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.