Prehistory The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back as 500,000 years. The era spans the
Palaeolithic,
Mesolithic, and early
Iron Ages. Among the
Palaeolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka,
Pahiyangala (37,000 BP), named after the
Chinese traveller
monk Faxian;
Batadombalena (28,500 BP); and
Belilena (12,000 BP) are the most important. In these caves, archaeologists have found the remains of
anatomically modern
humans which they have named
Balangoda Man, and other evidence suggesting that they may have engaged in
agriculture and kept domestic dogs for driving game. The earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka were likely ancestors of the
Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. During the protohistoric period (1000–500 BCE) Sri Lanka was culturally united with southern India, and shared the same megalithic burials,
pottery, iron technology, farming techniques and
megalithic graffiti. This cultural complex spread from southern India along with Dravidian clans such as the
Velir, prior to the migration of
Prakrit speakers. It is said that Kubera was overthrown by his
rakshasa stepbrother,
Ravana.
Ancient history of Ceylon, first century CE, in a 1535 publication According to the
Mahāvaṃsa, a
Pāḷi chronicle written in the 5th century CE, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are said to be the
Yakshas and
Nagas. Sinhalese history traditionally starts in 543 BCE with the arrival of
Prince Vijaya, a semi-legendary prince who sailed with 700 followers to Sri Lanka, after being expelled from
Vanga kingdom (present-day
Bengal). He established the
Kingdom of Tambapanni, near modern-day
Mannar. Vijaya (Singha) is the first of the approximately
189 monarchs of Sri Lanka described in chronicles such as the
Dīpavaṃsa,
Mahāvaṃsa,
Cūḷavaṃsa, and
Rājāvaliya. Once
Prakrit speakers had attained dominance on the island, the
Mahāvaṃsa further recounts the later migration of royal brides and service castes from the Tamil
Pandya kingdom to the
Anuradhapura kingdom in the early historic period. , a standing Buddha statue from the reign of
Dhatusena of Anuradhapura, 5th century The
Anuradhapura period (377 BCE1017 CE) began with the establishment of the
Anuradhapura kingdom in 380 BCE during the reign of
Pandukabhaya. Thereafter, Anuradhapura served as the capital city of the country for nearly 1,400 years. Ancient Sri Lankans excelled at building certain types of
structures such as
tanks,
dagobas and palaces. Society underwent a major transformation during the reign of
Devanampiya Tissa, with the arrival of Buddhism from India. In 250 BCE,
Mahinda, a
bhikkhu and the son of the
Mauryan Emperor
Ashoka arrived in
Mihintale carrying the message of Buddhism. His mission won over the monarch, who embraced the faith and propagated it throughout the
Sinhalese population. Succeeding kingdoms of Sri Lanka would maintain many
Buddhist schools and monasteries and support the propagation of Buddhism into other countries in Southeast Asia. Sri Lankan Bhikkhus studied in India's famous ancient Buddhist University of
Nalanda, which was destroyed by
Bakhtiyar Khalji. It is probable that many of the scriptures from Nalanda are preserved in Sri Lanka's many monasteries and that the written form of the
Tripiṭaka, including Sinhalese Buddhist literature, were part of the University of Nalanda. In 245 BCE,
bhikkhunī Sanghamitta arrived with the
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree, which is considered to be a sapling from the historical
Bodhi Tree under which
Gautama Buddha became enlightened. It is considered the oldest human-planted tree (with a continuous historical record) in the world. (
Bodhivaṃsa) Sri Lanka experienced the first of many foreign invasions during the reign of
Suratissa, who was defeated by two horse traders named
Sena and Guttika from South India. Sri Lankan monarchs undertook some remarkable construction projects such as
Sigiriya, the so-called "Fortress in the Sky", built during the reign of
Kashyapa I, who ruled between 477 and 495. The Sigiriya rock fortress is surrounded by an extensive network of ramparts and moats. Inside this protective enclosure were gardens, ponds, pavilions, palaces and other structures. In 993 CE, the invasion of
Chola emperor Rajaraja I forced the then Sinhalese ruler
Mahinda V to flee to the southern part of Sri Lanka. Taking advantage of this situation,
Rajendra I, son of Rajaraja I, launched a large invasion in 1017. Mahinda V was captured and taken to India, and the Cholas
sacked the city of Anuradhapura causing the fall of
Anuradhapura kingdom. Subsequently, they moved the capital to
Polonnaruwa.
