The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government.
Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian peninsula by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the south-west and India in the north-west.
This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Colombo is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments.
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran-led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government.
The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T20 International (T20I) status. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.
Velupillai Prabhakaran (listen ; Tamil: வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன்; Tamil pronunciation: [ˈʋeːlɯpːiɭːaɪ pɾaˈbaːhaɾan], was a Eelam Tamil guerrilla revolutionary. A major figure of Tamil nationalism and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka, due to the oppression of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government. The LTTE waged war in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years, to create an independent state for the Sri Lankan Tamil people.
The Asian Cricket Council Asia Cup is a men's One Day International, Limited-overs and Twenty20 International cricket tournament. It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years. The Asia Cup is the only continental championship in cricket and the winning team becomes the champion of Asia. It alternates every 2-years between ODI, 50 overs and T20I formats.
Provinces are the first level administrative divisions of Sri Lanka. Currently, Sri Lanka is divided into 9 provinces. Each province is further divided into districts, which are further divided into divisional secretariats.
Kumara Chokshananda Sangakkara is a Sri Lankan retired professional cricketer and current commentator. A former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team in all formats, an ICC Hall of Fame inductee and former president of the MCC, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest wicket-keeper-batsmen ever. Sangakkara was officially rated in the top three current batsmen in the world in all three formats of the game at various stages of his career. He is the current coach of Rajasthan Royals IPL team. Sangakkara scored 28,016 runs in international cricket across all formats in a career that spanned 15 years. At retirement, he was the second-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket, next only to Sachin Tendulkar, and the sixth-highest run scorer in Test cricket.
Sri Lanka elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. Sri Lanka has a multi-party system, with two dominant political parties. All elections are administered by the Election Commission of Sri Lanka.
Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who is the current consultant coach of the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team and the Head Coach of the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians. He is the most successful captain for Sri Lanka along with Sanath Jayasuriya. During the time of his captaincy, he was known mainly for his tactical acumen for decades and was rewarded for his captaincy instincts.
The Sri Lanka national football team represents Sri Lanka in Association football and is administered by Football Sri Lanka, the governing body of football in Sri Lanka. They have been a member of FIFA since 1952 and a member of AFC since 1954. Sri Lanka's home stadium is the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Sri Lankan team was known as the Ceylon national football team until 1972 when Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka.
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus becoming the first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil. India's Yuvraj Singh was declared the man of the tournament. This was the first time in World Cup history that two Asian teams had appeared in the final. It was also the first time since the 1992 World Cup that the final match did not feature Australia.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 10 October 2000.
The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the University of Sri Lanka which existed from 1973 to 1978. In 1978 it was separated into four independent universities. These are the University of Colombo, the University of Peradeniya, University of Kelaniya and the University of Sri Jayawardanapura.
The Sri Lanka women's national cricket team represents Sri Lanka in international women's cricket. One of eight teams competing in the ICC Women's Championship, the team is organised by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Miss Universe Sri Lanka is a national pageant in Sri Lanka to choose ambassador for the Miss Universe pageant.
The Central Province is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the country. The Central Province is primarily in the central mountainous terrain of Sri Lanka. It is the 6th largest province by area and is home to 2.5 million people. It is bordered by North Central Province to the north, Uva Province to the east, North Western Province to the west and Sabaragamuwa Province to the south and west. The province's capital is Kandy.
All visitors to Sri Lanka must obtain a visa either on arrival to Sri Lanka or in advance. Most visitors entering for tourism purposes are required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) in order to receive a visa on arrival, unless they are exempt from obtaining one. However, nationals of some countries must obtain a visa in advance instead of an ETA before being allowed to enter Sri Lanka. All visitors must hold a passport valid for 6 months.
