Peoples of Sri Lanka

One of the legends in the ancient chronicle known as the Mahavamsa describes the people of the island before the era of the great maritime trade. Since then, history has made this country into a pot pourri of cultures and ethnic groups, and mixed marriages have erased the differences to such extent that, nowadays, it is impossible to distinguish a Tamil from a Sinhalese on the basis of physical appearance alone.

The population of Sri Lanka is currently around 19 million. Today the Sinhalese make up 74% of the total population.

Sri Lanka's Tamils (18%) comprise the long settled Tamils of the north and east (12.5%) and the migrant workers of the tea plantations in the Hill Country (5.5%), who settled in Sri Lanka from the late 19th Century onwards. Even though the two communities have common ancestry, they hardly ever intermingle.

The so-called "Moors" (a term inherited from the Portuguese), Tamil-speaking Muslims of Indian-Arab descent, were traders on the east coast and now constitute 7% of the population.

A much smaller but highly distinct community is that of the Burghers, numbering about 50,000 (0.25%). The Dutch (mainly members of the Dutch Reformed Church) and the Portuguese intermarried with local people, and their descendents were urban and ultimately English speaking.

There are similar numbers of Malays and smaller groups of Kaffirs. The Malays are Muslims who were brought by the Dutch from Java. The Kaffirs were brought by the Portuguese from Mozambique and other parts of East Africa as mercenaries.

The aboriginal inhabitants, the Veddha, have long since been absorbed into the general melting pot of cultures. Today may be only 200 or 300 still live in their ancestral homelands and maintain a Stone Age lifestyle.

Burghers

Origins and culture
Once upon a time, this term was used to describe the Europeans - mainly the Dutch or the Portuguese - employed in the service of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie - VOC) or free to set up in business on their own. With the onset of British colonisation, in which they played an important auxiliary role, this distinction disappeared. The word "Burgher" began to be used to describe anyone with European ancestors. During the same period, they abandoned the Dutch language in favour of English and monopolised the top posts in the colonial administration. With the gaining of independence, when Sinhalese replaced English as the official language, many of them chose to emigrate, with Australia as a favourite destination. Today these heirs to the colonial past number about 50,000, and openly describe themselves as a community threatened with extinction.

Christianity in Sri Lanka
Christianity was introduced by the Portuguese, although the discovery, at Anuradhapura, of a bas-relief of a hand holding a cross may point to the presence of a community of Syrian Christians as early as the 5th or 6th Centuries, following the example of the west coast of India.

Unlike India, where Christian missionary work from the late 18th Century was often carried out in spite of colonial government rather than with its active support, in Sri Lanka missionary activity enjoyed various forms of state backing. One Sinhalese king, Dharmapala, was converted, endowing the church, and even some high caste families became Christian. When the Dutch evicted the Portuguese they tried to suppress Roman Catholicism, and the Dutch Reformed Church found some converts. Other Protestant denominations followed the arrival of the British, though not always with official support or encouragement. Many of the churches remained dependent on outside support.

Between the two World Wars, Christian influence in the government was radically reduced. Denominational schools lost their protection and special status, and since the 1960s have had to come to terms with a completely different role in Sri Lanka. Despite the limited influence of Christianity in the central government of modern Sri Lanka, Christianity is still practised by 8% of the population and Roman Catholics account for 90% of the island's Christians. Today Christians feature in every social category of the island, from the poorest (the fishermen on the west coast) to the most influential (the middle classes in Colombo), and Christmas is a public holiday in the national calendar.

Muslims, Moors and Malays

Origins and culture
Arab traders first visited Sri Lanka many millennia ago. By 1000 BC the pearl divers of Mantota (Mannar) were Arabs and Persians, and the pearl necklace that adorned the neck of the Queen of Sheba is said to have come from here. In the time of the ancient Sinhalese kings, Anuradhapura had an Arab street where stallions were traded for spices. However, the main influx of Arabs arrived after the rise of Islam, and large settlements grew around Jaffna and all the way along the western coast to Galle. The Muslims had a virtual monopoly on trade on the island until the Portuguese arrived. The Muslims sought protection from the King of Kandy, who hid them in places like Gampola, Mawanella, Welimada and Akuressa.

