Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean, just off the southern tip of India, from which it is separated by the shallow Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. The coasts are lined with palm-fringed beaches and lagoons, and the south-central interior rises into green hills and mountains covered in tea gardens and cloud forest. Until 1972 the country was called Ceylon, a name that lives on in its famous tea.
People have lived on the island for many thousands of years, and its written history is one of the longest in Asia. Buddhism arrived in the 3rd century BC, and kings at Anuradhapura and later Polonnaruwa built huge monasteries, stupas and irrigation reservoirs. From 1505 the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the British controlled the coasts, and in 1815 the British took the last kingdom, Kandy. Ceylon became independent in 1948. From 1983 to 2009 the country went through a long civil war, which ended in May 2009.
Memories fade faster than photos. Ask these over a meal or a phone call, and write the answers down.
Sri Lanka's chronicles, above all the Mahavamsa, tell the island's story for more than two thousand years. It is a history of great Buddhist kingdoms in the dry north, of irrigation works that still water the rice fields, of spice traders and European fleets, of tea, independence, a long civil war and recovery.
Sinhalese history traditionally begins in 543 BC, when the semi-legendary Prince Vijaya, sent away from his home in Vanga, in today's Bengal, landed near today's Mannar with 700 followers. The island's chronicles count him as the first of about 189 kings. Archaeology shows that people had lived here for many thousands of years before.
King Kashyapa, who reigned in the late 5th century until 495, moved his capital to a huge granite rock at Sigiriya. He built a palace on the summit, painted frescoes on the rock face and made a gateway in the shape of a giant lion. After his death the palace was abandoned and the site became a Buddhist monastery.
Parakramabahu I, who reigned from 1153 to 1186, is remembered as one of the island's greatest kings. He built or repaired hundreds of reservoirs and canals, including the vast Parakrama Samudra lake at Polonnaruwa, and had the Buddha statues of the Gal Vihara carved in the rock.
The king of Kandy made a treaty with the Dutch East India Company in 1638 to push out the Portuguese. The Dutch took Colombo in 1656 and the last Portuguese strongholds in 1658, but then kept the coast for themselves. Dutch rule left forts, canals, Roman-Dutch law and the Burgher community.
The Donoughmore Constitution of 1931 gave the vote to all adults, men and women, at a time when only about 4 percent of the population had been able to vote. It was the first time a non-European colony of a Western European empire was given one person, one vote.
On 21 July 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike was sworn in as prime minister of Ceylon, the first woman in the world to lead a government as prime minister. She served three terms in all.
Tensions between the government and parts of the Tamil minority had grown since independence. In July 1983 an attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who wanted a separate Tamil state in the north and east, was followed by deadly anti-Tamil riots, and the conflict became a civil war. Many thousands of Tamils left the country.
In May 2009 the army defeated the LTTE and the 26-year war ended. The United Nations estimated that 80,000 to 100,000 people died over the whole war. The final months, when many civilians were trapped in the fighting, have been examined by the United Nations, and reconciliation is still a national task.
Cook one of the recipes, print the large-print pack about Sri Lanka, and finish with the big-screen quiz or the words crossword. Grandchildren can colour the flag.
