People of Sri Lanka can be categorised on two bases: ethnic groups and religion. On ethnic base biggest group are the Sinhalese and then the Tamils. On basis of religion followers of Buddhism form the largest community in Sri Lanka. As for education most rural people recieve traditional education. European government introduced western education in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean about 28 kilometers (18 mi.) off the southeastern coast of India with a population of about 20 million. Density is highest in the southwest where Colombo, the country's main port and industrial center, is located. The net population growth is about 0,7%. Sri Lanka is ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse
As Sri Lankan population is composed with multi-ethnic group, the religion in Sri Lanka is inevitably diverse. Various communities in Sri Lanka recognize four of the world's major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. The majority people of the country, the Sinhalese are adherent to Buddhism while other ethnic groups like Tamils, Moors, Burghers, and others practice Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, respectively
Sri Lanka is a land where recorded history spans twenty five centuries; and whose pre-history goes back to the Indian epic "The Ramayana". It is the legendary Lanka of the fabulous "Ten headed" king Ravana who abducted the lovely Indian Princess Sita in his "flying chariot". Well, that was aeons before the modern airlines began flying into Sri Lanka!.
Recorded history in Sri Lanka began when Buddhism gave birth to a cultural revolution more than 2000 years ago, and in the wake of this cultural revolution came an era of unsurpassed achievement. It fashioned life-styles, fostered the arts and inspired the creation of dagabas, temples, monasteries, statues, vast man-made reservoirs and irrigation systems which even today defy engineering interpretation
This continuous record of settled and civilized life extending over two millennia shows that the content and direction of this civilization was shaped by that of the Indian subcontinent. The island's two major ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils, and its two dominant religious cultures, Buddhist and Hindu, made their way onto the island from India. The various expressions of literate culture parallel to those of India, and overall the culture and civilization of Sri Lanka are of the Indic pattern.
Yet it is also clear that in many respects the island's civilization has achieved an individuality and identity that distinguish it from its neighbour. Cultural traits brought from India have undergone independent growth and change. The Sinhala language, which grew out of Indo-Aryan dialects, exists only in Sri Lanka and has its own distinguished literary tradition. Likewise, Buddhism, which has a long history on the island, has all but disappeared from India
A common experience of European colonial rule and its modernizing influences brought Sri Lanka closer to India and, with the attainment of independence in the mid-20th century, both countries developed similar social institutions and ideologies.
The historic connection between Sri Lanka and India was the result mainly of geographic proximity. Geologically an extension of peninsular India, Sri Lanka's separation from the Indian mainland could possibly be as recent as the Miocene Epoch. Historically, the island has also been influenced by its location along the east-west sea route. Even before the discovery of the oceanic route from Europe to India in the 15th century, Sri Lanka was a meeting point for Eastern and Western trade. The island was known to Greek and Roman cartographers and sailors and later to Persian, Armenian, and Arab navigators. With the coming of the Europeans, the strategic importance of Sri Lanka increased, and Western maritime powers fought to control its shores.
The island's first human settlers were probably tribes of the proto-Australoid ethnic group, akin to the pre-Dravidian hill tribes of southern India. Remnants of these people were absorbed by the Indo-Aryans who immigrated from India about the 5th century BC and developed into the Sinhalese. The Tamils were probably later immigrants from Dravidian India, their migrations being spread out over a period dating from about the 3rd century BC to about AD 1200. The Tamil element was strengthened in the 19th century with the immigration of southern Indians to work on the plantations.
Sri Lanka possesses a continuous historical tradition preserved in written form by Buddhist chroniclers. The core of this tradition,the chronicle called the Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle") and its continuation called the Culavamsa ("Little Chronicle")constitutes a literary record of the establishment and growth of Sinhalese political power and of the Buddhist faith on the island.
Ehtnic Groups
People of Sri Lanka are divided into four ethnic groups. These are the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the Muslims, and the Burghers. Sinhalese make up 73.8% of the population and are concentrated in the densely populated southwest. Sri Lanka Tamils, citizens whose ancestors have lived on the island for centuries, total about 18% and live predominantly in the north and east. However accurate census figures with regards the Sri Lankan Tamil community have been difficult to quantify, given that large areas of northern Sri Lanka are under rebel control and that large numbers of tamils have fled abroad. See Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
Indian Tamils are a distinct ethnic group and comprise 5.1% of the population. The British brought them to Sri Lanka in the 19th century as tea and rubber plantation workers, and they remain concentrated in the "tea country" of south-central Sri Lanka. In accordance with a 1964 agreement with India, Sri Lanka granted citizenship to 230,000 "stateless" Indian Tamils in 1988. Under the pact, India granted citizenship to the remainder, some 200,000 of whom now live in India. Another 75,000 Indian Tamils, who themselves or whose parents once applied for Indian citizenship, now wish to remain in Sri Lanka. The government has stated these Tamils will not be forced to return to India, although they are not technically citizens of Sri Lanka
Religion
Most inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the followers of Buddhism, most of them from Sinhala community. Them come the people who have embraced Islam as their religion. Most Tamil people in Sri Lanka follow Hinduism. Then commes the Christian community
Most Sinhalese are Buddhist; most Tamils are Hindu. The Malays and Moors are Muslim. Sizable minorities of both Sinhalese and Tamils are Christians, most of whom are Roman Catholic. The Burgher population is mostly Roman Catholic or Presbyterian. The Veddahs have Animist and Buddhist practices. The 1978 constitution, while assuring freedom of religion, grants primacy to Buddhism.
