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Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, island republic in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of India, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannār. Lying between the two nations is a chain of tiny islands known as Adam�s Bridge. Sri Lanka is somewhat pear-shaped, with its apex in the north. The greatest length from north to south is 440 km (270 mi); the greatest width is 220 km (about 140 mi). The total area of Sri Lanka is 65,610 sq km (25,332 sq mi). The administrative capital of Sri Lanka is Sri Jayawardenepura (Kotte), and Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city.

Sri Lanka�s coast, particularly the west, south, and southeast, is palm-fringed and indented by lagoons and inlets. The more rugged northeastern coast contains Trincomalee Harbor, considered one of the best natural harbors in the world. On the southwestern coast other harbors include the largely artificial one at Colombo and one at Galle.

An outstanding feature of the topography of Sri Lanka is a mountainous mass in the south central part of the country, the highest point of which is the peak of Pidurutalagala (2,524 m/ 8,281 ft). In the upland area are two plateaus, Nuwara Eliya and Horton Plains, which are major centers of commercial tea plantations. The plateaus are noted for their cool, healthful climate. North of the mountains, and extending south, is an arid and gently rolling plain known as the dry zone.

Rivers and streams that are broken by rapids are especially numerous in the mountainous south central region. The longest river is the Mahaweli Ganga, which empties into the Indian Ocean south of Trincomalee. Other rivers include the Kelani, the mouth of which is near Colombo; the Kalu, which reaches the sea near Kalutara on the southwestern coast; and the Aruvi Aru, which flows northwest across the dry zone to a point near Mannar.

Because Sri Lanka is situated near the equator, the climate is generally hot and humid. The hill and mountain areas, however, are cool, and the humidity is relatively lower in the dry zone. The average annual temperature is about 32�C (about 90�F) in the lowlands and about 21�C (about 70�F) in the higher mountainous regions.

Precipitation is characterized by wide seasonal and regional variations. The monsoon season in the southwest is from May to November, at which time the rainfall is exceptionally heavy. In the northern dry zone the main precipitation of about 1,020 mm (about 40 in) annually occurs during the monsoon season, which begins in the first week of November. Most crops in the dry zone, however, require irrigation. The hills and the lowlands of the southwestern section, which is known as the wet zone, normally have some rainfall throughout the year, but peaks occur in May and June and in October and November.

The natural resources of Sri Lanka are chiefly agricultural, but most of the land is not easily cultivated. The mineral deposits of the country are limited.

Sri Lanka is noted for the beauty and variety of its vegetation. Dense tropical jungles occupy extensive areas in the southwest, and the upper mountain slopes are thickly forested. Many varieties of palm, including the areca, coconut, and palmyra, flourish in the lowlands along the coast. Mangroves and screw pines abound in coastal areas. Numerous varieties of timber trees, notably mahogany and many species of resin-yielding fruit trees, are indigenous to the wet zone. Among the timber trees that are common in the drier sections of the island are ebony and satinwood. Ferns, water hyacinths, orchids, acacias, eucalyptus trees, and cypresses flourish in various regions.

The animal life of Sri Lanka is diverse and includes many species that may be in danger of extinction, such as the cheetah, leopard, several species of monkey, and elephant. The island also contains numerous species of birds and reptiles.

Population pressures threaten Sri Lanka�s forests and wildlife. As a result, only 30 percent (2000) of Sri Lanka�s total land area is forested. Large areas of forest have been cut down for fuelwood or for timber export and have been replaced by farms. This deforestation has led to loss of wildlife habitats and to increased soil erosion and degradation. A number of threatened species continue to be hunted illegally by poachers. The island�s coastal ecosystems suffer from pollution caused by mining activities and the tourist trade, and freshwater resources are being contaminated by industrial waste and sewage runoff. Much of Sri Lanka�s mangrove forest, an important coastal habitat, has been cut down to make way for farmland and fish cultivation ponds.

