James Baquet

Sri Lanka is a teardrop-shaped island country located off the southeast coast of India. It is over 1,000 kilometers northeast of the Maldives.

The documented history of Sri Lanka stretches over 3,000 years, though prehistoric settlements reach back at least 125,000 years. The aboriginal peoples of Sri Lanka, the Vedda, though threatened with extinction, are still viable members of Sri Lanka’s cultural mélange, along with the majority Sinhalese, the large minority Tamils, and other groups identified as Moors (predominantly Muslims), Burghers (Eurasians descended from Portuguese, Dutch, British and other European men and native Sri Lankan women), Malays and Chinese.

Sri Lanka holds a special place in Buddhist history. It was there that the fourth Buddhist council took place in 29 B.C., resulting in the penning of the until-then oral works known as the “Pali Canon,” the oldest comprehensive statements of the Buddha’s teachings.

When I was a boy, and until 1972, the country was known as Ceylon. It has had other names, though, one of which is enshrined in an English word. It was once known to the Arab and Persian world as “Serendip” (or Sarandib); a story about three Sri Lankan princes wandering about with good results has given us the word “serendipity,” meaning to “make fortunate discoveries” or, more generally, “good fortune” or “luck.”

This points to another important aspect of Sri Lankan history and culture: It has been a maritime crossroads from the time of the ancient Silk Road. This explains the presence of, sequentially, the Portuguese, Dutch and British on Sri Lanka’s shores; all were major players in the European incursion into Asia.

Politically, Sri Lanka today is a unitary state with a semi-presidential system, meaning it is a mix of both presidential and parliamentary systems. It was long, however, a kingdom or group of kingdoms. In the mists of the ancient past, Sri Lanka was the home of Ravana, the demon who stole Sita from her husband Rama in the great Indian epic “The Ramayana.”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. uncertain period in the distant past

2. mixture

3. in danger of

4. living, with the ability to grow

5. stories, etc. not written down

6. in order; one after another

7. going out of existence

8. before anything was written down

9. official set of books

10. including everything