COLOMBO, SRI LANKA
MARCH 15, 2014
Sri Lanka was called Ceylon up
until 1973. There are 21 million people in
the country and 800,000 in the capital Colombo. Three hundred years before
Christ the Buddhists came to Sri Lanka. Now 69% are Buddhists, 8% are Muslims,
7% are Hindus, 6% are Christians, and 10% are unspecified. We were told the
literacy rate is 90%. Also, they lost 50,000 people in the 2004 tsunami.
Early on this country was under
the rule of the Portuguese, the Dutch, and then the British. India asked for
their independence from Britain in 1947 and Sri Lanka asked for theirs from
Britain in 1948. Since then they are self-ruled as a democracy with a Prime
Minister and a President.
The people are very dark
skinned and look like the people in India.
On tour we went to the National Museum, housed in a beautiful colonial
building circa 1877. The museum’s
collection includes anthropological, cultural, and scientific exhibitions.
We also went through the
Gangaramaya Buddhist temple which also had a museum of spiritual artifacts from
around the world.
Next we are heading for the
Seychelles Islands.
We had to take our shoes off before we entered the Buddhist temple.
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One of the Buddas in the temple
Tuk-Tuk They are Taxi
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