Post-classical period Following a 17-year-long campaign,
Vijayabahu I successfully drove the Chola out of Sri Lanka in 1070, reuniting the country for the first time in over a century. Upon his request, ordained monks were sent from
Burma to Sri Lanka to re-establish Buddhism, which had almost disappeared from the country during the Chola reign. During the mediaeval period, Sri Lanka was divided into three sub-territories, namely,
Ruhunu, Pihiti and
Maya. in
Polonnaruwa, 12th century, which depicts the
dhyana mudra, shows signs of
Mahayana influence. Sri Lanka's
irrigation system was extensively expanded during the reign of
Parākramabāhu the Great (1153–1186). This period is considered as a time when Sri Lanka was at the height of its power. He built 1,470 reservoirs – the highest number by any ruler in Sri Lanka's history – repaired 165 dams, 3,910 canals, 163 major reservoirs, and 2,376 mini-reservoirs. the largest irrigation project of mediaeval Sri Lanka. Parākramabāhu's reign is memorable for two major campaigns – in the south of India as part of a Pandyan war of succession, and a punitive strike against the kings of Ramanna (
Burma) for various perceived insults to Sri Lanka. After his demise, Sri Lanka gradually decayed in power. In 1215,
Kalinga Magha, an invader with uncertain origins, identified as the founder of the Jaffna kingdom, invaded and captured the
Kingdom of Polonnaruwa. He sailed from
Kalinga 690 nautical miles on 100 large ships with a 24,000 strong army. Unlike previous invaders, he
looted, ransacked and destroyed everything in the ancient
Anuradhapura and
Polonnaruwa Kingdoms beyond recovery. His priorities in ruling were to extract as much as possible from the land and overturn as many of the traditions of
Rajarata as possible. His reign saw the massive migration of native
Sinhalese people to the south and west of Sri Lanka, and into the mountainous interior, in a bid to escape his power. Sri Lanka never really recovered from the effects of Kalinga Magha's invasion. King Vijayabâhu III, who led the resistance, brought the kingdom to
Dambadeniya. The north, in the meanwhile, eventually evolved into the
Jaffna kingdom. He ruled the North from 1450 to 1467 CE. The next three centuries starting from 1215 were marked by kaleidoscopically shifting collections of capitals in south and central Sri Lanka, including Dambadeniya,
Yapahuwa,
Gampola,
Raigama,
Kotte,
Sitawaka, and finally,
Kandy. In 1247, the Malay kingdom of
Tambralinga which was a vassal of
Sri Vijaya led by their king
Chandrabhanu briefly invaded Sri Lanka from
Insular Southeast Asia. They were then expelled by the South Indian Pandyan dynasty. However, this temporary invasion reinforced the steady flow of the presence of various
Austronesian merchant ethnic groups, from
Sumatrans (Indonesia) to
Lucoes (Philippines) into Sri Lanka which occurred since 200 BCE. Chinese admiral
Zheng He and his naval expeditionary force landed at Galle, Sri Lanka in 1409 and got into
battle with the local king
Vira Alakesvara of Gampola. Zheng He captured King Vira Alakesvara and later released him. Zheng He erected the
Galle Trilingual Inscription, a stone tablet at
Galle written in three
languages (
Chinese,
Tamil, and
Persian), to commemorate his visit. The
stele was discovered by S. H. Thomlin at Galle in 1911 and is now preserved in the
Colombo National Museum.
