We are finding the history of Sri Lanka very interesting (if complicated!). So we thought we’d share what we have learned. Prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka go back more than 100,000 years. As sea levels rise and fall, the island sometimes connects to India – most recently in about 5,000 BCE.
The early history of Sri Lanka involves various kingdoms throughout the island, sometimes cooperating, sometimes seeking to conquer one another. And the history told today always falls under the shadow of the brutal civil war that gripped the island from 1983 to 2008 (see below).
Sri Lankan chronicles tell a vivid story, though how much is history, how much is legend is difficult to establish. Sinhalese tradition names Prince Vijaya as the first Indian settler to arrive in Sri Lanka in the mid-6th century BCE. The story goes that he and 700 followers were banished from the Benghal region (roughly modern-day Bangladesh) for bad behaviour. Arrived in Sri Lanka, he established a kingdom at Mannar in the northern part of the island. Though he married a native woman, he later sent her away, and requested from India wives for himself and his 700 followers.
Around 380 BCE the Anuradhapura kingdom in Sri Lanka was established, taking its name from the city that was its capital for 400 years. Some see this as a golden age of Sri Lankan history, not least because Buddhism arrived during this period (ca. 250 BCE), and Anuradhapura itself became adorned with magnificent buildings, artworks, and public works.
In this last category are the many structures attempting to manage the water of the island. When it rains in Sri Lanka, it really rains, but there are long periods when it does not. So water tanks are essential for agriculture in the dry months. We’ve been to very few places where water structures are a regular feature of tours! But then again, if you look at our featured image above, you can see that they put a lot of artistry into it: that particular image is of a water spout of ca. the 8th c. CE! Of the more usual monuments at Anuradhapura are three magnificent stupas built in honour of the Buddha. They align with three of the stars in the constellation Orion.
In 1017 the Anuradhapuran kingdom was conquered, and a new capital was set up at Polonnaruwa. Its king, Parakramabahu I (r. 1153-1186) was also a great manager of water, and built extensive irrigation works. At its greatest extent, the kingdom ruled nearly the entire northern half of the island, before ending in 1232. For the next two and half centuries, various kingdoms sought to rule parts or all of the island.
In 1505 the first Europeans arrived on the island in the person of the – surprise! – Portuguese. They built a fort in Colombo in 1518 and began to engage in trade with the natives and elsewhere. But conquest came soon enough, of course: by 1619 they controlled a great part of the island. Not long after that the Dutch arrived. The Sinhalese sought an alliance with them in hopes of ousting the Portuguese. You know how that ended: by 1660 the Dutch controlled the entire island except a small, landlocked kingdom in the centre of the island whose capital was Kandy. This kingdom survived until the early 19th century. (We’ll report on our visit to Kandy in a future post.)
During the wars with Napoleon, Great Britain became interested in the island and occupied the coastal areas. In 1802 the Dutch formally ceded their territories to Great Britain. The British followed up by attacking the kingdom of Kandy in 1803 (when they were defeated) and 1815 (when they were not). The whole island was now a crown colony, and the British grew coffee, tea, and rubber. Some few made fortunes while the natives lost virtually all their rights.
Late 1919 saw calls for independence, though there was division amongst its advocates between those who sought incremental change and those who wanted it immediately. Tensions between the Sinhalese and the Tamils erupted in 1939, largely over the question of representation in the new government. The Tamils (originally from southern India) had been in Sri Lanka for centuries, but a larger immigration occurred under the British who brought many of them in as indentured servants on the plantations. These ‘plantation’ Tamils, though outnumbering the older Tamils, were of a lower socio-economic class, and had few rights. That was to have tragic consequences.
In World War II Sri Lanka was a British outpost and the British commander, Lord Mountbatten, used it as his eastern headquarters. But the war only delayed the desire for independence, which came about in 1948.
The recent history of Sri Lanka has been very much defined by the horrendous Civil War that took place from 1983 to 2008 (the longest in Asian history). Conflicts between the disenfranchised plantation Tamils and the majority Sinhalese raged throughout the island. The Tamil Tigers ambushed and killed 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in July 1983, and this led to violent and brutal reprisals by the Sinhalese against Tamils in Colombo and elsewhere throughout the island. For the next two decades guerilla warfare and broken cease-fires continued, with no resolution in sight.
Only with the military victory of the government against the rebels in May 2009 did the conflict end. But it remains a live issue today, as we discovered in our talks with people here. As many as 100,000 people may have died in the conflict (a very large number given the population of Sri Lanka), and the government in particular was accused of systematic violation of human rights. More than one person has said to us that the government has never given the full accounting needed for true peace and for the families of the victims, and until that comes, the country cannot really move on.
We’ve left out a great deal of the history of Sri Lanka, much of which we are still learning ourselves. We expect to continue our study even after we’ve left, not least because some of the best Sri Lankan literature we’ve been reading (post to follow!) attempts to deal with the island’s past and its still struggling present.
(The items pictured in the post all come from the collection of the Colombo National Museum.)
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