The government of Sri Lanka has taken action to conserve wildlife, however. Nearly 13.3 percent (1997) of the land is protected. The Sinharaja Forest Reserve, which protects the largest remaining stand of primary rain forest on the island, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1988. The government has ratified international environmental agreements pertaining to climate change, desertification, endangered species, environmental modification, hazardous wastes, law of the sea, ozone layer protection, and wetlands.

About 74 percent of the population of Sri Lanka is of Sinhalese descent. The largest minority groups are the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils, which together account for about 18 percent of the population. The remaining population includes the descendants of Moors (Arabs), Burghers (Dutch), Malays, and Veddas.

The population of Sri Lanka (2001 estimate) is 19,408,635, yielding an overall population density of 296 persons per sq km (766 per sq mi).

Sri Lanka is divided into 9 provinces and 25 administrative districts. Each district is headed by an appointed district minister.

Only 23 percent of Sri Lanka�s population lives in urban communities. Colombo is the largest city. Most of the foreign trade of the island is routed through its commercial capital Colombo, and the city has been an important fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. Other important urban areas are the rapidly expanding suburb of Colombo, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia; the seaport of Jaffna; Sri Jayawardenepura, the administrative capital; the ancient capital city of Kandy; and the tea-producing community of Galle.

Buddhism, which was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 3rd century bc, is the prevailing religious faith. As practiced in Sri Lanka, Buddhism exhibits elements of both the Hindu and Islamic traditions. About 69 percent of the population is Buddhist, 15 percent is Hindu, 8 percent is Christian, and 8 percent is Muslim.

The official languages of Sri Lanka are Sinhala, or Sinhalese, and Tamil. Sinhala is spoken by 74 percent of the population. Tamil, a Dravidian language of southern India, is spoken by people living in the northern and eastern provinces. English, the official language of the country until 1957, is still widely used.

In Sri Lanka schooling is compulsory for children from 5 to 14 years of age, and it is free at all levels. In 1996 Sri Lanka had 9,554 elementary schools, of which most were government institutions. There are about 30 technical institutions and 9 universities. The University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Colombo, founded as the University of Ceylon in 1942 and renamed in 1978, is one of the country�s major institutions of higher education.

Religion plays an important role in Sri Lanka; a revival of Buddhism was associated with the rise of Sinhalese nationalism. Most public holidays are based on religious festivals. The annual torchlight temple procession, or Perahara, in which ornamentally covered elephants and hundreds of dancers participate, draws thousands of devotees. Pilgrimages also play an important role here. The most important pilgrimage is to the top of Adams Peak. Muslims believe that Adam and Eve lived here after they left the Garden of Eden. Buddhists visit a rock on the peak that they believe contains one of Buddha�s footprints. Another important pilgrimage is to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, where it is believed that one of Buddha�s teeth is enshrined.

Sinhalese society, although Buddhist, is stratified along caste lines. Ceylon Tamil society reproduces the caste features found in India, although in modified form.

The Colombo National Museum Library (1870), incorporating the collection of the Government Oriental Library, is the largest in Sri Lanka. The oldest library is the Department of National Archives in Colombo, which contains the official records of the Dutch Administration from 1640 to 1796, the British Administration from 1796 to 1948, and the independent nation from 1948 to the present.

Middle Stone Age implements such as bones and grinding stones have been unearthed in the Bandarawela region in the south; some late Stone Age tools of ground quartz were discovered nearby. Early Buddhist pottery and iron artifacts have been found throughout the country. Hindu burial relics dating from the 3rd century bc have been discovered in the North Western Province. The National Museums of Sri Lanka, with branches located in Colombo, Kandy, Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Galle, and Trincomalee, contain collections of archaeological finds and historical documents of the country.