The British, busily classifying everything and everyone, put the Moors, Tamil speaking Muslims of Indian-Arab descent, in a separate category from the later Muslim arrivals, the Malays and the Indian Muslims. The Malays are descended from Malay regiments brought over by the Dutch, while the Indian Muslims (Bohras and Memons - a distinct Indian Shia sect hailing mainly from the Kutch in northern Gujarat) were brought over by the British themselves. Today's Muslim community, who are the only community on the island to claim an identity based on their religion alone, constitutes 7% of the population, 95% of which are Moors.

Islam in Sri Lanka
Islam was brought to Sri Lanka by Arab traders. Long before the followers of the Prophet Mohammad spread the new religion of Islam Arabs had been trading across the Indian Ocean with southwest India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and South East Asia. When the Arab world became Muslim so the newly-converted Arab traders brought Islam with them, and existing communities of Arab origin adopted the new faith. However, numbers were also swelled by conversions from both Buddhists and Hindus, and by immigrant Muslims from south India who fled the Portuguese along the west coast of India.

The great majority of the present day Muslim population of Sri Lanka is Tamil speaking, although there are also Muslims of Malay origin who speak a créole with a strong Malaysian influence. Both in Kandy and in the coastal districts Muslims have generally lived side by side with Buddhists, often sharing common interests against colonial powers. However, one of the means by which Muslims maintained their identity was to refuse to be drawn into colonial education. As a result, by the end of the 19th Century the Muslims were among the least educated groups. A Muslim lawyer, Siddi Lebbe, helped to change attitudes and encourage participation by Muslims

In 1915 there were major Sinhalese-Muslim riots, and Muslims began a period of active collaboration with the British, joining other minorities led by the Tamils in the search for security and protection of their rights against the Sinhalese. The Muslims have been particularly anxious to maintain Muslim family law, and to gain concessions on education. One of these is the teaching of Arabic in government schools to Muslim children. Until 1974, Muslims were unique among minorities in having the right to choose which of three languages - Sinhala, Tamil or English - would be their medium of instruction. Since then a new category of Muslim schools has been set up, allowing them to distance themselves from the Tamil Hindu community, whose language most of them speak.

Sinhalese

Cultural influences
National pride
Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Bhikkus, monasteries and temples
Belief in the stars
The Sinhala community today

Cultural influences
The Sinhalese have grown accustomed to taking on cultural influences from visitors and traders. Their willing acceptance of new ideas and people was further strengthened by the large-scale emigration to the island from north and south India. Many of the Sinhalese dynasties were enriched by imported royal stock from Indian coastal kingdoms. Their retinues, mercenaries and artisans provided a wealth of knowledge and expertise which helped develop the culture. Poetry, dance, drama, painting and sculpture all thrived in such favourable circumstances.

National pride
The foreign domination of the past five centuries brought other stimulating influences, many of which enriched Sinhalese culture. The national dish, rice and curry, for example, is derived from the Dutch, and the British education system transferred well. However, all of this was at a very high price. The level of exploitation and the divisive methods used to control the populace struck deep. Sinhalese nationalism is an understandable but negative reaction to earlier suppression.

Despite being rooted in many cultures and enduring 500 years of foreign control, the Sinhalese have carried through their turbulent history an intensely felt sense of their unique identity, pointing to the purity of the form of Buddhism practised on the island and on the long history of their kings.

The Sinhalese are proud of their dynasty of kings reaching back 2300 years, an unbroken chain of 167 monarchs, who reigned in various parts of the island, ending with the capture of Kandy in 1815. Throughout the centuries, one feature that endured was the balance of influence maintained between the rulers, the Buddhist monks and village society.

Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Having enjoyed a golden age in the pre-medieval period, Buddhism is still the dominant religion of Sri Lanka, practised by 69% of the population. According to Article 9 of the Constitution, it is the State's duty to grant it priority and to protect it, at the same time guaranteeing freedom of worship to other religions.

One of the paradoxes of Sri Lanka is the fact that it is simultaneously a preserver of the most orthodox form of Buddhism, the Theravada ("Way of the Elders"), yet responsible for leading it through profound changes since the end of the 19th Century in order to adapt it to the modern world.

Tradition associates the founding of Sri Lanka's first kingdom with Devanampiya Tissa, who the Mahavamsa suggests was converted to Buddhism by Mahinda, son of the great Indian emperor Asoka, at Mihintale near Anuradhapura. His decision to make Buddhism the official religion in his state continues to shape Sri Lanka today. Devanampiya Tissa also founded the Mahavihara ("Great Monastery") in Anuradhapura, the first such Buddhist monastic community in the country, which was to have a repeated decisive influence on the land's political fate, and also oversaw the chronicling of the country's history through the Mahavamsa.

