Sri Lanka
By Akash Choudhury
Basic Information
- Population- 22,053,488 people in Sri Lanka
- Capital is Colombo
- Leader is President Maithripala Sirisena
- It is a Presidential Republic
- Major languages are Sinhala and Tamil
Sports in Sri Lanka
Cricket is one of the most passionate sports in Sri Lanka since they won the World Cup in 1996. Their team has also won the Asia Cup in 1986, 1997, 2004, and 2008 in this baseball in this game similar to baseball. It is played in a oval field and one team pitches while the other team bats. To win you have to score the most runs, but the bowler(pitcher) and striker(person who's batting) are on a 22 yard long patch in the middle of the field with stumps on each end. The striker must stop the ball from hitting these stumps and hit it hard enough to get runs. There are 11 fielders and 2 batsmen. Another sport in Sri Lanka is for people to climb a greased pole to get a flag on the top.
Entertainment
Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate so reading is a favorite pastime for them. In fact their literacy rate is one of the highest in Asia! They also enjoy theatre, folk music, and traditional songs. Sri Lankans also enjoy flying and making kites in their spare time. Watching soap operas and Western, Indian, and Sri Lankan movies are very popular.
History of Sri Lanka
In 1505 the Portuguese came to island of Sri Lanka and interested European countries like Britain. 1833 rolled around and the island was united under British control, in which the island was called Ceylon,until it broke free in the same year as India and it gained independence. The 2 major ethnic groups, Sinhalese (74.9%) and the Tamil (11.2), do not get along with Sinhalese alienating the Tamil because the are the minority. In 1983 a civil war erupts in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and the Tamil. The only time the war halted was during the election season. Fighting still broke out and the president at the time was assassinated by Tamil rebels. The war ended in 2009 when the Sinhalese beat the last rebel group called the Tamil Tigers. The U.N. was not happy about this and is accusing both sides of committing war crimes. Recently Tamil opposition has won provincial elections and the recently elected president has gotten the minority vote from the Tamil and Muslims.
Bibliography
Works Cited
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"The World Factbook: Sri Lanka." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, 05 May 2016. Web. 08 May 2016.