Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean, is at the tip of the bottom of South India. Rich in culture, traditions, natural resources, was known as the land of serendipity. Sri Lanka was synonymous being known as Ceylon, Seylan, and Serendib to the travelers, who were traders of distant Arab lands.

Ruled by ancient Kings, many origination from neighboring India, were succeeded in the middle of the 15th Century by the Portuguese who arrived in 1453, followed by the Dutch and finally ruled by the British form 1796 to 1948.

Tanks, Palaces, Reservoirs, Hill tops like the famous Sigiriya and the Adam’s Peak, the Bible Rock are related to ancient civilization and folklore.

Multi racial, multi lingual, multi ethnic pluralistic societies, which were from historic times has transformed the present arena into an embodiment of our present representative organs of Democracy.

Nine Provinces comprise of Twenty Five administrative districts, exceeding twenty two thousand villages. The GDP is US$ 900 which comprises a population of approximately 22 Million people.

An economy which is governed by the open market principles, is supported by a mainly agro based infrastructure, once again enhanced by main produces of tea, rubber, cocoa, rice cultivation, and coconut.

This is supported by Industries manufacturing various products, including a massive program of fishing, as well as the people industry being tourism, precious stones, and other non tradition crops and products, which find export markets in other pats of the Globe.

As declared by the United Nations as one of most literate countries in the World – 92.5% of the total population, provides nature’s beauty of rivers, lakes, cool climes, dry areas, forests, wild life sanctuaries, within a tropical climate.

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Overview

The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century B.C., probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced beginning in about the mid-third century B.C., and a great civilization developed at the cities of Anuradhapura (kingdom from circa 200 B.C. to circa 1000 A.D.) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070 to 1200). In the 14th century, a south Indian dynasty seized power in the north and established a Tamil kingdom. 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, became a crown colony in 1802, and was united under British rule by 1815. 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 in violence in the mid-1980s. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic war that continues to fester. After two decades of fighting, the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam began a ceasefire in December 2001, with Norway brokering peace negotiations.