The Mahavamsa claims that Prince Vijaya and his followers reached Sri Lanka on the day the Buddha gave up his mortal body, signifying that the Sinhala race was anointed with the task of preserving the teachings of the Buddha. In fact the Mahavamsa states quite clearly that the Buddha chose Sri Lanka as the country in which his doctrine should survive in its original form. Even though they were not converted to Buddhism until much later, the Sinhala race and the Buddhist religion are inextricably linked and remain so today.

Bhikkus, monasteries and temples
The Buddhist monks or "bhikkus" are active in the local community, as spiritual and family advisors. Some practise the healing arts and astrology. In the contemporary context, bhikkus participate in the economic and political life of the country. There are now more than 6500 monasteries in the country housing a community of around 20,000 monks.

Buddhist temples or monasteries are at the heart of the Sinhala community, and are centres of teaching and worship. The overall plan of a temple reflects its origins as a place for monks to live and worship, and the design follows a similar pattern throughout the country. The sacred land on which the temple is built houses an array of buildings and structures. A Bo tree (Ficus religiosa) is the landmark, the tree under which the Buddha attained Enlightenment. Of equal importance is the dagoba (relic chamber), which is a symmetrical half-moon shaped solid structure with a spire on the highest point. The image chamber contains images of the Buddha and his disciples, which in a modern context are artistic depictions of the life of the Buddha in his various incarnations. A simple preaching hall, which contains the belfry, is situated in the same compound. The living quarters of the monks are adjacent to the other structures. Temple premises contain an image chamber of Hindu deities, most giving credence to the fact that Buddhism and Hinduism enjoy a spiritual unity.

Devotees have the opportunity to worship in the temple premises at all times. Special days are marked by the quarterly lunar cycle, when activities of worship within the temple are intensified. On a rotating basis, the meals for the monks are offered by the lay members of the temple. Other offerings, which are placed around each of the sacred structures, are flowers, incense, oil lamps, camphor and fruit. Each offering has a specific spiritual significance and is accompanied by audible chants.

Support for the temple or, during the historical periods, the monastery did not just extend to daily sustenance. According to orthodox Buddhist belief, only members of the Sangha - the order of the Buddhist monks - can attain nirvana, the ultimate aim of Buddhist existence, and thus avoid reincarnation after their death. Kings, on the other hand, are subject to the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. However, by giving generously and performing other good deeds during their lifetime, anyone can secure a favourable reincarnation. The Sinhalese kings, and others who could afford it, thus generally gave donations to the holy men of the Sangha. However, since individual monks are not allowed to have personal possessions, the monasteries amassed both land and goods, and gradually became wealthy and powerful.

Belief in the stars
The Sinhalese take their superstitions very seriously. Marriages, births and any major social event are planned with great consideration to the advice of astrologers and gurus, backed up by the whole pantheon of Hindu gods and a lower order of demonic beings. Astrologists prescribe the specific types of rituals and chart auspicious occasions right down to days and times.

Every Sinhalese child has a horoscope based on the time of birth. The horoscope is based on a mixture of planetary influences, religion, legend and folklore. The position of the stars and planets is carefully analysed by an astrologer to determine the flow of the child's early life, usually the first five years. Thereafter, five-year horoscopes are cast in detail and predict good times as well as bad, wealth, job and marriage prospects and their effect on family members. For a male child it may even lead him into the community of bhikkus. If it is considered auspicious by the astrologer, and the senior monk of the local temple agrees to undertake training, parents of a young boy will then prepare him for the monkhood. This invests blessed merit on the mother and father, beneficial to their own spiritual development.

Auspicious hours, days and months are carefully considered before conducting any individual or family business or social activity. Negative influences can be countered by devotion to the Buddha, and propitiation ceremonies, several thousand in number, can be prescribed to forestall danger or earn favours at work or in any other area. The ceremony consists of narratives, recitations, bell ringing, drumming and dancing, complete with the appropriate masks depicting the mischievous deity or demon - a ritual condemned by Christian missionaries as devil worship. Some ceremonies have been known to last for three days, during which large amounts of food and drink are consumed!

