Sri Lanka
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For
a small island, Sri Lanka has many nicknames:
Serendib, Ceylon, Teardrop of India, Resplendent
Isle, Island of Dharma, Pearl of the Orient. This
colourful collection reveals its richness and
beauty, and the intensity of the affection it
evokes in its visitors.
Head
for the rolling hills to escape the heat of the
plains in the cool of tea plantations. The entire
island is teeming with bird life, and exotics
like elephants and leopards are not uncommon. To
top it all off, the people are friendly, the food
is delicious and costs are low.
Depending
on your viewpoint, Sri Lanka's shape resembles
either a pearl or a teardrop, cast adrift in the
Indian Ocean.
Those who consider this country a teardrop may do
so because of its long history of troubles. The
first Europeans to arrive in Sri Lanka were the
Portuguese, quickly supplanted by the Dutch in
the 17th century. The British acquired Sri Lanka
(as Ceylon) from the Dutch in 1796, assuming full
control in 1802. But once the country became a
Republic in 1972, adopting a new constitution
along with the Sinhala name, Sri Lanka, serious
conflict arose from the Tamil minority’s
(occupying the north and east parts of Sri Lanka)
demands for a separate Tamil state, with
terrorist activity by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam prevalent since the 1970s. The Tamil
are Hindu by religion and ethnically linked to
the Tamils of southern India, in contrast to the
majority (70 per cent) of Sri Lanka's population
who are Buddhists of Sinhalese descent. The
Indian Government became involved in this
conflict, initially as official mediator but
then, after the failure of an armistice in 1987,
intervening militarily (on the Government’s
side). Its two-year military campaign ended with
the death of over 1000 Indian soldiers and an
ignominious retreat. The assassination of Indian
premier Rajiv Ghandi in 1991 was the apotheosis
of the Tigers’ campaign of revenge. After
that, the war entered a period of effective
stalemate. Outside the Tiger-controlled areas in
the north and east, the political environment was
dominated by the struggle between the
country’s two main political groupings
– the centre-right United National Party and
the People’s Alliance (a coalition of
social-democratic and socialist parties). In
1995, the UNP’s 17-year stranglehold on
power was finally broken by the People’s
Alliance, under Chandrikha Kumaratunga.
Kumaratunga was determined to resolve the Tamil
conflict and a deal between the Government and
the Tamil Tigers was finally concluded in early
2002. Despite scepticism, the ceasefire has more
or less held, despite a serious feud between
President Karamatunga and Prime Minister
Wickremesinghe, which led in 2003 to suspension
of Parliament and the dismissal of three
ministers, seemingly catalysing a sudden
resurgence in Tamil Tiger activity. As with any
conflict of that length and hostility, many
issues remained to be resolved, not least the
future Government of the Tamil-dominated northern
and eastern parts of the island and the control
of aid for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Being badly hit by the tsunami on December 26
2004, especially in Tamil-controlled areas, also
escalated ethnic grievances.
Yet there is also much to champion Sri Lanka as a
pearl: past colonisation by the Indians,
Portuguese, Dutch and British have all left their
marks in ancient architecture; palm-fringed
beaches are never far away from mountainous
greenery in this jewel of an island. Indeed,
Marco Polo proclaimed Sri Lanka as one of the
best islands in the world, and for variety and
splendour in such a relatively short space, it is
a proclamation that is difficult to decry.
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