Sinhalese people

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The Sinhalese people are the main ethnic group of Sri Lanka. They originated in the north-east section of India and later settled to Sri Lanka. They speak Sinhala, an Indo-European language and number approximately 15 million people with the vast majority found in Sri Lanka, while more than 400,000 live in other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom. [1] [2]

[edit] Etymology

The Sinhalese are also known as "Hela" or "Sinhela". These synonyms find their origins in the two words: Sinha (meaning "lion") and Hela (meaning "pristine"). The name Sinhala translates to "lion people" and refers to the myths regarding the descent of the legendary founder of the Sinhalese people, the prince Vijaya. The last royal dynasty on the island was the Sinha (Lion) royal dynasty and the word Sinha finds it origins here.

[edit] History

See also: History of Sri Lanka

Legendary accounts relating to the Indian epic saga, the Sanskritic Ramayana, discuss mythological stories of deities battling over the fate of the ancient island of Lanka (presumably modern Sri Lanka), including that of the legendary King Raavana. The name of the island and its various peoples are often traced to the people and places named in the saga, or their supposed analogues.

According to local legend, the Sinhalese are descended from the exiled Prince Vijaya and his party of several hundred who arrived on the island between 543 to 483 BCE after having been made to leave their native regions of Orissa, Bengal and the Sinhapura kingdom in north west India. The origin legend and early recorded history of the Buddhist Sinhalese is chronicled in two historic documents, the Mahavamsa, written in Pāli roughly around the 4th century BCE, and the much later Chulavamsa (believed to have been penned in the 13 century CE by a Buddhist monk named Dhammakitti). These are unique sources with regard to age and longevity, and cover the histories of the powerful ancient kingdoms of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The Mahavansa describes the existence of fields of rice and reservoirs, indicating a well developed agrarian society. The oral tradition of the Sinhalese people also speaks of many royal dynasties prior to the Sinha royal dynasty: Manu, Tharaka, Mahabali, Raavana, etc.

Buddhism was introduced to the Sinhalese from India by Mahinda, the son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, during the 3rd century BCE. It has since been closely tied to both the Sinhalese identity and the history of Sri Lanka.

[edit] Geographic diaspora

The vast majority of the Sinhalese live in Sri Lanka (mostly in the south and west of the island), but there are significant expatriate communities in Southeast Asia, as well as the Middle East, where Sri Lankans are often employed as guest workers. Smaller communities also exist in Australia, Europe (notably the UK and Italy) and in North America (in particular Canada).

[edit] Language

Sinhala, also known as "Helabasa", has two forms: spoken and written. The written form uses many words of Sanskrit origin, whereas the spoken form is unique. Many early Sinhala texts such as the Hela Atuwa were destroyed after their translation into Pali. Other significant Sinhala texts include Amar Wathura, Kavu Silumina, Jathaka Potha and Sala Liheeniya.

[edit] Religion

Most of the Sinhalese (93%) are Buddhists. They are the only ethnic group in South Asia to adhere to the Theravada sect of Buddhism; many Sinhalese Buddhists additionally venerate Hindu deities as well as indigenous gods.[3] There are also sizable Muslim-Sinhalese people who intermarried with Arab traders and become assimilated into the Sri Lankan Moor community.

[edit] Modern Sinhalese

The Sinhalese identify themselves through their Sinhala language, history, physical appearance and their Buddhist faith, which sets them apart from the main ethnic minority of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Tamils. In recent times, the Sinhalese majority have displayed a political and economic dominance over the island nation.

Due to a policy of universal healthcare provision, life expectancy is quite high reaching 72 years. Female emancipation has led to many social changes including greater parity between the sexes - prominent female politicians have included former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The Sinhalese have a stable birth rate and a population that has been growing at a relatively slow pace in comparison to India and other Asian countries. The Sinhalese make up about 74% of the Sri Lankan population.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• De Silva, K.M. History of Sri Lanka (Univ. of Calif. Press, 1981)
• Gunasekera, Tamara. Hierarchy and Egalitarianism: Caste, Class, and Power in Sinhalese Peasant Society (Athlone, 1994).
• Roberts, Michael. Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited (Colombo-Marga Institute, 1997).
• Wickremeratne, Ananda. Buddhism and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka: A Historical Analysis (New Delhi-Vikas Publishing House, 1995).
• Fernando, Basil Thoughts of a Sinhalese about some Sinhala habits (Asian Human Rights Commission, 2006).

[edit] Online references

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Sri Lanka
• The Genetic Heritage of the Earliest Settlers Persists Both in Indian Tribal and Caste Populations, Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72:313–332, 2003.
• Most of the extant mtDNA boundaries in South and Southwest Asia were likely shaped during the initial settlement of Eurasia by anatomically modern humans, Biomedical Central, BMC Genetics 2004, 5:26
• Department of Census and Statistics-Sri Lanka
• Ethnologue-Sinhala, a language of Sri Lanka
• CIA Factbook-Sri Lanka
• Genetic Clues to Dispersal in Human Populations: Retracing the Past from the Present (Science 291, 2 March 2001).de:Singhalesen

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