About
Srilanka.
Sri Lanka has more than 2,500 years of continuous written history by means of
the Mahawansha, and was also mentioned in several ancient Indian texts. One of
the most famous is the Ramayana, in which the island, which was referred to as
Lanka, was the island fortress of the evil king Ravana, who captured the wife
of Rama an incarnation of the Hindu God, Vishnu. Legend has it that Hanuman the
monkey flew over to Lanka and destroyed the capital by setting it on fire,
while Rama and his remaining troops later crossed over from the mainland by
building a land bridge across the sea.
The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka
late in the 6th century BC, probably from northern India. Buddhism was
introduced beginning in about the mid-3rd century BC, and a great civilization
developed at such cities as Anuradhapura (kingdom from c.200 BC to c.1000 AD)
and Polonnaruwa (c.1070 to 1200) also they have two more kingdoms Kandian
Kingdom and Jaffna Kingdom . Then British came and connected all three kingdoms
into one for the administrative purpose and left as one country in 1948.
Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th
century and by the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded to the
British in 1796, and became a crown colony in 1802. As Ceylon, it became
independent in 1948; the name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.
With end of the 30 year prolonged bitter separatist war in the May 2009 it
seems this island nation is on a new chapter of its history.
Since Sri Lanka is a tropical country, you can expect the rain
anytime of the year in most parts. However, the two major rainy seasons are
North-East monsoon (October to January) and South-West monsoon (May to July).
Being an island, the climate of Sri Lanka changes dramatically from one part of
the country to another. For example at Nuwara Eliya, in the hills of Central
Sri Lanka, has a temperature around -5-20 C throughout the year, whereas
Hambanthota, located in the dry zone, has a temperature consistently around
30-35 C.
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