Our island home

 

Sri Lanka is our island home .It lies in the Indian Ocean to the south of India. It is 432 kilometers from north to south, and 224 kilometers from east to west. Its total area is 65,610 square kilometers, and its population in 2021 is  21,539,347 as of Sunday, November 28.

The central part of Sri Lanka is hilly and is called the Hill Country, the coastal parts are plains and called the Low Country. Many rivers take their rise from the central hills and flow to the sea through the coastal plains. The longest river is Mahaweli-ganga the highest mountain is Pidurutalagala.

The Hill Country gas a delightful climate and Nuwara Eliya and Bandarawela are considered to be healthy places. Many people go there at certain seasons to recoup their health. The Low Country in the south and west is worm and wet, but the northern and eastern plains are warm and dry. Tea and rubber grow on the hills; coconuts and Paddy grow on the plains. We export tea, rubber and coconut products to foreign countries, and import from them rice, cloth machinery and other articles.

The country is divided into nine Province has its own administrative capital. Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte is the capital of Sri Lanka and Colombo is the chief port. The president and the Prime Minister live in Colombo. The international air port is at Katunayake. 

In ancient times, Sri Lanka was ruled by our kings. They ruled for the most part at Anyradhapura. They built wonderful tanks, dagobas and viharas. Many a beautiful painting can be seen in these ancient viharas even today. The last king of Sri Lanka was Sri vickrema Rajasinghe who ruled at Kandy. For nearly 130 years we were ruled by the king of Britain. In 1948 we became a free nation once again. Today we govern ourselves. We belong to different communities such as sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers, and Muslims. We follow different religions. But we all live like members of one large family in peace ant unity, for we dearly love our mother country.