“A Tropical Paradise” is the most suited definition for Sri Lanka. But my definition is certainly not because Sri Lanka is my beloved country! The world famous, ancient world explorer Marco Polo, had penned down in his world explorations, he had prominently started that he found Sri Lanka as the most fascinating and splendid country that he ever visited in his world travels. The British who started their first voyage by sailing directly to Sri Lanka was amazed by the natural beauty of Sri Lanka. The first letter that they had sent to their king had mentioned that they had discovered the “Paradise“.

This water drop shaped small island is blessed with direct sunlight for around 12 hours per day. Unlike in most countries, Sri Lanka does not get affected by the 4 seasons of the year. A country which is blessed with abundant rain, one can witness continuous rain showers to the high mountainous hills which lies in the middle of this Pearl of the Indian Ocean. Due to this consistent rainfall, the high mountains have given birth to most significant 22 major rivers that are starting from the peaks of the cold high mountains. You can view a large network of branches of other smaller rivers that have created abundance for other low lying areas of the country as well. The leaves of the trees remains vibrant green without changing into reddish yellow and does not falls off like other countries due to various climatic seasons. Sri Lanka does not experience the shedding of the leaves in autumn and regenerating in spring like in other countries. Throughout the year the leaves will remain green where the most common feature is that almost everywhere what you can see are huge evergreen trees with dense rain forests.

When you visit Sri Lanka, Your eyes will be greeted by stunning blue ocean waves embracing the golden sandy beaches. These stunning beaches are so serene and peaceful where they will take you through an unforgettable journey. It’s a very common sight where the thick dense forests are displaying their various types of fauna and flora right at the edge of these beaches in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is world famous for its wildlife sanctuaries, where one can witness large herds of majestic Asian Elephants and tuskers grazing through lush vegetation, sambar deers, spotted deers, bears, leopards and magnificent and colorful peacocks in these jungles in many parts of Sri Lanka. In the freezingly cold mountainous region in the middle of the country, you can enjoy a fascinating display and picturesque sceneries where mountains are clad in thick white mist in cold early mornings and shedding their silky white robes of mist in the afternoon.

Amidst all these, you can experience stunning Misty waterfalls cascading from peaks of high mountains, giant lakes are been used by herds of elephants, gigantic mystic reservoirs, many streams and rivers can be seen in many parts of our country as they flow so mysteriously and silently showing off the results of their powerful masterminds of these giants reservoirs. Among the other world countries, Sri Lanka has categorized as one of the highest Bio Diversified countries due to this environmental, weathering and climatic changes which can be experienced within a very small area. These very unique climatic changes which I just explained to you can be experienced within a very short period of about 1-2 hours of travel from the coastal city to the mountain hill country.

Sri Lanka is a country which has got inherited an ancient, rich culture and a history that date back to about 2500 years and beyond! Sri Lanka’s ancient archeological fact findings and scientific research had revealed clear evidence of a very ancient, very intelligent, technologically advanced civilization who was living at that time and after discovering of part of fossilized clothes, pieces of skeletons, very ancient jewelries, various sharp weapons and tools that they had used for survival in various architectural sites. According to the ancient folklore Sri Lanka is a country filled with very famous mystical stories that connects directly with some of our great kings like King Ravana, Great kingdom of Lanka, The mystic Hanuman bridge, and “Dhandu Monaraya“(The first prehistorical aircraft of King Ravana).These prehistorical findings about Sri Lanka links with more supportive facts and legendary folklore tales in the Indian subcontinent as well as in East Asian countries such as Thailand and Myanmar. When looking at the ancient historical written scrolls, it is very clear about the significance of political and social implications which existed 2500 years back.

Since the ancient history, Sri Lanka holds a very significant importance when sailing the International silk road from West to the far East. Because of its location in the Indian Ocean, International vessels use our strategically located and very well advanced ports for various trade activities. It was very clearly mentioned in Roman, Persian, Arabic, Indian, Southeast Asian countries as well as Chinese and Japanese history about their various personalized political, trade and religious ties that they had with Sri Lanka. Our culture was nurtured and greatly impacted by many values from Buddhism. Both the culture and the religion are inseparable as they are linked so deeply to each other. The great philosophy of Buddhism is based on loving-kindness where compassion takes a lead role in showing love, kindness and compassion even to the tiniest microscopic living being in the universe. Even as of now even, you will experience a traditional social background based on loving-kindness. With time, another new chapter got linked to our country’s history. The inevitable colonization by Europeans in 1505.

After 1505 Portuguese invaded Sri Lanka and started managing and controlling our coastal areas and our trade with the rest of the world. Later, the Portuguese were chased off by the Dutch and colonized Sri Lanka until the British monarchy captured our country and ruled us until the 4th February, 1948 where we finally won our independence. Most Asian, African countries as well as Sri Lanka was under European rule for over 500 years.

Due to the long years of colonization, we went through so many diversify changes in Social, Political,Economic and Religious Cultural aspects of Sri Lanka. Our culture got a new face lift and became mixed and enriched with the influence of various cultural practices of the Indian, the European and the Southeast Asian countries.

Those various foreign cultural practices have now become a part of our day to day lives. These foreign cultural aspects have influenced not only our native language, social behavior, clothes,food patterns but even Sri Lanka’s thinking patterns and even people’s future aspirations have got affected in a very serious and a modern way.

It’s a world reknown fact that Sri Lankan People are a very friendly, warm and an extremely hospitable. It’s been a very common practice in the country to greet any stranger or a known person with a sincere smile. In terms of the population, Sri Lanka is one of the highly dense countries in the world, hence the population has scattered themselves in the rural areas as well. Their main living is paddy farming as well as engage in many other trades too. Since Sri Lanka export some of worlds finest Tea, Coffee, rubber, cinnamon and spices, many are engaged in those farming trades as well. When it comes for our education system, Sri Lanka offers a free education for every child who should attend school upto 14 years of age. If one gets qualified with the required ranking, he/she could enter any state university and complete one’s selected degree, free of charge. Sri Lanka boasts of a literacy level of 97% with a very high IQ, mainly due to our free education system. Even Sri Lanka’s IT literacy has risen above 50%. Sri Lanka’s health sector also provides free, the health services are been provided free of charge to all the citizens. Even any government hospital will give their utmost free medical care to any foreign national as well.

The very close bond between the parents and the children is so evident in Sri Lanka just as same as our neighboring countries. This unbreakable strong bond In most places is so prominent, that 3-4 generations continue living in the same house with love, peace and harmony!