Woven through Sri Lanka’s absorbing history is a story of strife between the country’s two biggest ethnic groups: the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Almost every ancient site has two conflicting legends surrounding it, and historians are often hard put to distinguish fact from myth.
Most agree that the earliest Sri Lankan civilisation was based around the city of Anuradhapura. Today, the heart of early Ceylon culture is preserved as a majestic ruin - as is its successor city Polonnaruwa. The collapse of Polonnaruwa after little more than two centuries saw Sinhalese power shift to the southwest of the island, creating a dichotomy between the largely Tamil coastal settlements in the north and the southern Sinhalese settlements.
This historical division survived the colonising attempts of the Portugese, Dutch and British, and in the early 1980s erupted into full-scale civil war with the largely Sinhalese government pitted against a rebel organisation that came to be known as the Tamil Tigers.
A long-awaited deal between Sri Lanka's government and the rebel Tamil Tigers (LTTE) was concluded in early 2002. However, fighting became much more serious in 2006 and much of the country became no-go areas for tourists. The most serious fighting was in the northeast part of the country where the Tamil people were in majority.
In 2009, the government, which had escalated their offensive, announced that the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakran, had been killed during a gun battle. It ended 26 years of fighting with the LTTE – but whispers of terrible civilian massacres and civil right violations continue to cause international unease.
Most recently, UK Prime Minister David Cameron used the 2013 Commonwealth summit to call for an independent enquiry into war crime allegations. The civil war may have ended as far as tourists are concerned, but its echoes still haunt the Sri Lankan people.
Still, this vibrant little island has proved adept at bouncing back from adversity. A decade on the from the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, which killed more than 30,000 people across the country and destroyed many coastal towns, the country is powering ahead of the rest of the region both socially and economically. With tourism booming and infrastructure expanding daily, the future of Sri Lanka looks bright.
The majority of the Sinhalese population practises Buddhism (70%). Minority religions include Hinduism (almost exclusively practised by the Tamil population), Christianity, with the majority denomination being Roman Catholic (around 6% of the population as opposed to 0.8% who are Anglicans) and Islam (practised by around 10% of the population).
Social conventions:Shaking hands is the normal manner of greeting. It is customary to be offered tea when visiting and considered impolite to refuse. Punctuality is always appreciated, although it may not be reciprocated. If visiting someone’s home, or place of business, bring a small token, such as a souvenir from home. Informal, Western dress is suitable, except when visiting Buddhist temples, where modest clothing should be worn (eg no bare legs and upper arms). Visitors should be decently clothed when visiting any place of worship, and shoes and hats must be removed. Jackets and ties are not required by men in the evenings except for formal functions when lightweight suits should be worn.
The major languages spoken are Sinhala and Tamil. English is spoken by around 10% of the population, and a further small minority speak Portuguese Creole, a hangover from colonial times.
