Sri Lanka

G

Culture

Religion plays an important role in Sri Lanka; a revival of Buddhism was associated with the rise of Sinhalese nationalism. Most public holidays are based on religious festivals. The annual torchlight temple procession, Perahara, in which ornamentally covered elephants and hundreds of dancers participate, draws thousands of devotees. Pilgrimages also play an important role in people’s lives. The most important pilgrimage is to the top of Adam’s Peak (Sinhalese, Samanala). Muslims believe that Adam and Eve lived here after they left the Garden of Eden. Buddhists visit a rock on the peak that they believe contains one of Buddha’s footprints. Another important pilgrimage is to the Temple of the Tooth (Dalada Maligawa) in Kandy, where it is believed that one of Buddha’s teeth is enshrined.

Sinhalese society, although Buddhist, is stratified along caste lines. Sri Lankan Tamil society reproduces the caste features found in India, although in modified form.

The Colombo National Museum Library (1877), incorporating the collection of the Government Oriental Library, is the largest in Sri Lanka. The oldest library is the Department of National Archives in Colombo, which contains the official records of the Dutch Administration from 1640 to 1796, the British Administration from 1796 to 1948, and the independent nation from 1948 to the present.

Middle Stone Age implements such as bones and grinding stones have been unearthed in the Bandarawela region in the south; some late Stone Age tools of ground quartz were discovered nearby. Early Buddhist pottery and iron artefacts have been found throughout the country. Hindu burial relics dating from the 3rd century bc have been discovered in the North-Western Province. The National Museums of Sri Lanka, with branches located in Colombo, Kandy, Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Galle, and Trincomalee, contain collections of archaeological finds and historical documents of the country.

IV

Economy

Sri Lanka’s economy has been predominantly based on agriculture. Many people are subsistence farmers, who make a living by growing rice on their small plots. A large export trade in tea, rubber, and coconuts was the dominant commercial activity until the clothing industry became the main export currency earner. Most businesses engaged in producing these goods were nationalized by the middle and late 1970s. The government also controlled banking and insurance, as well as mining and the manufacture of such basic goods as fertilizers, textiles, cement, and petroleum. Retail businesses and the manufacturing of consumer goods remained in private hands.

In the late 1970s the government launched a new programme to accelerate economic growth that included the elimination of various state monopolies to allow for more private-sector competition; the government sought to promote foreign investment in export-oriented industries in the mid-1980s.

Sri Lanka had a gross national product (GNP) (World Bank estimate) in 2004 of about US$19,547 million, equivalent to about US$1,160 per capita. In 2005 the annual budget included revenue of US$4,929 million and expenditure of US$3,778 million. Although economic growth accelerated in the early 1990s, with domestic conditions improving and conditions for foreign investment brightening, the Tamil insurgency has discouraged foreign investors and high unemployment and ethnic violence have dimmed Sri Lanka’s economic prospects. A further problem has been the need to curb government overspending.

The continuing violence has affected Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. Approximately 549,308 tourists visited the country in 2005 compared to 410,000 in 1995. Tourist receipts brought in around US$314 million in 2005.

A

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

About 30 per cent of Sri Lanka’s land is under cultivation, with another 7 per cent being permanent pasture. Tea covers only 12 per cent of the cultivated acreage, but it accounts for about 13 per cent of the country’s export earnings; in 2005 Sri Lanka produced 308,090 tonnes of tea. Tea, rubber, and coconuts are the principal cash crops. In 1990 Sri Lanka overtook India as the world’s largest tea exporter. The agricultural sector contributed an estimated 16.8 per cent towards gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005.

Rice is the basic food of the people and the principal crop of the island. More acreage is devoted to the cultivation of rice than to any other crop; the estimated annual output in 2005 was 3.13 million tonnes. Vegetables are grown in small amounts, but they are mostly cultivated by farmers for their own private consumption. Considerable quantities of sugar, wheat, and rice are imported.

Animal husbandry is of comparatively little importance to the economy of Sri Lanka. In 2005 the island contained an estimated 1.19 million cattle, 316,000 buffaloes, 405,250 goats, and 11.6 million chickens and poultry. Pigs and sheep are also raised.

About 30 per cent of Sri Lanka’s land is covered by forests and woodlands. Local timber needs are satisfied by government-owned woodlands. The estimated annual timber harvest in 2005 was about 6.28 million cu m (222 million cu ft); more than 90 per cent of the harvested wood was used for fuel. The fishing industry is restricted to a small coastal fringe and contributes relatively little to the national economy; the annual catch in 2004 amounted to approximately 286,373 tonnes.

B

Mining

Although mineral resources are generally limited, Sri Lanka is an important source of high-grade lump amorphous graphite, used in the manufacture of carbon brushes for electric motors. Output of natural graphite in the early 1990s was 3,300 tonnes annually. Ilmenite, rutile, and zircon are also mined for commercial uses. Limestone is mined for a government-owned cement factory at Jaffna. Other mined resources include salt, mica, kaolin (a fine clay), glass sands, and precious and semi-precious stones.

C

Manufacturing

In 2005, mechanized industry accounted for about 26 per cent of the country’s yearly GDP. The more important industrial enterprises, most of which are entirely or partly government owned, produce such goods as textiles, clothing, steel, tyres, cement, sugar, cigarettes, paper and leather goods, electronic equipment, refined petroleum, chemicals, ceramics, and processed food. Manufacturing contributed an estimated 15 per cent towards the GDP in 2005.