what was the earlier name of srilanka
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Answer:
Destination Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located between the Laccadive Sea in west and the Bay of Bengal in east. The island is situated about 30 km (19 mi) south east of the southern coast of India. Sri Lanka consists of a main island and a number of smaller islands. Until 1972 the country was known as Ceylon.
The islands cover an area of 65,610 km², compared the country is about 1.5 times the size of Denmark, or slightly larger than the U.S. state West Virginia.
Sri Lanka has a population of 21.2 million people (in 2016), capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, a satellite city of Sri Lanka's largest city Colombo. Spoken languages are Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (a national language) 18%, other 8%, about 10 % of the population speak English as a second language.
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Country Profile
Background:
The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century B.C., probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced beginning in about the mid-third century B.C., and a great civilization developed at the cities of Anuradhapura (kingdom from circa 200 B.C. to circa A.D. 1000) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070 to 1200).
In the 14th century, a south Indian dynasty seized power in the north and established a Tamil kingdom. Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and by the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded to the British in 1796, became a crown colony in 1802, and was united under British rule by 1815.
As Ceylon, it became independent in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic conflict that continues to fester. After two decades of fighting, the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formalized a cease-fire in February 2002, with Norway brokering peace negotiations. Violence between the LTTE and government forces intensified in 2006, but neither side has formally withdrawn from the cease-fire.
In May 2009 government forces defeated the LTTE. Since the end of the conflict, the government has enacted an ambitious program of economic development projects, many of which are financed by loans from