Global Eye

Main religions
Buddhist 69%

Hindi 15%

Christian 8%

Muslim 7%

Ethnic Divisions
Sinhalese 74%

Tamils 18%

Arab 7%

Others 1%

Eye On Sri Lanka Tamil children in a school for Internally Displaced Persons, Madhu

Eye On Sri Lanka Pettah market and Hindu temple. Hindus make up 15% of Sri Lanka's population
The People

Although today the Sinhalese account for almost three quarters of Sri Lanka's population, the first known inhabitants were the Veddas - Stone Age hunter gatherers similar to Aborigines and African Bushmen. The Sinhalese people arrived from India in about the 6th century BC. Most Sinhalese are Buddhists, although some are Christians. The first Tamils came to Sri Lanka over a thousand years ago, the more recent arrivals came in the nineteenth century as plantation workers when Sri Lanka was under British rule. The majority of Tamils in Sri Lanka are Hindus.

7% of Sri Lankans are of Arab descent - Moors and Malays who first came to the country when the Portuguese and then the Dutch colonised it. They make up the 7% Muslim community. The rest of the population are mainly Europeans. The wide range of cultures and religions gives rise to a great variety of festivals throughout the year.

Eye On Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger soldier; civil war has raged for nearly 20 years between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and Sinhalese (government) forces.

Unfortunately there has been a long history of unrest between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. Following years of political infighting, the government passed a bill in 1960 making Sinhalese the only official language in Sri Lanka. The Tamils organised mass demonstrations against this and the Tamil Federal Party were banned. The next twenty years saw the rift between the two groups widen, frequently resulting in violence, until outright civil war began in 1983. The LTTE or Tamil Tigers want independence for the Tamils who are based in the north of Sri Lanka around Jaffna. Suicide bombing and other violence has resulted in an estimated fifty thousand deaths since the civil war began and forced many more out of the country and into refugee camps. A political solution is still being sought.