Sri Lanka�s economy is predominantly based on agriculture. Most of the people are subsistence farmers, who make a living by growing rice on their small plots. A large export trade in tea, rubber, and coconuts is the dominant commercial activity; most businesses engaged in producing these goods were nationalized in the middle and late 1970s. The government also controlled banking and insurance, as well as mining and the manufacture of such basic goods as fertilizers, textiles, cement, and petroleum. Consumer goods manufacturing and retail businesses remained in private hands. In the late 1970s the government launched a new program to accelerate economic growth that included the elimination of various state monopolies to allow for more private-sector competition; in the mid-1980s the government sought to promote foreign investment in export-oriented industries. Beginning in the late 1980s ethnic violence strained Sri Lanka�s economy. Renewed attempts to privatize the economy, particularly the agricultural industry, began in the 1990s.

Some 13 percent of Sri Lanka�s land area is under cultivation. Tea accounts for about one-fourth of the country�s export earnings. Tea, rubber, and coconuts together made up nearly 35 percent of Sri Lanka�s export earnings in the early 1990s.

Rice is the basic food of the people and the island�s principal crop. More acreage is devoted to the cultivation of rice than to any other crop; the output in 2000 was 2.9 million metric tons. Vegetables are grown in small amounts and are mostly cultivated for private consumption. Considerable quantities of sugar, wheat, and rice are imported.

Animal husbandry is of comparatively little importance to the economy of Sri Lanka. Cattle, buffaloes, goats, chickens, pigs, and sheep are raised.

Local timber needs are satisfied by government-owned woodlands. The timber harvest in 1999 was 10.3 million cu m (365 million cu ft); most of the harvested wood was used for fuel. The fishing industry is restricted to a small coastal fringe and contributes relatively little to the national economy; the catch in 1997 was 247,000 metric tons.

Although mineral resources are generally limited, Sri Lanka is an important source of high-grade lump amorphous graphite, used in the manufacture of carbon brushes for electric motors. Ilmenite, rutile, and zircon are also mined for commercial uses. Limestone is mined for a government-owned cement factory at Jaffna. Other minerals include salt, mica, kaolin (a fine clay), glass sands, and precious and semiprecious stones.

Manufacturing is relatively limited in Sri Lanka, and in 1999 it accounted for only 16 percent of the country�s gross domestic product. The more important industrial enterprises, most of which are entirely or partly government owned, produce goods such as steel, tires, cement, textiles, clothing, sugar, cigarettes, paper and leather goods, electronic equipment, refined petroleum, chemicals, ceramics, and processed food.

In 1999 Sri Lanka produced 6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. The largest share of the power, 69 percent, was produced by hydroelectric facilities.

The Sri Lankan rupee, consisting of 100 cents, is the monetary unit (70.4 rupees equal U.S.$1; 1999 average). Imports in 1999 cost $5.9 billion and exports earned $4.6 billion. The chief exports were tea, rubber, coconut products, clothing, graphite, petroleum products, and precious and semiprecious stones. Foodstuffs, mainly rice, flour, and sugar, make up a significant share of imports. Other imports include petroleum products, machinery, building materials, textiles, and transportation equipment. Leading purchasers of Sri Lanka�s exports are the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Belgium; chief sources of imports are India, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

A network of 11,285 km (7,012 mi) of roads connects most regions of the island; the best-developed road system is that in the plantation areas. Operated railroad track totals 1,491 km (926 mi).

Sri Lanka has three international airports. The government-owned airline, Air Lanka, provides domestic and international service.

All electronic communications in Sri Lanka are government controlled. The country has 9 daily newspapers with a combined daily circulation of 530,000. In the late 1990s the largest daily was the Dinamina, published in Colombo. Sri Lanka has 36 telephone mainlines, 211 radio receivers, and 84 television sets for every 1,000 inhabitants. Television broadcasting began in Colombo in 1979.

In 1999 some 8.3 million Sri Lankans were economically active, mostly unskilled workers. About one-third of all workers were organized in some 1,500 trade unions. Progressive labor legislation has been enacted, covering minimum wage, health, and welfare, but enforcement has proven difficult because of staff shortages.

Sri Lanka is an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations, governed under a constitution adopted in 1978.

