Sri Lanka tour

The official name of Sri Lanka is Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, but it is also known as Ceylon, which was the official name until 1972. The state is located in Asia and occupies the homonymous island located aff the south-east coast India. Due to its shape and its proximity to the Indian subcontinent is named “tear of India”. Since 1978, the capital of Sri Lanka is Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. It is part of the British Commonwealth. The official languages are Sinhalese and Tamil, to which English is added.

The firts inhabitants of Sri Lanka were the Vedda. The Sinhalese came on the island in the late VI century b.C. and it was only towards the middle of the II century b.C. that Buddhism was introduced at the same time as the growth of civilization and the establishment of cities such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Around the XIII century, there was a massive Tamil presence in the northern and coastal areas of the island, but the extent and the period of emigration are still the subject of debate among scholars. Well documented, however, is the Tamilsinvasion coming from southern India which stormed the capital Anuradhapura at the death of the Sinhalese king Uttiya in 286 of the Buddhist Era. They reigned for several decades, until 101 b.C., when Dutthagamani became the new king of the island. Tamil people emigrated in Sri Lanka, developped their own culture, compared those left behind in India; coexistence with the Sinhalese had ups and downs, with periods of peace and war and reciprocal invasions. The Sinhalese capital was moved in many cities over the centuries and with the succeding of kingdoms. When in 1505 the Portuguese attacked the island, the capital of Sri Lanka was Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte. Sri Lanka was a very useful hub for trade with Asia and it was a territory coveted from many European countries. In the XVII century also the Dutch arrived and in 1796 the island was given up to to the British and became a crown’s colony in 1802. To gain independence Ceylon had to wait starting from 1948. In 1972, the name was changed in Sri Lanka and the parliament moved to Sri Jayewardanapura Kotte. Clashes between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority blew up in the 1980s, after an attack on some Sinhalese soldiers by the Tigers for the liberaton of Tamil Eelam. The unrest and the clashes that followed caused the death of a thousands Tamil people in just three days and many became refugees. In December 2001, after 20 years of fights and thousands lives sacrificed, the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka signed a truce, with Norway as mediator of the peace process (guilty of supplying the Tamil Tigres with weapons). The Tamil Tigers have been declared a terrorist organization first by the United States and then by many other European and non-European countries. Chandrika Kumaratunga herself, president of Sri Lanka from 1994 until2005, admitted to the UN that deep discimination has always been rooted in Sinhalese society leading to acts of terrorism, but very few efforts have been made to guarantee equality for the Tamil population. In December 2004 a violent tsunami hit and devastated the southern and eastern coasts of Sri Lanka, causing the death of 40,000 people. The difficult situation made the clashes between Tamils and the military weaker, pushing the entire population towards gestures of solidarity and brotherhood. Unfortunately not even an event like this has prevented a few businessmen from exploiting the situation to their advantage, by approving laws that have led to strong privatizations and the construction of tourist facilities in coastal areas, to the detriment of homes and marina that were previously there. A large part of the population, temporarily welcomed in reception camps, lost not only their homes and lands but alsotheir livelihood, their fishing. These events caused a strong discontent and the ethnic fights started again. Today the biggest part of Tamil people live peacefully with Sinhalese, only a few Tamil separatists have created, in the north-east area of the country, a “de facto” state with their own police, tax and justice. Their goal has always been to obtain full autonomy and even in the 2000s they repeatedly attacked Colombo, until in 2009 the Sinhalese army has finally won the civil war that since 1983 (for 26 years) devastate the country. At that time, the president Mahinda Rajapaksa started a series of projects aimed at revitalizing and developing the country, by building modern infrastructures to increase tourism.