Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean, situated 50 kms. or 31 miles off the Southern tip of India, and is separated from India by the Palk Strait. The Aryan Prince Vijaya called it Tambapanni as he saw the soil of the west coast a copper colour. The Graeco-Roman mariners called it Taprobane as it was dificult for them to pronounce Tambapanni. The Geographer Ptolemy called it Taprobanam on his Map. It is also called Serendib, Ratnadvipa (Isle of Gems), Zeilan and Ceylon, among others: all of which echo its paradisiacal qualities and character. The island figures as the focal point in the Ramayana legend of Rama and Sita, and is said to have been blessed by three separate visits of the Buddha to Kelaniya, Nagadeepaya, and Mahiyanganaya. The island impressed travellers from the Chinese monk Fa Hsien (5th century AD) to Marco Polo (circa 1293); and still charms tourists of varied pursuits, persuasions and pleasures to this day with its myriad magical mysteries; and – not least of all – continues to enamour its people with fresh facets of what was long considered the “crowning jewel” of the British Empire.
History
Homo sapiens appeared very long ago in Sri Lanka, which some experts assert is the true “cradle of civilization”. The journey towards civilization mark thousands of years and evidence of Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures have been unearthed, establishing the existence of the stone age Balangoda culture around 5000 BC; this era of civilization is known as the Stone Age as only stone implements had been used by primitive man. The recent excavations suggest the domestication of plants may have surfaced as early as 10,000 BC or even earlier. Agriculture has always been the mainstay of this “granary of the East”; cultivators were accorded the highest honour and ever since there has been a bond between land and man that naught can sunder.
Climate & Seasons
Sri Lanka enjoys a tropical climate without extremes of temperature: which averages 800 F (270 C) in Colombo and its suburbs , rising to as much as 1000 F (380 C) in the semi-arid northwest and cooling off to 610 F (160 C) at higher elevations of the central hill country. Tropical monsoons mean rains at a stretch for some months. Sri Lanka certainly has no dearth of rains as it has two monsoons and two inter monsoon periods.