Sri Lanka's population practices a variety of religions. 70% of Sri Lankans are Theravada Buddhists, 15% are Hindus, 7.5% are Muslims and 7.5% Christians
Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism is the majority religion in Sri Lanka, with about 70% of the country's population as followers. Mahinda, son of Ashoka, an early supporter of Buddhism, led the mission to Sri Lanka in 246 BC where he converted the king of Sri Lanka to Buddhism. From then on, the royal families had helped to encourage the spread of Buddhism, aiding Buddhist missionaries and building monasteries. Sanghamitra, daughter of King Ashoka, brought a shoot of the Bodhi tree in Buddha Gaya to Sri Lanka and established the Order of Nuns. Around 200 BC, Buddhism became the official religion of Sri Lanka. The Relic of the tooth of the Buddha was brought to Sri Lanka in 4th century AD by Prince Danta and Princess Hemamala. However, later on, Hindu and European colonial influences attributed to the decline of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. By the mid 19th century, Dharmapala, a Buddhist monk, started a revival movement in Sri Lanka. This movement eventually helped to return Buddhist dominance in Sri Lanka
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Hinduism
Hindus make up 16% of Sri Lanka's population. Hinduism was the major religion practiced on the island prior to the introduction of Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE and the subsequent adoption of the new religion by the Sinhalese population. Nonetheless, Hinduism survived and endured in Sri Lanka, supported by South Indian and Orissan dynasties that conquered parts of the island through history.
As with other religions, it experienced some decline during the European colonization of the country as a result of the heavy emphasis on Christianity. In modern times the religion is still dominant in the Northern and Eastern provinces, among the Tamil ethnic group, though modern day conversions to Christianity still represent some decline.
With 15% of the total population Hinduism is a minority religion in Sri Lanka, though it continues to flourish among the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora; with many temples and religious establishments being built by this community in their new homelands.
The most important Hindu religious figure in Sri Lankan modern history is, inarguably, Satguru Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna. One of the greatest and most profound mystics of the twentieth century, Yogaswami was the official satguru and counseling sage of Lanka's several million Tamil Hindu population
Islam
By the 15th century, Arab traders had controlled much of the trade on the Indian Ocean, including that of Sri Lanka's. Many of these traders settled down in Sri Lanka, encouraging the spread of Islam. However, when the Portuguese arrived at Sri Lanka during the 16th century, many of their Muslim descendants were persecuted, thus forcing them to migrate to the Central Highlands and to the east coast.
In modern times, Muslims in Sri Lanka are handled by the Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Department, which was established in the 1980s to prevent the continual isolation of the Muslim community from the rest of Sri Lanka. Today, about 8% of Sri Lankans adhere to Islam; mostly from the Arab-descendant Moor and Malay ethnic communities on the island
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Christianity
According to Christian traditions, Thomas the Apostle first arrived in Sri Lanka (as well as India) during the 1st century. After his arrival, small Christian settlements were recorded to have been established on Sri Lanka's coastline. However, the population of Christians in Sri Lanka didn't dramatically increase until the arrival of Portuguese missionaries during the 15th century. In the 17th century, the Dutch took over Sri Lanka and Dutch missionaries were able to convert 21% of Sri Lanka's population into official Christians by 1722. Anglican and other Protestant missionaries arrived at Sri Lanka during the early 19th century, when the British took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch. The Salvation Army is also strong in Sri Lanka.
Even so, Christianity has heavily declined in Sri Lanka ever since the end of colonial rule. By the 1980s, the population of Christians (mostly concentrated in the southwest of Sri Lanka) reached 1,283,600, 8% of Sri Lanka's population. Of these Christians, about 88% are Roman Catholics and the rest are Anglican and Protestant. By the 1970s, there has been a movement for all Protestant churches to join together in a united Church of Sri Lanka, though this has been strongly opposed by the Sinhalese people.
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