The Sinhala community today
All Sinhalese people are bound together by their shared love for parents, extended family, friends and children. This is mutually expressed through gestures, body language, looks and obeisance instead of words. The placing together of the palms and fingers of both hands indicates a respectful acknowledgement of another individual.

Buddhist monks have provided the spiritual glue which maintains the cooperative spirit and serenity of village life for over 2,000 years. To this day the Buddhist temple doubles as a place of learning where young and old are taught history and culture of the Sinhala race and the Buddhist tenets of practical living.

The Sinhalese are renowned for their hospitality, as well as their strong cultural heritage. Visitors to the country, particularly those who have the time and inclination to tour rural Sri Lanka and communicate with the local people, will encounter a proud and traditional but fun-loving race that genuinely treasures human contact.

Tamils

The Jaffna Tamils
Up-country Tamils
Hinduism in Sri Lanka
Origins of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE)

The Jaffna Tamils
Sri Lankan Tamils fall into five groups. All but the "up-country Tamils" have their roots in the northern peninsula of Jaffna. Until the ceasefire and initiation of peace talks in 2002, the Jaffna Peninsula was under the control of the LTTE, which in the late 1970s had ethnically cleansed the area of non-Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims.

Jaffna was a battleground until the December 2001 ceasefire finally brought a semblance of normality to the region and re-opened communications with the rest of the country. This once large, peaceful community is now a settlement of weary war-victims trying to re-establish community life.

Up-country Tamils
About a third of the Tamils are, or have come from, a labour force once conscripted mostly for the tea estates and rubber plantations directly from south India. Some families can trace their ancestry back nearly 200 years. Today most of the previously indentured Tamils work on the tea estates of the Hill Country.

In the Hill Country, the home of the Sri Lankan tea industry, Tamil women tea-pickers, dressed in their colourful saris and a combination of earrings, nose-rings, bracelets, necklaces, anklets and toe-rings - always gold and often studded with precious gems - scatter the hillsides in all weathers. They collect the tea leaves in wicker baskets (or, more recently, polythene sacks), which are carried on their backs strapped to their foreheads. The tea-pickers always carry a cane stick, not as support but as a method of measuring the height of the tea bush, which helps them select the tea plants ready for picking. The average daily wage of a tea-picker is Rs150, and she normally picks in excess of 25kg of tea leaf buds - only the top 2 or 3 newly produced leaves of each tea bush - in a day.

Hinduism in Sri Lanka
Some Tamils credit their work ethic to the fact that south India and the Jaffna Peninsula are riverless areas of drought, which required creativity and persistence to tame. Most also give credit to their Hinduism which emphasises order (the caste system), disciplined behaviour (instilled in childhood), correct behaviour (good karma) and respect for all life (vegetarianism).

Hinduism, which is practised by 15% of the population, is behind the Tamils tradition of quickly creating a community wherever they find themselves, for the castes ensure each person knows his role in that community. A child may not go to school without breakfast and a visit to the prayer-room. They may not enter the prayer-room without bathing and putting on freshly laundered clothes. They must eat with their right hand and wash with their left. Prayer, cleanliness and routine become second nature. Hindus have no required rites (as in the Catholic religion), but individual households always develop their own, as do the temples.

God is personified with infinite variety, or nearly. There are said to be about 33 million gods in the Hindu pantheon, including 1008 names for Shiva, 1000 for Vishnu, and Kali is one of many mother images. Hindus accept Jesus and the Buddha as avatars (gods in human form), with Jesus depicted sitting on a fish.

Unlike strict Muslims, Hindus do not ostracise those who convert to other religions. When Catholic missionaries preached equality in God's eyes, many of the lower castes took up the Christian faith. The missionaries benefited from these hard-working devotees who did not consider any job too menial, were eager for education and were used to elaborate religious festivals. Over the years, around 20% of Tamil Hindus have been converted to Christianity.

Origins of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE)
The civil war in Sri Lanka first surfaced in 1983 when guerrillas - identified to begin with as "Jaffna secessionists" - ambushed an army patrol, killing an officer and 12 soldiers. The incident provoked a Sinhalese backlash against Tamil civilians that resulted in scenes of communal savagery, leading to the loss of hundreds of Tamil lives and an exodus of over 150,000 Tamils to India. Out of this, the Tamil Tigers (correctly, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam [LTTE]) emerged under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose involvement traces back to when, as a youngster, he saw his uncle burnt alive by soldiers after riots triggered by government moves to make Sinhalese the national language.

