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Sri Lanka (from the Sanskrit श्री लंका “Venerable Island”), officially the Democratic Socialist

Republic of Sri Lanka before 1972 and as Taprobane in ancient times, is an island country

in South Asia, located about 31 kilometres (19.3 mi) off the southern coast of India.

As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval

link between West Asia and South East Asia.[citation needed] It has also been a center of

the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times as well as being a bastion of Hinduism.

The Sinhalese community forms the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated

in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities

include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the indigenous Vedda people.

The country is famous for the production and export of tea, coffee, coconuts, rubber and

cinnamon - which is native to the country. The natural beauty of Sri Lanka's tropical

forests, beaches and landscape, as well as its rich cultural heritage, make it a world

famous tourist destination.[citation needed] The island also boasts the first female Prime

Minister in the world, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

After over two thousand years of rule by local kingdoms, parts of Sri Lanka were colonized

by Portugal and the Netherlands beginning in the 16th century, before control of the entire

country was ceded to the British Empire in 1815.[citation needed] During World War II, Sri

Lanka served as an important base for Allied forces in the fight against the Japanese

Empire. A nationalist political movement arose in the country in the early 20th century with

the aim of obtaining political independence, which was eventually granted by the British

after peaceful negotiations in 1948.
Paleolithic human settlements have been discovered at excavations in several cave sites in

the Western Plains region and the South-western face of the Central Hills region.

Anthropologists believe that some discovered burial rites and certain decorative artifacts

exhibit similarities between the first inhabitants of the island and the early inhabitants

of Southern India. Recent bioanthropological studies have however dismissed these links, and

have placed the origin of the people to the northern parts of India[citation needed]. One of

the first written references to the island is found in the Indian epic Ramayana, which

described the emperor Ravana as monarch of the powerful kingdom of Lanka, which was created

by the divine sculptor Vishwakarma for Kubera, the treasurer of the Gods. English historian

James Emerson Tennent also theorized Galle, a southern city in Sri Lanka, was the ancient

seaport of Tarshish from which King Solomon is said to have drawn ivory, peacocks and other

valuables. The main written accounts of the country's history are the Buddhist chronicles of

Mahavansa and Dipavamsa.

The earliest-known inhabitants of the island now known as Sri Lanka were probably the

ancestors of the Wanniyala-Aetto people, also known as Veddahs and numbering roughly 3,000.

Linguistic analysis has found a correlation of the Sinhalese language with the languages of

the Sindh and Gujarat, although most historians believe that the Sinhala community emerged

well after the assimilation of various ethnic groups. From the ancient period date some

remarkable archaeological sites including the ruins of Sigiriya, the so-called "Fortress in

the Sky", and huge public works. Among the latter are large "tanks" or reservoirs, important

for conserving water in a climate that alternates rainy seasons with dry times, and

elaborate aqueducts, some with a slope as finely calibrated as one inch to the mile. Ancient

Sri Lanka was also the first in the world to have established a dedicated hospital in

Mihintale in the 4th century BCE. Ancient Sri Lanka was also the world's leading exporter of

cinnamon, which was exported to Egypt as early as 1400 BCE. Sri Lanka was also the first

Asian nation to have a female ruler in Queen Anula (47–42 BC).
Since ancient times Sri Lanka was ruled by monarchs, most notably of the Sinha royal dynasty

that lasted over 2000 years. The island was also infrequently invaded by South Indian

kingdoms and parts of the island were ruled intermittently by the Chola dynasty, the Pandya

dynasty, the Chera dynasty and the Pallava dynasty. The island was also invaded by the

kingdoms of Kalinga (modern Orissa) and those from the Malay Peninsula. Buddhism arrived

from India in the 3rd century BCE, brought by Bhikkhu Mahinda, who is believed to have been

the son of Mauryan emperor Ashoka. Mahinda's mission won over the Sinhalese monarch

Devanampiyatissa of Mihintale, who embraced the faith and propagated it throughout the

Sinhalese population. The Buddhist kingdoms of Sri Lanka would maintain a large number of

Buddhist schools and monasteries, and support the propagation of Buddhism into Southeast

Asia.
Sri Lanka had always been an important port and trading post in the ancient world, and was

increasingly frequented by merchant ships from the Middle East, Persia, Burma, Thailand,

Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. The islands were known to the first

European explorers of South Asia and settled by many groups of Arab and Malay merchants. A

Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in 1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida the

son of Francisco de Almeida. At that point the island consisted of three kingdoms, namely

Kandy in the central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in

the north. The Dutch arrived in the 17th century. Although much of the island came under the

domain of European powers, the interior, hilly region of the island remained independent,

with its capital in Kandy. The British East India Company established control of the island

in 1796, declaring it a crown colony in 1802, although the island would not be officially

connected with British India. The fall of the kingdom of Kandy in 1815 unified the island

under British rule.

