Sri Lanka
Southern Asia
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About
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It is located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and is separated from India by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with the Maldives to the southwest and India to the northwest, and lies across the Bay of Bengal from Bangladesh and Myanmar to the northeast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India to the east. Its capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, while Colombo is its largest city and the political, financial and cultural centre. Sri Lanka's population is 22 million. About 74% of the population are Sinhalese, who speak the Sinhala language, and about 15% are Tamils who speak the Tamil language. Other long-established ethnic groups include the Moors, Indian Tamils, Burghers, Malays, Chinese, and Vedda.
Read more on Wikipedia →The Flag
History
The national flag of Sri Lanka, also called the Singha Flag or Lion Flag, consists of a golden lion holding a kastane sword in its right fore-paw in a maroon background with four gold bo leaves, one in each corner. This is bordered by gold, and to its left are two vertical stripes of equal size in teal and orange, with the orange stripe closest to the lion.
Design & symbolism
According to the Mahavamsa, the historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, the origin of the Sinhalese people;the island’s majority ethnic group is traced to Prince Vijaya.The chronicle records that his father, King Sinhabahu was the son of a powerful man named Sinha (often interpreted as a lion) and Princess Suppadevi of the Vanga kingdom in northern India.With the arrival of Prince Vijaya and subsequent migrations from northern India, these groups are believed to have intermixed with the Vadda people of the island, giving rise to the Sinhalese people. As the Mahavamsa symbolically associates Sinha with a lion representing strength, the lion came to embody the identity and valor of the Sinhalese people. Historical accounts also suggest that Prince Vijaya is said to have raised a lion flag upon his landing at Tambapanni Ancient Port. Accordingly, the lion symbol has been used since ancient times, and today it remains a central feature of the national flag of Sri Lanka representing the Sinhalese nation.The national flag of Sri Lanka represents the country and its heritage as a rallying device. Most symbols in the flag have been given distinctive meanings.
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