In 1971, when Prabhakaran was 17 years old, the government pushed Sinhalese preferment policies a step further by, for example, setting higher entry requirements for Tamils wishing to enter university. Prabhakaran got together with 30 like-minded Tamil teenagers and formed the Tamil Tigers in 1976. While their Sinhalese contemporaries took inspiration from Anuradhapura, the young Tigers could look back to their ancestral hold on the north, and in particular to the pre-colonial independent Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna.

Their idea of secession from Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka and the creation of a separate Tamil state ("Ealam" - meaning precious land) on the Jaffna Peninsula therefore had considerable historical precedent, even if the economic viability of an independent state in modern times would be, to ay the least, questionable.

From 1983 to 2009, the LTTE waged a deadly war against government forces with the loss of at least 70,000 lives. During this period, the LTTE can lay claim to dubious "firsts" in war: the widespread use of suicide bombers and the forced recruitment of child soldiers. However, both sides were involved in clandestine acts during the three decades of the internal conflict including disappearances and assassinations.

Finally, in May 2009, the government officially declared that the LTTE were defeated after army forces overran the last patch of rebel-held territory in the northeast. It was also reported that the LTTE rebel leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed in the fighting, along with most of his top military cadres. The de facto LTTE leadership in absentia stated that the group would lay down its arms once and for all, so drawing to a close one of the world's longest running and bloodiest conflicts.

Veddah

Sri Lanka's first people
Who are the Veddah?
And how do the Veddah live today?

Sri Lanka's first people
All of Sri Lanka's people have arrived on the island from somewhere else, with the earliest settlers literally walking over from India when sea levels were low enough to join the mainland to Sri Lanka via the sand spit known as Adam's Bridge. The Veddah are recognised as the descendents of the earliest known inhabitants of the island. These Stone Age hunter-gatherers were Sri Lanka's "first people" and had more racial affinity with African Bushmen or Australian Aborigines than with any of the island's other Aryan settlers.

Alternatively there is a legend that the Veddah race was actually founded by Prince Vijaya. The tale goes that he married a woman of the Yaksa tribe who produced a son and daughter. These two went to the Ratnapura district and founded a community in the virgin forests surrounding Adam's Peak, allegedly producing the Veddah race. Whether or not this story has any foundation in fact the Veddah and Sinhalese have certainly lived in close proximity over many centuries, and intermarriage has led to their decline in numbers.

Who are the Veddah?
The Buddhist chronicles of the Mahavamsa identify the Veddah as Yaksa (natural spirit) and Naga (dragon) tribes, who are described as spirits or ghosts. This is a tribute to how little impact they made on the environment that they inhabited.

The term Veddah comes from the Sanskrit word meaning "hunter with bow and arrow", although they prefer to call themselves the "the people of the forest" or Vanniyalaetto. Their lush habitat allows them to maintain a rich diet including venison, rabbit, turtle, monitor lizard, wild boar and monkey.

Women are socially equal to men and descent passes though the woman. In the wedding ceremony the bride ties a bark rope, which she has twisted herself, around the waist of her husband to be. Wives are faithful and caring and are in charge of bringing up the children. Traditionally, when a death occurred in a cave dwelling, it was the practice to cover the body with dried leaves and for the whole community to move to a new dwelling. Perhaps as consolation for bereavement and for having to move house, a widow was permitted to marry her husband's brother.

And how do the Veddah live today?
Modern day Veddah no longer live by their bow and arrow. In fact their tools are more likely to be the chainsaw and the gun. Since the 1960s these proud people's way of life has been under siege, and the government has been herding them into settlements without any consideration for the traditional lifestyle. Far from happy, they soon abandoned these so-called 'sanctuaries', which they claimed were not big enough to sustain them, and returned to their original habitations. They have recently given up the worship of ancestral spirits and the tribal social codes are sadly disappearing with their way of life.

The two last remaining pockets of Veddah settlements are in Dambana and Nilgala, in a mountainous region in the Uva district. The aged chief, Tissahami, still wages a debate against the government, claiming the right of the Veddah to remain on ancestral land. Today, maybe only 200 or 300 still live in their ancestral homelands and maintain a Stone Age lifestyle.