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About Sri Lanka - General Overview
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Sri Lanka is the tear drop shaped island located in the Indian ocean. The island is spotted in the world map roughly from6-10 degrees North Latitude and from 80-82 degrees East Longitude. Length of this paradise is 435 km and the width at its broadest point 225km. Totally the land consists of 65,525 square kilometers.
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Climate & Temperature
The Sri Lankan climate is tropical. The general temperature of the country is about 27 °C, but the hill capital is cooler to about 14-17 °C. However there are relatively hot areas as well where the temperature is about 35 °C. The temperature decreases 0.64°C for every 100 meters of ascent above the sea level. Any place in Sri Lanka is not more than 113 km from the sea. Therefore the temperature is controlled by the influence of the see breeze. Climate of Sri Lanka is always influenced by 6 factors.
They are ;
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Due to the above factors Sri Lanka receives rain from 3 sources. Those are conventional rain, Monsoonal rain and Cyclonic or Depression rain. Sri Lanka situated close to the equator it receives high insulation throughout the year. In the April and September sun is overhead to the island receives much heat than other periods. The air near the surface of the Earth gets heated and begins to rise then it get cool and the water vapor is condensed and form clouds which brings the conventional rain in the evening.
Monsoonal rain is brought by two types of winds that blows across the country during specific periods of the year winds blow from the South West from May to September carry a lot of water vapor as they blow from the South West over a great distance across the sea, carrying heavy rains to the western slopes of the hill country, which receives 500mm - 2000mm of annual rainfall. The North East Monsoon blows over the island from December to February brings rain to Northern and Eastern part of the island. Since they are blowing from the Indian sub- continent and pass through only a short stretch of the ocean before they reach Sri Lanka, they carry a low density of water vapor, thus less rain is given.
The island gets rain in another source called depressions. They Bay of Bengal is a low pressure centre which effects Sri Lanka and brings another type of rain.
Geography of Sri Lanka |
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Sri Lanka could be divided into 3 relief zones.
The Coastal Line The costal line consists of estuaries, lagoons, head lands, bay, delta and marshes. The Interior Plains This part of the country contains mainly Monad rocks (residual hills). These hills are the remains of mountains which had been subject to erosion for a long period. The two world heritage sites Dambulla and Sigiriya are monad rocks. The Central Hill Country The special features in this zone are mountain ranges, plateaus and cascading waterfalls. |
History of Sri Lanka |
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The island has been inhabited from ancient times. The stone age of the country date back to about 30,000 years. The national chronicles regards to "Yakkas" and "Nagas" with high culture when the Aryans first arrived here in the 6th century BC. The legend says a mythical king who had super natural powers ruled Sri Lanka.
In 3rd century BC when king "Devannpitissa" whose kingdom was Anuradhapura Buddhism was first introduced to Sri Lanka by "Arahath Mahinda Thero". The recorded oldest tree in the world was brought to Sri Lanka by nun "Sangamitta" during this 3rd century BC. During the 2nd century BC various kings built beautiful "Stupas" (Pagoda) remaining even today with splendor. Along these pagodas Sri Lanka is also blessed with magnificent tanks and reservoirs.
Sacred Tooth Relic was brought to Sri Lanka from India during the 4th century AD. By 10th century AD kingdom was shifted from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa. This incident took place due to various invasions by "South Indian Cholas". 13th, 14th and 15th century AD era kingdom was shifted from Polonnaruwa to Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunagala, Gampola, Kotte and Kandy due to various reasons. 1505/6 Portuguese from Portugal came to Sri Lanka in search of spices. They established in Sri Lanka only in the coastal belt.
1638 Dutch people had a war with the Portuguese and took over the ruling power in the coastal belt. In 1796 British people came to Sri Lanka and 2nd of March 1815 they took the ruling power in Sri Lanka by Kandy convention. 4th February 1948 Sri Lanka gained independence from the British under the first Sinhalese prime minister D.S.Senanayake. In 1978 president J.R.Jayawardena introduced a new constitution and even today Sri Lanka is governed by that constitution.
People and Culture |
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Sri Lankan culture has basically taken it's shape from Buddhism that was gifted from India. However due to the foreign invasions such as Portuguese, Dutch and British, Sri Lankan culture was greatly influenced. These influences were reflected via new words in languages, new dresses that joined the traditional Sri Lankan dresses, new food items, etc.
As per the religions Sri Lanka again is a multi religious country due to the rich ethnic composition. The popular religions are as follows.
- Buddhist : 69.3%
- Hindu : 15.5%
- Christian : 7.5%
- Islam : 7.6%
- Others : 0.1%
Currency of Sri Lanka |
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Sri Lanka is using the 'Sri Lankan Rupee' as its home or domestic currency. It's worth in international terms could be expressed as US$1 = Rs.108.00 which is a close approximation. The notes and coins for the Sri Lankan Rupee is as follows.
Notes : 10 Rupees, 20 Rupees, 50 Rupees, 100 Rupees, 500 Rupees, 1,000 Rupees
Coins : 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, 1 Rupee, 2 Rupees, 5 Rupees, 10 Rupees
However it's important to note that 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents coins are almost out of circulation from the Sri Lankan coins.
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