Sri Lanka: June 2010

Thursday, June 24, 2010

World War II

The Sri Lankans served a great purpose during WWII. A large number of British and American soldiers landed in Sri Lanka to battle against the Japanese. Sri Lanka was expected to gain independence from India, as the Indian army had established a Lankan Regiment to house the existing Sri Lankans. The plan which was to transport them from India to Sri Lanka by submarines was however, aborted.

Colonial era

British colonial Coat of arms of Ceylon

The British East India Company gained control over the island in 1976, declaring it its best colony in 1802. Sri Lanka was not related to the colony to begin with, however, after the fall of the Kingdom of Kandy, the island fell to the hands of the British.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Sri Lanka currency

Coins of Rupees

The rupee is the currency of Sri Lanka. It is issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and is generally written as 'Rs'.

Conversion of S$1 to rupees and vice versa;

1 Singapore Dollar = 81.56629 Sri Lanka Rupee

1 Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) = 0.01226 Singapore Dollar (SGD)

Sri Lanka Sinhalese

Sinhalese writing

The Sinhalese makes the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, comprising of 11 million people or 74% of the total population in 1981. Groups of people from north India introduced a primitive form of Sinhala when they migrated to the country around 500 BC, taking along with them the agricultural economy that has remained superior until the 20th century. In 1988, about 93% of the people that spoke Sinhala were Buddhists, and 99.5% of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka spoke Sinhala. The English education was not very welcomed, and the traditional Buddhist education continued to remain as the basic education. This was so to preserve the Sinhalese culture.

Christianity

Roman Catholic

Considerable numbers of coastal converted to the religion of Christianity, due to the determined missionary efforts of the Dutch, Portuguese and British. 43% of the Protestants and 66% of the Roman Catholic were Sinhalese in the early 1980s.

Sri Lanka history

Sri Lanka, also known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Ceylon before 1972, is a country with an island as its mainland. It is located in South Asia, approximately 31 kilometers off the southern coast of India.

A Buddha statue

Sri Lanka is a country whose major religion is Buddhism, mostly practicing the Theravada. It is also one of the few remaining countries that hold Buddhism as its major religion in South Asia. The Sinhalese community constitutes the majority of the country's total population, and the Tamils, who are concentrated in the northern and eastern areas of the island, makes the largest ethnic minority. Other ethnic minorities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malay and the indigenous Vedda people.

The British colonized Ceylon in the 19th century.

After many years of ruling under local kingdoms, areas of Sri Lanka were colonized by the Portuguese and the Dutch, starting in the 16th century. After which, the reign of the entire country was handed over to Britain in 1815. Allied forces used the country as a substantial base to fight against Japan during WWII. There was a plan to overthrow the British ruling in the early 20th century in order to obtain political independence, which was granted after peaceful negotiations in 1948.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sri Lanka agriculture

Agriculture plays a large role in the development of Sri Lanka's economy. The dominant plantations include tea, rubber and coconut. Sri Lanka specializes in production of black tea leaves, and is the largest supplier in the world. Their annual sale of black tea leaves is about USD $621 million, and the main export countries are Russia, Middle East and United Kingdom. Rubber is the second largest commodity produced in Sri Lanka, and is grown in the ridges of valleys. They earn large profits by selling rubber to other countries, and China has always been demanding for this product, even until now. Livestock is small in Sri Lanka, and dairy farming is a small scale domestic activity. Annual milk production can only sustain a quarter of the country's needs.

Rubber Trees

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Problems faced in Sri Lanka

Deforestation and forest fires are common problems faced in Sri Lanka.

Forest fires burn large areas of rainforests in Sri Lanka, and they are started either by mankind or nature. The possibilities of fire hazards in forest plantations are very high, especially in Eucalyptus and Pine plantations. There are a number of factors that cause forest fires started by humans, and these factors are throwing cigarette buds, setting forests on fire by hunters to chase animals out and burning dead grass in order to obtain new ones.

Deforestation is an effect of forest fires, although there are other causes for deforestation. These include commercial farming, rapid urbanization and economic development, for example, hydroelectricity and mining.

LTTE( Tigers)

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as LTTE, was a rebellious organization based in Sri Lanka. The organization consisted of Tamil university students living in Sri Lanka. These were the people who demonstrated violence towards the country. They wanted to achieve independence in the northern and eastern sides of Sri Lanka. It was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia and has caused much disturbance to the world. The organization possessed powerful weapons which posed threats to the country, possibly harming the innocent citizens. Their weapon of choice are suicide bombers. Suicide bombers take others along with them when they detonate the bombs tied to themselves, and they are usually women. They also engaged in fierce confrontations and although 4 peace talks involving the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government were held, the Tigers did not give in peacefully. The organization accepted defeat when the Sri Lankan military attacked them during the last peace talk. However, small groups of the LTTE still remain and pose potential threats.

Ministries in Sri Lanka

The national flag

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010