Agriculture is Sri Lanka's chief economic activity. Many of the country's farmers grow world-famous Sri Lanka tea, also called Ceylon tea. Sri Lanka became independent in 1948 after nearly 450 years of European rule. Colombo, a seaport, is the capital and largest city.

Government. A president heads Sri Lanka's government. A 225-member Parliament passes the nation's laws. The voters elect the president and the members of Parliament to six-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister and a Cabinet, who carry out the operations of the government.

Sri Lanka has a number of political parties. The most important are the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Tamil United Liberation Front, and the United National Party.

Sri Lanka is divided into 9 provinces, which--in turn--are divided into 25 districts. The districts are the country's basic units of local government. Each district is headed by a district minister, who is appointed by the president from among the members of Parliament.

Sri Lanka's highest court is the Supreme Court. The type of law used in private Sri Lankan court cases, such as divorce, depends on the religion of the people involved in the cases. For example, Islamic law applies to Muslims (people of Islamic faith).

People. The people of Sri Lanka belong to several different ethnic groups. The largest groups are the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The Sinhalese make up about 74 percent of the population. They are descended from people from northern India. Their language is called Sinhala, and most of them are Buddhists. Tamils make up about 18 percent of the population. They are descendants of people from southern India. They speak Tamil, and most of them are Hindus. Most Tamils live in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Both Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of Sri Lanka.

Moors, who are descendants of Arabs, form Sri Lanka's third largest ethnic group. They make up about 7 percent of the population. Most Moors speak Tamil and are Muslims. Smaller ethnic groups in Sri Lanka include Burghers, Malays, and Veddahs. The Burghers are descendants of European settlers who intermarried with Sri Lankans. The Malays are descended from people who came from what is now Malaysia. The Veddahs are descendants of Sri Lanka's first known residents.

Most of the people of Sri Lanka farm the land and follow the traditions of their ancestors. Colombo is Sri Lanka's largest city by far. Houses that have mud walls and thatched roofs are common among the poorer rural people. The middle class and wealthy have more substantial housing. In both rural and urban areas, many middle- and upper-class houses are surrounded by a walled compound. Many Sri Lankans, especially rural people, live in extended families, in which more than two generations of the same family live together. The caste system, which divides people into social classes, is strong among both Sinhalese and Tamils (see CASTE).

Most rural Sri Lankan men wear a sarong (a garment wrapped around the waist to form a long skirt) and a shirt. Many urban men wear Western-style clothing. Sri Lankan women wear a redde (skirt similar to a sarong), with a blouse or jacket; or a sari (straight piece of cloth draped around the body as a long dress).

Rice is the chief food in Sri Lanka. It is served with curry dishes--stewlike dishes of vegetables, meat, fish, or eggs seasoned with spices. Tea is a favorite drink.

Sri Lankans are religious people. The countryside is dotted with Buddhist and Hindu temples and shrines, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches. About 69 percent of the people are Buddhists and about 15 percent are Hindus. Christians and Muslims each account for about 8 percent of the population.

Education in Sri Lanka is free from kindergarten through the university level. Sri Lanka has eight universities. Most Sri Lankans 15 years of age or older can read and write, and the country has one of the highest literacy rates among the Asian nations. For Sri Lanka's literacy rates, see LITERACY (Table: Literacy Rates for Selected Countries).

Architecture, painting and sculpture, literature, music, and dance flourished in Sri Lanka before the period of European rule. Much of the island's ancient art focused on religious themes. Remains of this art can still be seen in ruins of some cities and in museums in Colombo and Kandy. Today, dance is an important art form among both Sinhalese and Tamils. Sri Lanka craftworkers make jewelry and pottery, weave baskets and mats, and carve masks and other objects from wood.

Land and Climate. Sri Lanka covers 25,332 square miles (65,610 square kilometers). The south-central part of the country is mountainous. Plains surround the mountains on the east, south, and west, and cover most of the northern half of the island.

A variety of wild animals, including bears, birds, crocodiles, elephants, monkeys, and snakes, live in Sri Lanka. More than 3,000 species of ferns and flowering plants grow there. Common plants include bougainvillea, orchids, poinsettias, and fruit trees. A tropical rain forest covers much of southwestern Sri Lanka.

Temperatures in the low coastal areas average 80 degrees F (27 degrees C). Temperatures in the mountains average 60 degrees F (16 degrees C). Average annual rainfall ranges from about 50 inches (130 centimeters) in the northeast to about 200 inches (510 centimeters) in parts of the southwest.