European colonists established a series of tea, cinnamon, rubber, sugar, coffee and indigo

plantations. The British also brought a large number of indentured workers from Tamil Nadu

to work in the plantation economy. The city of Colombo was established as the administrative

centre, and the British established modern schools, colleges, roads and churches that

brought Western-style education and culture to the native people. Increasing grievances over

the denial of civil rights, mistreatment and abuse of natives by colonial authorities gave

rise to a struggle for independence in the 1930s, when the Youth Leagues opposed the

"Ministers' Memorandum," which asked the colonial authority to increase the powers of the

board of ministers without granting popular representation or civil freedoms. Buddhist

scholars and the Teetotalist Movement also played a vital role in this time. During World

War II, the island served as an important Allied military base. A large segment of the

British and American fleet were deployed on the island, as were tens of thousands of

soldiers committed to the war against Japan in Southeast Asia.
Following the war, popular pressure for independence intensified. The office of Prime

Minister of Ceylon was created in advance of independence on 14 October 1947, Don Stephen

Senanayake being the first prime minister. On February 4, 1948 the country won its

independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. On July 21, 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike took office

as prime minister, and became the world's first female prime minister and the first female

head of government in post-colonial Asia. In 1972, during Sirimavo Bandaranaike's second

term as prime minister, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and the name

was changed to Sri Lanka. The island enjoyed good relations with the United Kingdom and had

the British Royal Navy stationed at Trincomalee.
Civil war
Main article: Sri Lankan Civil War

One of the aspects of the independence movement was that it was very much a Sinhalese

movement. As a result, the Sinhalese majority attempted to remodel Sri Lanka as a Sinhalese

nation-state. The lion in the national flag is derived from the banner of the last Sinhalese

Kingdom, which, to the Sinhalese majority, is a symbol of their fight against British colonialism. One single strip of orange on the left part of the flag represents the Tamil
population, and it is seen by many Tamil as a symbol of their marginalisation.
In 1956, the Official Language Act (commonly known as The Sinhala Only Act) was enacted. The law mandated Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese community, which is spoken by over 70% of Sri Lanka's population, as the sole official language of Sri Lanka.
Supporters of the law saw it as an attempt by a community that had just gained independence to distance themselves from their colonial masters. The immediate (and intended) consequence of this act was to force large numbers of Tamil who worked in the civil service, and who could not meet this language requirement, to resign. An attempt to make Buddhism the national religion, to the exclusion of Hindu and Islam, was also made. Affirmative action in favour of Sinhalese was also instituted, ostensibly to reverse colonial discrimination
against Sinhalese in favour of Tamil. Many Tamil, in response to this deliberate
marginalisation, came to believe that they deserved a separate nation-state for themselves.
From 1983 to 2009, there was an on-and-off civil war against the government by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization who fought to create an independent state named Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island. Both the Sri Lankan government and LTTE have been accused of various human rights violations.
On May 19, 2009, the President of Sri Lanka officially claimed an end to the insurgency and the defeat of the LTTE, following the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran and much of the LTTE's other senior leadership

SriLankan Airlines appoints first Lady Captain

Marking a significant milestone in the Sri Lanka’s aviation history, SriLankan Airlines has appointed its first woman captain, Anusha Siriratne.
According to Manoj Gunawardena, CEO, SriLankan Airlines, said: ” This is a significant event for the national carrier. Sri Lanka has been in the forefront of women’s empowerment and it is certainly high time that a Sri Lankan woman took command of an airliner.”
Significantly, Capt. Anusha Siriratne and her husband Capt. Hemantha Siriratne also made history as the first husband-wife pilot duo in the country. Capt. Hemantha had received his captain’s appointment earlier this year.  “Women have lagged behind in the field of aviation in Sri Lanka, in comparison to the rest of the world. Even in neighbouring countries such as India, women have been airline captains for many years now,” Anusha said.
“It doesn’t make a difference whether you are a man or a woman when flying. The circumstances don’t change, the weather is the same, and the aircraft doesn’t know the difference!” she added.
Capt. Druvi Perera, Acting Senior Manager Flight Operations, said: “Every pilot at SriLankan is elated at this achievement. We now have several more female First Officers in the fleet, and hope to see them in command in a few years.”   Adding, Pradeepa Dahanayake, Head of Human Resources, said: “SriLankan has long been in the forefront of equal opportunity for women in this country, and Capt. Anusha’s appointment places the National Carrier once more in the limelight.”
SriLankan has several women Managers in senior positions in most of its nine divisions. It also has women in areas that have traditionally been dominated by men such as aircraft engineering.  Capt. Anusha joined SriLankan as a Cadet Pilot in June 1998. She served as a Second Officer on the Lockheed L1011 Tristar fleet and in 1999 was promoted to First Officer. At the time, the airline was phasing out its aging Tristars with the advent of the all-Airbus fleet, and she became a First Officer on the A320′s, A330′s and A340′s, flying to cities throughout SriLankan’s network of destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
She obtained her private pilot’s license at CDE Aviation, and her commercial pilot’s license in Texas. Prior to joining SriLankan Airlines, she had a short stint as an Instructor at Sky Cabs in Ratmalana.