Early modern period explorer
Joris van Spilbergen meeting with King Vimaladharmasuriya in 1602 |A 1595 map of Sri Lanka created by
Dutch cartographer
Petrus Plancius The early modern period of Sri Lanka begins with the arrival of Portuguese soldier and explorer
Lourenço de Almeida, the son of
Francisco de Almeida, in 1505. In 1517, the Portuguese built a fort at the port city of
Colombo and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas. In 1592, after decades of intermittent warfare with the Portuguese,
Vimaladharmasuriya I moved his kingdom to the inland city of
Kandy, a location he thought more secure from attack. In 1619, succumbing to attacks by the
Portuguese, the independent existence of the
Jaffna kingdom came to an end. During the reign of the
Rajasinha II, Dutch explorers arrived on the island. In 1638, the king signed a
treaty with the
Dutch East India Company to get rid of the Portuguese who ruled most of the coastal areas. The following
Dutch–Portuguese War resulted in a Dutch victory, with Colombo falling into Dutch hands by 1656. The Dutch remained in the areas they had captured, thereby violating the treaty they had signed in 1638. The
Burgher people, a distinct ethnic group, emerged as a result of intermingling between the Dutch and native Sri Lankans in this period. The Kingdom of Kandy was the last independent monarchy of Sri Lanka. In 1595, Vimaladharmasurya brought the sacred
Tooth Relic—the traditional symbol of royal and religious authority amongst the
Sinhalese—to Kandy and built the
Temple of the Tooth. The new king was crowned
Sri Vijaya Rajasinha later that year. Kings of the Nayakkar dynasty launched several attacks on Dutch controlled areas, which proved to be unsuccessful. of Kandy, the last ruling native Sri Lankan monarch During the
French Revolutionary Wars, fearing that French control of the Netherlands might deliver Sri Lanka to the French, the
British Empire occupied the coastal areas of the island (which they called the colony of
British Ceylon) with little difficulty in 1796. Two years later, in 1798,
Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, third of the four Nayakkar kings of Sri Lanka, died of a fever. Following his death, a nephew of Rajadhi Rajasinha, eighteen-year-old Kannasamy, was crowned. The young king, now named
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, faced a
British invasion in 1803 but successfully retaliated. The First Kandyan War ended in a stalemate. The
Kandyan Convention formally ceded the entire country to the British Empire. Attempts by Sri Lankan noblemen to undermine British power in 1818 during the
Uva Rebellion were thwarted by
Governor Robert Brownrigg. The beginning of the modern period of Sri Lanka is marked by the
Colebrooke–Cameron reforms of 1833. Soon, coffee became the primary commodity export of Sri Lanka. Falling coffee prices as a result of the
depression of 1847 stalled economic development and prompted the governor to introduce a series of taxes on firearms, dogs, shops, boats, etc., and to reintroduce a form of
rajakariya, requiring six days free labour on roads or payment of a cash equivalent. A devastating leaf disease,
Hemileia vastatrix, struck the coffee plantations in 1869, destroying the entire industry within fifteen years. The British quickly found a replacement: abandoning coffee, they began cultivating tea instead.
Tea production in Sri Lanka thrived in the following decades. Large-scale rubber plantations began in the early 20th century. in 1905. By the end of the 19th century, a new educated
social class transcending race and
caste arose through British attempts to staff the
Ceylon Civil Service and the legal, educational, engineering, and medical professions with natives. New leaders represented the various ethnic groups of the population in the
Ceylon Legislative Council on a communal basis. Buddhist and Hindu revivalists reacted against
Christian missionary activities. The first two decades in the 20th century are noted by the unique harmony among Sinhalese and
Tamil political leadership, which has since been lost. The
1906 malaria outbreak in Ceylon actually started in the early 1900s, but the first case was documented in 1906. In 1919, major Sinhalese and Tamil political organisations united to form the Ceylon National Congress, under the leadership of
Ponnambalam Arunachalam, pressing colonial masters for more constitutional reforms. But without massive popular support, and with the governor's encouragement for "communal representation" by creating a "Colombo seat" that dangled between Sinhalese and Tamils, the Congress lost momentum towards the mid-1920s. The
Donoughmore reforms of 1931 repudiated the communal representation and introduced
universal adult franchise (the franchise stood at 4% before the reforms). This step was strongly criticised by the Tamil political leadership, who realised that they would be reduced to a minority in the newly created
State Council of Ceylon, which succeeded the legislative council. In 1937, Tamil leader
G. G. Ponnambalam demanded a 50–50 representation (50% for the Sinhalese and 50% for other ethnic groups) in the State Council. However, this demand was not met by the
Soulbury reforms of 1944–45.
Contemporary history The Soulbury constitution ushered in
dominion status, with independence proclaimed on 4 February 1948.
D. S. Senanayake became the first
Prime Minister of Ceylon. Prominent
Tamil leaders including Ponnambalam and
Arunachalam Mahadeva joined his cabinet. The
British Royal Navy remained stationed at
Trincomalee until 1956. A countrywide
popular demonstration against withdrawal of the rice rations resulted in the resignation of prime minister
Dudley Senanayake.