The chief of state and head of government of Sri Lanka is a president, who is elected directly to a term of six years. The president appoints the prime minister and members of the cabinet, and may dismiss parliament at will.

According to the 1978 Sri Lanka constitution, the unicameral parliament is the �legislative power of the people.� The 225 members of parliament are elected directly by a system of proportional representation.

The major political parties in Sri Lanka are the People�s Alliance, a leftist coalition group, and the United National Party (UNP), a democratic socialist party. Other parties include the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and several Tamil separatist groups.

Sri Lanka is divided into 8 provinces and 25 administrative districts. Each district is presided over by an appointed district minister. Other local government units include 12 municipal councils and 39 urban councils.

The Sri Lankan judiciary consists of a Supreme Court, the court of appeal, the High Court, district courts, magistrates� courts, and primary courts. The chief justice of the supreme court and two subordinate justices appointed by the president make up the Judicial Service Commission, which has appellate and review powers in criminal cases and exclusive powers in the most serious criminal offenses.

In 1999 the armed forces in Sri Lanka were made up of an army of 90,000 people, a navy of 10,000, and an air force of 10,000.

Sri Lanka has an average of 1 physician for every 4,342 persons and 1 hospital bed for every 365 persons. In 2001 the average life expectancy at birth was 75 years for women and 69.6 years for men. The infant mortality rate declined from 63 deaths per 1,000 live births in the mid-1960s to 16 deaths in 2001.

According to Hindu legend the greater part of Sri Lanka was conquered in prehistoric times by Ramachandra, the seventh incarnation of the supreme deity Vishnu. The written history of the country begins with the chronicle known as the Mahavamsa. This work was started in the 6th century ad and provides a virtually unbroken narrative up to 1815. The Mahavamsa was compiled by a succession of Buddhist monks. Because it often aims to glorify or to degrade certain periods or reigns, it is not a wholly reliable source despite its wealth of historical material.

The Mahavamsa relates that the island was conquered in 504 bc by Vijaya, a Hindu prince from northeast India. After subjugating the aboriginal inhabitants, a people now known as Veddas, Vijaya married a native princess, encouraged emigration from the mainland, and made himself ruler of the entire island. However, the realm (called Sinhala after Vijaya�s patrimonial name) that was inherited by his successors consisted of the arid region lying to the north of the south central mountain system.

Members of the dynasty founded by Vijaya reigned over Sinhala for several centuries. During this period, and particularly after the adoption in the 3rd century bc of Buddhism as the national religion, the Sinhalese created a highly developed civilization. Extant evidence of their engineering skill and architectural achievements includes remnants of vast irrigation projects, many ruined cities, notably the ancient capital Anuradhapura, and numerous ruined shrines called dasobas.

From the late 3rd century ad to the middle of the 12th century, Sinhala was dominated by Tamil kings and by a succession of invaders from southern India. Native princes regained power briefly in the late 12th century and again in the 13th century. From 1408 to 1438 Chinese forces occupied the island of Sinhala, which had been partitioned into a number of petty kingdoms.

In 1517 the Portuguese, having established friendly relations with one of the native monarchs, founded a fort and trading post at Colombo. Their sphere of influence expanded steadily thereafter, mainly as a result of successful wars of conquest, and by the end of the 16th century they controlled large sections of the island. Consequently, in 1638 and 1639, when the Dutch launched the first of a series of attacks on Portuguese strongholds in the island, they found numerous allies among the natives. The struggle ended in 1658 with the Dutch gaining control of most of the island, although the kingdom of Kandy remained an independent entity.

