terror followed
with many atrocities being committed in the name of nationalism.
The second JVP uprising was finally crushed at the end
of 1989, with the capture and death of its leader. The
ethnic conflict continues as round after round of peace
talks have floundered due to mutual mistrust. Although
hopes for the LTTE's main demand for a separate state
have dimmed, the war has escalated in the recent past,
resulting in a great loss of life on both sides. Many
still believe that a negotiated settlement can be arrived
at, and that it is the only way in which the legitimate
grievances of the Tamil people might be addressed and
lasting peace achieved. The ongoing civil war, which in
certain instances has been blown out of proportion by
foreign media agencies for the sake of sensational news
reporting, is naturally of concern to anyone intending
to visit Sri Lanka. However, the conflict has been purely
an internal one, generally confined to the north and east
of the island, and foreign visitors have not been targeted.
Peter Arnett, the award-winning war correspondent was
recently quoted in a documentary film produced by the
national carrier SriLankan Airlines and the Ceylon Tourist
Board titled "Battlefield or Paradise." He states
emphatically that: "It is easy to think when you
are outside Sri Lanka, elsewhere in the world, that all
of this country is involved in the conflict. You look
at the headlines, you look at Jaffna and you read about
the fighting, when in fact Colombo the capital and other
major tourist areas, they are really not involved in the
war...." This same documentary quotes around 40 foreign
investors, business people and tourists who say the same
thing in different ways. It is probably just as safe holidaying
in Sri Lanka as in any other country in Asia, or in the
world for that matter.
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