Economy. Sri Lanka has a developing economy in which both government control and free enterprise play a part. Agriculture is the leading economic activity. It employs about 50 percent of the nation's labor force. The chief agricultural products are tea, rubber, rice, and coconuts. Service industries employ about 35 percent of Sri Lanka's workers. Wholesale and retail trade is the country's leading service industry. Other important service industries include government activities, and communications and transportation. About 10 percent of the labor force works in manufacturing activities. Major activities include the processing of agricultural goods, including coconuts, rubber, tea, and tobacco; and the manufacture of textiles. The construction industry employs about 5 percent of the workers.

Sri Lanka has a good transportation system. Most Sri Lankans travel by buses. Less than 1 percent of the people own a car. Sri Lanka's major airport is near Colombo. More than 10 major newspapers are published.

History. The island of Sri Lanka was called Ceylon until 1972. The earliest inhabitants of the island were tribal peoples called the Yaksa and the Naga. The Veddahs are descendants of these peoples. Vijaya, a legendary prince from northern India, is said to have led the founders of the Sinhalese culture to Ceylon. The Sinhalese probably began to arrive during the 400's B.C. They settled in the northern part of the island and built advanced irrigation systems to support agriculture. The city of Anuradhapura was the center of Sinhalese civilization from the 200's B.C. until A.D. 993.

Tamils from southern India invaded the island, perhaps as early as the 100's B.C. From the A.D. 400's until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500's, the history of Ceylon centered on struggles between Sinhalese kings and Tamil kings. Tamils eventually gained control of the northern half of the island. The Sinhalese moved into the southern half of the island. Arab traders, whose descendants are the Moors, began arriving in the 700's.

European control of Ceylon began in the 1500's. The Portuguese sailed into what is now Colombo Harbor in 1505. They gradually gained control of the island's major coastal areas. The Dutch replaced the Portuguese in the mid-1600's. The British captured the Dutch territories in 1795 and 1796. They made Ceylon a crown colony in 1802. The British took over the Sinhalese mountain kingdom of Kandy in 1815, and became the first Europeans to control the entire island. The British developed coffee, coconut, rubber, and tea plantations.

The colony gradually gained self-government during the 1900's. It became the independent nation of Ceylon on Feb. 4, 1948. The country adopted a parliamentary form of government headed by a prime minister. D. S. Senanayake became the first prime minister.

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike became prime minister in 1956. His government passed a law that made Sinhala the country's only official language. The Tamils resented this action, and clashes broke out between Tamils and Sinhalese. Compromises were made to provide for the use of Tamil in many areas. Bandaranaike was assassinated by a Sinhalese extremist in 1959. His widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became prime minister in 1960. She was the world's first woman prime minister. Her party lost control of Parliament in 1965, and Dudley Senanayake then became prime minister. But Sirimavo Bandaranaike regained the office in 1970. In 1972, the country changed its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, which means Resplendent Land.

In 1977, Bandaranaike's party lost control of Parliament again, and opposition leader J. R. Jayewardene became prime minister. Jayewardene became president in 1978 after a constitutional amendment made the president--rather than the prime minister--the head of the government. Jayewardene was elected president in 1982. In 1988, Jayewardene announced his retirement from politics. Ranasinghe Premadasa was elected to succeed him as president. Premadasa had served as prime minister under Jayewardene.

The chief issue in Sri Lanka today is the relationship between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. The Sinhalese have controlled the country's government since independence. Tamils believe their opportunities for education and jobs have been limited by Sinhalese-dominated governments. In 1983, violence broke out between Tamil guerrillas and Sinhalese government troops in the north. Thousands of people were killed and many Tamils fled to India. In July 1987, the Sri Lankan government and India worked out a peace plan. The plan called for a cease-fire and created a local government council in the Tamil region. Some Tamil guerrillas agreed to the plan, but others did not. Fighting broke out again in the fall. A cease-fire was implemented in 1989. Sinhalese nationalists who opposed any compromises between the government and the Tamils killed many government officials and government supporters. In 1990, fighting resumed between Tamil rebels and government troops. Thousands have been killed in the violence.

In 1993, President Premadasa was assassinated. He was replaced by the prime minister, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga. In 1994, the People's Alliance, a coalition led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, won control of Parliament. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was elected president. She is the daughter of former prime ministers S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Kumaratunga appointed her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister.

Map of Sri Lanka..