In 1795, following the occupation of The Netherlands by France, the British government dispatched an expeditionary force against Sri Lanka. The Dutch capitulated early in the next year, and in 1798 the British made all the island, except the kingdom of Kandy, a crown colony. By the provisions of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens, which terminated the second phase of the Napoleonic Wars, the country was formally ceded to Britain. The kingdom of Kandy was also occupied in 1803 and annexed to the crown colony in 1815. The British period of rule was marked by abortive native rebellions in 1817, 1843, and 1848. Tea and rubber estates were developed. In this period violent social-religious struggles between the Sinhalese peasants, mostly Buddhists, and the moneylenders and traders, chiefly Muslims, also occurred, and all the native peoples struggled continuously for representative government and national freedom. The first substantial victory in the struggle for self-government came after more than one century, when, in 1931, Britain promulgated a new constitution that granted the indigenous people semiautonomous control over national affairs.

During World War II (1939-1945) Sri Lanka was an important base of operations in the Allied offensive against the Japanese and a major source of rubber, foodstuffs, and other materials vital to the war effort.

On February 4, 1948, the colony became an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations; Sir Henry Moore was installed as governor-general and D. S. Senanayake, leader of the United National Party (UNP), became prime minister. An ancient Sinhalese flag was adopted as the flag of the new state, known then as Ceylon.

The foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations assembled at Colombo in January 1950, and drafted a tentative plan for the economic development of Southeast Asia. As finally formulated, the Colombo Plan allocated nearly $340 million of Commonwealth funds for a variety of projects designed to advance the economy, notably irrigation works and hydroelectric plants.

When D. S. Senanayake died in 1952, his son, Dudley Senanayake, who belonged to the same party, was named prime minister. In 1954 Ceylon declined to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, which was formed as a defensive alliance by the United States, the United Kingdom, and six other nations. On December 14, 1955, Ceylon was admitted to membership in the United Nations.

The UNP lost the elections held in April 1956, and Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, became prime minister. The country subsequently adopted a policy of neutrality in the disputes between the Communist and non-Communist countries. The United States agreed in early 1958 to provide the country with technical assistance and a grant of about $780,000 for economic projects. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Ceylon signed trade and economic agreements at about the same time. Shortly afterward the country accepted a loan of about $10.5 million from China.

On September 25, 1959, Prime Minister Bandaranaike was shot by a Buddhist monk and died the following day. In the general elections of March 19, 1960, the UNP won the greatest number of votes, and two days later Dudley Senanayake again became prime minister in a minority cabinet, which quickly lost parliamentary confidence. New general elections held on July 20 resulted in the victory of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party now led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of the late prime minister, and she was sworn in as prime minister the next day.

On December 31, 1960, a bill was passed making Sinhalese the only official language of the country. Representatives of the Tamil-speaking minority led mass demonstrations against the measure in early 1961. To cope with the situation, a state of emergency was declared, the Tamil Federal Party was forbidden to operate, and strikes were declared illegal. Sinhalese-Tamil relations continued to be strained until January 1966, when Tamil was made the official administrative language in the northern and eastern parts of the island.

With the nation in a period of economic decline, Dudley Senanayake was returned to power in the 1965 legislative elections. His policy of nonalignment, economic development, and increased domestic production did not satisfy the voters, as high unemployment, food shortages, and labor unrest continued. In 1970 a leftist coalition headed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike won the elections; the new government began to move the country toward socialism. In March 1971 a brief but violent armed revolt took place, sparked by leaders of the Marxist-oriented People�s Liberation Front. By September, the Bandaranaike government had almost completely suppressed the rebellion. In that month the Senate was abolished and the House of Representatives was renamed the National Assembly. On May 22, 1972, the country, until then known as Ceylon, officially became the socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, when the assembly adopted a new constitution. Bandaranaike continued as prime minister, and William Gopallawa was appointed president.

In 1977 Bandaranaike�s government was decisively defeated at the polls. She was replaced as prime minister by Junius R. Jayewardene, leader of the UNP. His government in 1978 replaced the 1972 constitution with one providing for an executive president, an office which Jayewardene then assumed. Reversing the socialist trend of his predecessor, he achieved some initial economic gains. By 1980, however, inflation and falling wages led to a general strike, which the government thwarted only by calling out troops. Later in the year Bandaranaike was expelled from the National Assembly and barred from voting or standing for election for seven years. The supreme court had previously found her to have abused her power during her years as prime minister. Jayewardene won reelection to a second six-year presidential term in October 1982. Subsequently, in December, a government proposal to extend the life of parliament until 1989 was approved by popular referendum.

