Sri Lanka
Updated: Sep 15, 2022
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Country Name
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon.
Location
Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean southwest of the Bay of Bengal and southeast of the Arabian Sea. It is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and the Maldives.
Capital
Colombo
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.
Reason for Naming
Sri Lanka was known to travelers by a variety of names. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā, The Persians and Arabs referred to it as Sarandīb (the origin of the word "serendipity") from Sanskrit Siṃhaladvīpa the name given to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese was Ceilão, A name that the British later converted to Ceylon.
The name of the state is pronounced in the Sinhalese language as Sri Lanka and the name of the island is pronounced as Lamkava. As for the Tamil language, both are pronounced Ilankay. The two words are derived from the Sanskrit language and were used in the ancient Indian epics to describe the island, which roughly means the beautiful and radiant island.
Flag
The first use of the current flag design was in 1948. The flag was officially adopted on 22 May 1972.
The flag consists of a Golden border surrounded by the flag and divides the flag into two parts, the right part is a yellow lion on a red background holding a sword surrounded by four leaves, these four leaves were added to the lion field after renaming the country in 1972 from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, On the left side, there is a rectangle consisting of Green and orange stripes.
The four Orange bo leaves represent the 4 values of Buddhism: Loving-kindness, Compassion, Equanimity, and happiness.
The Kastane sword represents the authority and bravery of Sri Lanka.
The handle of the sword is supposed to represent the elements that makeup
Sri Lanka; Water, Fire, Bravery, and earth.
The gold color represents the largest religion in Sri Lanka Buddhism and
the gold color surrounding the other colors is meant to show that the
Buddhists are protecting other religions.
The green color represents Muslims, the Orange color represents the Hindus, and the Maroon color represents the Sinhalese people, the largest Ethnicity group in Sri Lanka, the Golden Lion is a symbol of the Sinhalese people.
Language
Sinhala and Tamil are the two official languages in the country.
English is widely used for education, scientific and commercial purposes.
Besides the two official languages in Sri Lanka, several minority languages are also spoken as Sri Lankan Creole Malay and Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole.
Religion
Buddhism is the largest and considered an "Official religion" of Sri Lanka, most from the Theravada school of thought.
Hinduism is the second most dominant religion and predates Buddhism.
Today, Hinduism is dominant in Northern, Eastern, and Central Sri Lanka.
Islam is the third most dominant religion in the country, Most Muslims are Sunni and follow the Shafi'i school.
There is also a small group of Christians most of them Roman Catholics.
Currency
Sri Lankan rupee (Rs) (LKR).
Time Zone
+05:30 GMT.
Government Regime
A unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic