People of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is the land of
multi-ethnic groups distinctively divided by two main
characteristics: language and religion which consequently
intersect to create four principal ethnic groups.
The first one is
the largest minority group of the country-that is Sinhalese
people, accounting for 74% of its total population, densely
populated in the southwest of the island.
The second largest group
is Tamils which is subdivided into two groups: the Ceylon
Tamils or Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils. Altogether,
these two groups of Tamils account for 18% of the country's
populace. The Ceylon Tamils concentrate in the northern and
eastern parts of the country while the Indian Tamils separate to
settle in the south central Sri Lanka.
The next group is Moors,
the Arab origins, recognized as the Muslims of 7% of total
population scattering around the Central Highlands. Actually,
among Moors, themselves, comprises of three subdivisions: the Sri
Lankan Moors, the Indian Moors, and the Malays.
The fourth group
is the Burghers who are the descendants of the Portuguese
and the Dutch.
The ethnic division in Sri Lanka
has brought conflicts to public life since the nineteenth century.
Actually, ethnic divisions are not based on race or physical
appearance; language and religious system are neither the
officially social segregation among each ethnic group. Yet,
certain historical circumstances played even more important role
in animosity among them, leading to divergence and competition for
political and economic power as seen today as an ethnic conflicts
between the Sinhalese and the Tamils.
Original
inhabitants in Sri Lanka
Before the present ethnic groups
of Sri Lanka today, it is said that Sri Lanka have been inhabited
by the indigenous people called Yakka who lived in
the Neolithic community, dating back to at least 16,000 B.C. or
probably far earlier according to the current scientific
hypothesis; they are believed to be the ancestor of the Wanniyala-Aetto
("forest-beings"), also known as the "Veddha"
in Sinhalese language. Their life profoundly attaches to their
tropical forest environment, enjoying their living as the
hunter-gatherers for millenniums as there is a quotation of the
leader of survival Veddhas defining himself and his fellows
accordingly:
"I was born in the
forest. My ancestors come from here. We are the forest beings, and
I want to live and die here. And even if I were reborn only as a
fly or an ant, I would still be happy so long as I knew I would
come back to live here in the forest."
- Uru Warige Tissahamy 97-year
old elder Wanniyala-Aetto wisdom keeper
In the course of the history, the
Veddhas have undertaken the challenges of their identical survival
along with various foreign invasions. First by the Sinhalese
invasion in the 6th century and later by the Tamils from India;
five centuries of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonization, and
the Two World Wars. The Veddhas have constantly been forced to
choose between two alternatives for the sake of their community's
survival: either to be assimilated to other cultures or to retreat
ever further into the reducing forest habitat. In the 1980s, the
Veddhas were evicted from their home forest in the eastern
highlands and relocated by the Sri Lankan government as a result
of the Mahaweli Ganga Program and the establishment of the Maduru
Oya National Park.
Resettled and also restricted
from roaming the land, the Veddhas could not continue their
ancestral life hunting. As a result, they are obliged to
assimilate to the main stream culture for their community's
survival. Their cycle of life has turned to money as their life
earning; they sell honey and whatever they find in the jungle and
get money in return. Nowadays, they are virtually dependent to
money that they became the victim of commercialism. The extinction
of the Veddhas' culture is imminent; that's why the Veddhas have
decided to adapt and survive by practically giving up their
hunter-gather lifestyle and selling their culture to both local
and foreign tourists instead.
Nowadays, the wisdom and
distinctive culture of these indigenous people attract the world
interest. Supports and appeals from international organizations
for turning the Veddhas back to their home jungles and for their
struggle for their cultural survival are examples of consciousness
of precious wisdom and fascinating culture of the forest-beings,
Veddhas.
Ethnic
groups in Sri Lanka
Sinhalese
The Sinhalese are the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka,
accounting for 74 percent of the total population. The Sinhalese
are not the indigenous people of Sri Lanka. According to the
legend, the Sinhalese were descendants of Prince Vijaya and his
fellows migrating from the northern India into the island in the
6th century B.C, bringing with them the agricultural economy and
language. Later, Prince Vijaya and his Sinhalese immigrants
inter-married with indigenous inhabitants. Hereby, they could
conquer the whole island and developed their early Sinhalese
Kingdom with Theravada Buddhism as the basis of political, social
and economic ideology.
The Sinhalese was excellent in
irrigation systems. With the challenging geology and climate in
the northern and eastern parts of the island where they first
settled, the Sinhalese tried to subdue the aridity by irrigating
waters from the Mahaweli Ganga River through its irrigation
network into plains, allowing then the sufficient water supplies
for cultivation in the region. The excellent network of irrigation
system consequently formed the basis of prosperous economy with a
large agricultural surplus that sustained a vivacious
civilization, and Buddhism was the core of that civilization,
giving it more dignity and elegance.
Buddhism is the significant
element for unifying Sinhalese people as an ethnic entity as well
as their splendid culture and arts. It was formally introduced
into Sri Lanka in the third century B.C. during the reign of Devanampiyatissa,
a contemporary of the famous emperor of India, Asoka the
Great who sent the first Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka.
Despite their homogenous feeling
of being Sinhalese, there is difference among the Sinhalese
themselves. The "Kandy" and the
"low-country" Sinhalese are distinct from each
other. The Kandy Sinhalese dwell in the highlands which
remained independent until 1818. Consequently, they are more
traditional with their conservative cultural and social forms.
Traditional Buddhism was in force in education while English
education was less respected. Caste system related to occupational
role is still practiced among the Kandy Sinhalese with a slow
change.
Unlike the Kandy Sinhalese, the low-country
Sinhalese inhabiting in plains and the coast of Sri Lanka
experienced significant change through 400 years of European rule.
A number of coastal people, especially among the Karava caste,
were converted to Christianity through the missionary efforts of
the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. The old conceptions of noble
and servile status declined, and the social mobility was based on
economic opportunity or service to the colonial government. The
wider and more cosmopolitan viewpoint differentiated then the
low-country Sinhalese from the more conservative inhabitants of
the highlands.
Tamils
The Tamils are the second-largest group in Sri Lanka after the
Sinhalese, comprising approximately 18% of Sri Lanka population.
They use Tamil language as their native tongue which is one of the
Dravidian languages spoken in the Indian peninsular. Actually, the
Tamil settlement can be traced back to the pre-historic times. But
the substantial stream of Tamil immigration started during the
centuries of the conflicts between the southern Indian kingdoms
and the Sinhalese Kingdom on the island which ended up with the
conquest over the northern Sri Lanka of one of those kingdoms, Chola
(around the fifth and sixth century A.D.). Chola Dynasty from the
southern India brought with them Hinduism which also flourished at
that time in India. These Tamils established their kingdom in the
northern region of Sri Lanka and later downed east. The Sinhalese
were then evicted from the northern and eastern parts of the
country to the southwest.
The Tamils in Sri Lanka, however,
are divided into two groups which have differently historical
background from each other. The first group is the so-called "Sri
Lanka Tamils" or "Ceylon Tamils" whose origins
can be traced back to more than thousand years; they are regarded
as a native minority. The other group is the "Indian
Tamils" whose ancestors were brought from southern India
to work on tea plantations in the Central Highlands during the
British Rule (1796-1948). Since the Indian Tamils lived on
plantation settlement, they have not become an integral part of
the society and in fact, seen by the Sinhalese as foreigners. The
population of the Indian Tamils has been declining as they
repatriated to Tamil Nadu, their home land in southern
India.
Despite their division, the
Tamils all have the common religions, beliefs, language and
culture. Some 80 percent of the Sri Lanka Tamils and 90 percent of
Indian Tamils are Hindus. Their religious beliefs, myths,
literatures, and rituals are dissimilar from any cultural sources
of the Sinhalese. The caste system which came alongside Hinduism
also differs form that of the Sinhalese. Consequently, the Tamil
minority in Sri Lanka is obviously separated from the mainstream
Sinhalese culture, creating somewhat the ethnic awareness between
them. The Tamils dominate the Jaffna Peninsular as their main
settlements with some minorities dwelling in other northern and
eastern districts.
Muslims (Moors)
The Muslims have been an integral part of Sri Lankan society for
over thousands years. Arab merchants and sailors from the Middle
East have first landed on the coastal belt of Ceylon during the
Prophet Muhammad's life time for trades and business. By the 10th
century, the prominent Arab community came into existence in Sri
Lanka and has held sway the trade of the southwest ports as they
had cordial relations with local people. The Sinhalese kings, who
were not specialized in trading, generally employed Muslims
ministers to manage the state's commercial affairs, allowing then
an overseeing growth of Muslim community in later times.
The Muslims in Sri Lanka today
are the offspring of the intercourse between the Arabs and the
local women, especially Tamil women, comprising 7 percent of the
Sri Lankan population. They adopted Tamil language instead of
retaining their complicated Arabian language for the reason that
Tamil language was a common language for communication of trading
along the coast, but they still practicing the religion of Islam.
In the Muslim community, it is sub-divided into three groups of
Muslims who have different roots and relations to the country: The
Sri Lanka Moors, the Indian Moors, and the Malays.
The Sri Lanka Moors
account for 93% of Muslim population in Sri Lanka. Their ancestry
can be traced back to Arab traders who moved from the Middle East
to the southern India and Sri Lanka some times between the eight
and the fifteenth centuries. The Sri Lanka Moors scatter all over
the Island, more densely on the northwest coast and east coast
districts, preserving their Islamic heritage while adopting many
South Asian customs and local conditions. They still play the
significant role in trade and business of the country.
The Indian Moors originated
from the Indian Muslims from various parts of India who migrated
in to the Island for the search of business opportunity during the
colonial periods. Some came to the country as far back as the
Portuguese period (16th century); others arrived during the
British rule for works on tea plantations.
The Malays trace their
origins to the immigrants from Indonesia under the colonization of
the Dutch. Most of early Malays were soldiers serving for the
Dutch colonial administration who decided to make the island their
home for good. Other immigrants were convicts or members of noble
families from Indonesia who were exiled to Sri Lanka and have
settled down here ever since. They are distinct from the other
Muslims by their original language of Malay. Of total Muslim
population in Sri Lanka, the Malays account for 5%. The majority
of the Malays confine themselves nowadays in Colombo.
Burghers
The origins of the Burghers can be traced to the first
colonization on the Island by the Portuguese. Since the Portuguese
women coming to the Island at that time were very few, the
Portuguese enhanced their populace in the new land by an
inter-marriage with the native women. This method of settlement
was very successful; there were more mixed Portuguese people
speaking Portuguese, practicing Catholic, and better suited to the
tropical climate than the European-born Portuguese.
After the Portuguese, the Dutch
came in to their dominance over the island; they, too, searched
for some colonies for Dutch citizens. The inter-marriage with
native women (often the Indo-Portuguese women) was permitted only
if that particular woman professed Christianity, and the daughters
of this union had to marry to a Dutchman.
By then, the Portuguese and the Dutch were mixed together,
allowing the growth of the European community in Sri Lanka in the
18th century. They dressed European, practiced the Dutch Reformed
Church and spoke Dutch or Portuguese.
However, in the passage of time,
the Burgher community developed into two distinct communities: Dutch
Burghers and Portuguese Burghers. The Dutch Burghers
were those who could demonstrate European ancestry (Dutch or
Portuguese) through the male line; they were white, were adherents
to the Dutch Reformed Church and spoke Dutch. The Portuguese
Burghers were those who had a supposed European ancestry; they
had dark skin, were Catholics, and spoke Creole Portuguese.
For generations, there has been
the influx of newcomers from Europe which mixed with the Burgher
families, making their community able to retain its distinctive
cultural traditions. During the British rule, the Burghers were
employed in the Colonial administration, and soon, they abandoned
the use of Dutch language and adopted English as their own
language. The Portuguese language continued to be used among the
Dutch Burghers families as the colloquial language until the end
of the 19th century.
By the end of the British rule,
the Dutch Burgher community had lost its significant role and
privilege in Sri Lankan society. Many of them emigrated to
Australia and Canada after 1961. However, the Dutch Burgher Union
of Ceylon founded in 1907 is the center of the European
descendants who still live in Sri Lanka.
Rise of
ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka: Sinhalese VS. Tamils
The ethnic conflict between the
majority Sinhalese who now wield political and economic power of
the country and the Tamils, the second-largest groups violently
erupted in the late 1970s, and is still the ubiquitous issue of
terrorism stirring the world security nowadays. The difference of
religions, beliefs and historical background has provoked ethnic
identity amongst them and also has considerably separated them
from each other. Not only are those ostensible elements that cause
the conflicts, certain times of discrimination, competition, and
other pressures are also the subtle elements accumulated through
the passage of time and came to its head when each side adopted
the violent approach towards each other.
Chronicles and religious
mythologies have been an essential role in the eruption of
communal identity and animosity on the multi-ethnic island. It was
the Sinhalese who are conscious of their majority community on the
island and who have so profound faith in Buddhist religion that
they regarded themselves as the "protector of Buddhism".
Accordingly, their unity is as indispensable as the Buddhist
stability, allowing denial of its multi-ethnic society. The strong
faith, ethnic awareness associated with memories of frequently
aggressive intrusion of the neighboring South India has imprinted
the unfriendly image of the Tamil-speaking as invaders in both
cultural and political sphere.
Around the sixth century A.D.,
the intrusion of the Hindu Tamils from the south India was more
aggressive and could expel the Sinhalese inhabiting in the
central-north of the island to move to the south-west coast. This
event may have embedded the feeling of being menaced by the other
groups of people-that is the Tamils.
The European colonization which
began with the Portuguese followed by the Dutch, and finally the
British, especially the latter, has made the ethnic situation in
Sri Lanka more complex. During the British rule, the
commercialization of agriculture and the registration of title to
land have demarcated the fix boundaries for each ethnic group.
This resulted in the effective consolidation of the Sinhalese
community in the central and southwestern parts of the island and
the Tamil community in the north and on the eastern seaboard. The
discontent feeling from discrimination occurred this time among
the Tamils since the economic developments mainly concentrated in
the central and western areas where the majority Sinhalese
inhabited. This left the Tamil community in a disadvantaged
position. They tried then to overcome this by moving to the state
employment. In the same time, the Tamil traders took this occasion
to establish their trade in the central and western regions, too.
While the Tamils got better
opportunities in professional field in the Colonial
administration, education as well as trades supported by the
British, the Sinhalese felt discriminated against the
disproportion of their rights of holding economic power and access
to good jobs and higher education compared to the Tamils. It was
then that the anti-imperialist and anti-Christianity movements
were shaped.
At the first steps, the issue of
language was brought to public attention in the 1935 when the Lanka
Samasamaja Party was formed. The Party introduced the
objective of using Sinhalese and Tamil as the official languages
in school, public service examinations and legislative proceedings
instead of English which was widely use in administration,
professions, commerce, higher education, and politics. This
movement obviously showed the discontent Sinhalese who were
deficient in English knowledge, leading to their limited chance to
enter in the state employment and other domains unlike the Tamils.
The official national language
issue was the major bone of contention between the Sinhalese and
the Tamils which grew steadily after the time of independence in
1948. The Sri Lankan government adopted a policy of denying Tamils
admission into higher and professional education. In the 1950s,
the social and political atmosphere was filled with the emotional
issues of language, religion and the revival ideology of the
Sinhala Buddhist identity by the Sinhala leaders. The resurgence
of Buddhism featured the image of the Sinhalese past using
elements of the mythology incorporated with the faith in Buddhist
religion. It is this Sinhala-Buddhist consciousness which has
brought about the intolerance of multi-ethnic and multi-religious
characters of Sri Lankan society. Eventually, it has come to the
violence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam (LTTE),
causing the bloodshed on this "Emerald Island". |