In 1983 a civil war broke out between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group that seeks to create a separate nation for the Tamil minority in the northern and eastern portions of Sri Lanka. In June 1987, after an agreement with Jayewardene, Indian troops moved into northern Sri Lanka to enforce a peace agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils. Warfare subsided, and Jayewardene retired in 1988; Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected to succeed him that year, defeating Bandaranaike. Premadasa�s UNP retained its majority in the parliamentary elections of February 1989, and the last Indian troops departed in March 1990. The period of relative peace was short-lived. In 1991 and 1992 several major battles were fought between the army and the LTTE, and in early 1993 the government was rocked by two assassinations. On April 23 Lalith Athulathmudali, who had founded the opposition Democratic United Liberation Front in 1991, was shot to death during a political rally. A week later, during the annual May Day parade, President Premadasa was assassinated by a suicide bomber who allegedly was a member of LTTE. Days later the Parliament unanimously elected UNP member and former prime minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunge to serve as president until the next national election. In November 1993 LTTE forces managed to seize a government military base in Pooneryn, about 32 km (20 mi) southeast of Jaffna. Several days later government forces drove the rebel forces back and recovered the base. The fighting was some of the worst between the Sri Lankan government and rebel Tamil forces; the Sri Lankan government estimated that about 1,200 people were missing or killed. Since fighting between the two groups began in 1983, an estimated 64,000 people have been killed.

In parliamentary elections held in August 1994, the People�s Alliance Party defeated the UNP, and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the daughter of former prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became prime minister. In presidential elections held that November, Kumaratunga defeated the UNP�s candidate, Srima Dissanayake, to become Sri Lanka�s first female president. The UNP�s original candidate, Gamini Dissanayake, had been killed during an election rally in October. As president, Kumaratunga appointed her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, to serve as prime minister and pledged to open peace talks with the Tamil rebels. In January 1995 the government and the LTTE agreed to a cease-fire, and both sides made efforts toward reconciliation by releasing political prisoners. However, the 14-week cease-fire, the longest since the onset of the war, ended in April, when rebels blew up two government gun boats. The fighting worsened as the Sri Lankan government took the offensive with the help of the Indian military. By the end of 1995 the government, after a two-month siege, recaptured the city of Jaffna, which had been held by the LTTE since 1985. By 1996 the government regained control of the Jaffna Peninsula.

In August 1995 President Kumaratunga proposed a peace plan that would give limited autonomy to Sri Lanka�s provinces�including Tamil areas. To be enacted, the plan required passage of a constitutional reform bill by a two-thirds vote in the parliament and approval in a national referendum. Passage of the proposal was the central goal of Kumaratunga�s administration and was debated by the parliament throughout the late 1990s. Just days before presidential elections in December 1999, Kumaratunga was injured in a suicide bombing assassination attempt attributed to the LTTE. The elections proceeded, and Kumaratunga was reelected to a second six-year term. In August 2000 Kumaratunga abandoned her plan to call a parliamentary vote on the constitutional reform bill after it became clear the bill did not have the necessary backing. Also that month, Bandaranaike resigned as prime minister, citing the need for a vigorous campaign on behalf of the People�s Alliance Party in the October parliamentary elections. Kumaratunga appointed a close confidante, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, in her mother�s place. Bandaranaike died of a heart attack on election day shortly after casting her vote. Although the People�s Alliance won a majority of seats, it fell short of gaining the two-thirds majority needed to pass Kumaratunga�s constitutional reform bill. In the meantime, the LTTE continued to demand complete independence for the Tamil minority, and the civil war between government forces and the rebels continued into 2001.