Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Sri Lanka's location - near India and along hundreds of ancient trade routes
- has for ages made it attractive to immigrants, invaders, missionaries,
traders and travellers from India, East Asia and the Middle East. Many stayed
on, and over generations they assimilated and intermarried, converted and
converted back. Although debates still rage over who was here first and who
can claim Sri Lanka as their homeland, the island's history, like that of its eth-
nicities, is one of shifting dominance and constant flux.
The indigenous Veddahs were called Yakshas, or nature spirits, by the island's early ar-
rivals. No one knows if this is because the Veddahs were so at home in nature or because
they prayed to their departed ancestors - spirits known as
nae yaku
.
Prehistory & Early Arrivals
Sri Lanka's history is a source of great pride to both Sinhalese and Tamils, the country's
two largest ethnic groups. The only problem is, they have two completely different ver-
sions. Every historical site, religious structure, even village name seems to have conflicting
stories about its origin, and those stories are, in turn, blended over time with contrasting re-
ligious myths and local legends. The end results are often used as evidence that the island is
one group's exclusive homeland; each claims first dibs.
Did the Buddha leave his footprint on Adam's Peak (Sri Pada) while visiting the island
that lay halfway to paradise? Or was it Adam who left his footprint embedded in the rock
while taking a last look at Eden? Was the chain of islands linking Sri Lanka to India the
same chain that Rama crossed to rescue his wife Sita from the clutches of Rawana, demon
king of Lanka, in the epic Ramayana?
Whatever the legends, the reality is that Sri Lanka's original inhabitants, the Veddahs (or,
as they refer to themselves, Wanniyala-aetto: 'forest dwellers'), were hunter-gatherers who
subsisted on the island's natural bounty. Much about their origins is unclear, but anthropolo-
gists generally believe that they are descended from people who migrated from India, and