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was elected prime minister in 1956. His three-year rule had a profound influence through his self-proclaimed role of "defender of the besieged Sinhalese culture". He introduced the controversial
Sinhala Only Act, recognising
Sinhala as the only official language of the government. Although partially reversed in 1958, the bill posed a grave concern for the Tamil community, which perceived in it a threat to their language and culture. The
Federal Party (FP) launched a movement of non-violent resistance (
satyagraha) against the bill, which prompted Bandaranaike to reach an agreement (
Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact) with
S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, leader of the FP, to resolve the looming ethnic conflict. The pact proved ineffective in the face of ongoing protests by opposition and the Buddhist clergy. The bill, together with various government
colonisation schemes, contributed much towards the political rancour between Sinhalese and Tamil political leaders. Bandaranaike was
assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk in 1959.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the widow of Bandaranaike, took office as prime minister in 1960, and withstood an
attempted coup d'état in 1962. During her second term as prime minister, the government instituted socialist economic policies, strengthening ties with the
Soviet Union and China, while promoting a policy of non-alignment. In 1971, Ceylon experienced a
Marxist insurrection, which was quickly suppressed. In 1972, the country became a
republic named Sri Lanka, repudiating its dominion status. Prolonged minority grievances and the use of communal emotionalism as an election campaign weapon by both Sinhalese and Tamil leaders abetted a fledgling Tamil militancy in the north during the 1970s. The
policy of standardisation by the Sirimavo government to rectify disparities created in university enrolment, which was in essence an
affirmative action to assist geographically disadvantaged students to obtain tertiary education, resulted in reducing the proportion of Tamil students at university level and acted as the immediate catalyst for the rise of militancy. The assassination of
Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiyappah in 1975 by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) marked a crisis point. The government of
J. R. Jayawardene swept to power in 1977, defeating the
United Front government. Jayawardene introduced a
new constitution, together with a
free-market economy and a powerful
executive presidency modelled after that of France. It made Sri Lanka the first
South Asian country to
liberalise its economy. Lapses in foreign policy resulted in India strengthening the Tigers by providing arms and training. In 1987, the
Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed and the
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was deployed in northern Sri Lanka to stabilise the region by neutralising the LTTE. The same year, the
JVP launched its
second insurrection in Southern Sri Lanka, necessitating redeployment of the IPKF in 1990. In October 1990, the LTTE
expelled Sri Lankan Moors (Muslims by religion) from northern Sri Lanka. In 2002, the Sri Lankan government and LTTE signed a Norwegian-mediated ceasefire agreement. From 1985 to 2006, the Sri Lankan government and Tamil insurgents held four rounds of peace talks without success. Both LTTE and the government resumed fighting in 2006, and the government officially backed out of the ceasefire in 2008. and re-established control of the entire country by the Sri Lankan Government. Overall, between 60,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the course of the 26 year long conflict.
2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings carried out by the terrorist group
National Thowheeth Jama'ath on 21 April 2019 resulted in the brutal death of 261 innocent people. On 26 April 2019 an anti
terrorist operation was carried out against the National Thowheeth Jama'ath by the
Sri Lanka Army with the operation being successful and National Thowheeth Jama'ath's insurgency ending. in front of the
Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, 13 April 2022 Economic troubles in Sri Lanka began in 2019, when a
severe economic crisis occurred caused by rapidly increasing foreign debt, massive government budget deficits due to tax cuts, falling foreign remittances, a food crisis caused by mandatory organic farming along with a ban on chemical fertilisers, and a multitude of other factors. The Sri Lankan Government officially declared the ongoing crisis to be the worst
economic crisis in the country in 73 years. In August 2021, a food emergency was declared. In June 2022, Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe declared the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy in parliament. The crisis resulted in Sri Lanka defaulting on its $51 billion sovereign debt for the first time in its history, along with double-digit inflation, a crippling energy crisis that led to approximately 15 hour power cuts, severe fuel shortages leading to the suspension of fuel to all non-essential vehicles, and more such economic disorder. Due to the crisis, massive
street protests erupted all over the country, with protesters demanding the resignation of the President
Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The protests culminated with the storming and siege of the
President's House on 9 July 2022, and resulted in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing to Singapore and later emailing his resignation to parliament, formally announcing his resignation and making him the first Sri Lankan president to resign in the middle of his term. On the same day the President's House was stormed, protesters besieged and stormed the
private residence of the prime minister and burnt it down. After
Parliament elected the new president as
Ranil Wickremesinghe on
20 July 2022, Wickremesinghe took oath as the ninth President of Sri Lanka. He implemented various economic reforms in efforts to stabilise Sri Lanka's economy, which has shown slight improvement since. On 23 September 2024,
Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president after winning the presidential
election as a left-wing candidate. On 14 November 2024, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's
National People's Power (NPP), a left-leaning alliance, received a two-thirds majority in parliament in Sri Lankan
parliamentary election. == Geography ==