Sri Lanka, though being poor, is beautiful country

作者: Doria J. Garms-Sotelo on 21 August , 2012.
类别: All, Opinion

Photo: Baxter, Malix, Kennedy &Oberst (1987)

History

Sri Lanka first lost its independence to the Portuguese in 1505 and then to the Dutch in 1656, and finally to the British in 1795 and was under British rule till 1956(Baxter, Malix, Kennedy, &Oberst, 1987).English was the primary language (Wanasundera, 1996). After that, the Sri Lankan Constitution stated that Sinhala must be the official language. In all schools in Sri Lanka, English is taught 100 percent in all classes. Sinhala and Tamil are the second and third language. The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 89 percent which is among the highest in Asia.

The People

Most modern day Sri Lankans are descended from one of two cultural-linguistic groups by the language they speak which is Sinhalese or Tamil (Baxter, Malix, Kennedy,&Oberst, 1987).

Sri Lanka is one of the poorest nations in the world, with a per capita gross national product of US$802 a year, yet represented government and stability persist (Baxter, Malix, Kennedy &Oberst, 1987). Sri Lanka’s civil war went on for almost 20 years.

Geography

Sri Lanka is located at the foot of the South Asian subcontinent in the Indian Ocean just south of India(Baxter, Malix, Kennedy &Oberst, 1987). The teardrop-shaped island is about the size of West Virginia (40,716 square kilometers). In 1998 its population was estimated to be 18.5 million making it one of the most populated countries in the world.

Ancient Cities

Volleyball team in Lahore, Pakistan

Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwaand Anuradhapura flourished in the third century B.C. until the twelfth century A.D. (Baxter, Malix, Kennedy &Oberst, 1987). In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the civilizations began to decline. Experts say because of a malaria outbreak.

Religion

Buddhism and Hinduism were introduced to the island from India between before 307 B.C. (Baxter, Malix, Kennedy &Oberst, 1987).

Political Issues

The monk Silalankara devoted himself to 40 years to integrating the local population and thousands of immigrants from other parts of the country until he was murdered by the Tamil Tigers in 1995.

My Time in Sri Lanka (1989 – 1993)

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with mountains and beaches and I made a lot of friends and took part in a lot of activities like Tae Kwon Do, drama, volleyball, and the Model United Nations club. I traveled with the clubs to India, The Netherlands, and Indonesia. Sri Lanka has been waging one of the longest civil wars in the world. There were many times we could not go to school and would be home schooled in teachers homes or would be given extra work to take home in case we could not go to school. Buses were sometimes stoned or bombs would be going off. One bomb knocked out some of the windows and doors in our house. I knew these people were not after the foreigners there and I loved Sri Lanka so I was not that worried. Then a massive flood came and it flooded our house. We had a lot of things damaged. We were evacuated to live at someone else’s home for a few weeks. Our car and my computer were never the same