Sri Lanka has ranked ninth in the World and second in Asia on the list of most generous countries in the world according to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) World Giving Index 2021. Since 2010 Sri Lanka among the top 10 in the world according to this index. Hence Sri Lanka is not only a wonderful destination to travel but also the habit of caring people makes the difference.

The habits of generosity, kindness and helping strangers are at a very high level among Sri Lankan people though it has been classified as a lower-middle-income country. These habits are developed among Sri Lankan people under strong Theravada Buddhist culture for almost 2500 years. The compassionate nature of Sri Lankan people specially Sinhalese allowing other ethnic groups to settle down here unlike most other countries in the region.

Even though Sinhalese form the majority of the populace, there are several other communities including the Tamils, Muslim Moors, Malays and Burghers in Sri Lanka today. However, the ethnic divide is not as evident as one would imagine, as most communities have intermingled, resulting in a truly multi-ethnic and multi-racial society.

Though Sri Lankan prehistory goes back to 125,000 years back, the evidence found in Batadombalena and Fa Hien-Lena has confirmed that the groups of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were lived in Sri Lanka about 34,000 years ago. The genetic continuum of the human remains found on these sites are remarkably pronounced with the “Vaddha” people, the aboriginal population in the country which subjected to detailed physical anthropological study. 

The life of the Vaddhas or also known as “Wanniyala-Aettos” who are believed to be the ancestors of the early settlers of the country profoundly attached to their tropical forest environment, enjoying their lives as hunter-gatherers. 

Sinhalese

The Sinhalese are the largest ethnic group in the country, accounting for 74% of the total population.  Sinhalese are distinguished from other ethnic groups from their nationality, cultural heritage and mainly the language. An Indo-Aryan language of "Sinhala" speaks only the Sinhalese in the world. The 5th century AD ancient chronicle “Mahavamsa” stated that the Sinhalese clan was founded by the Aryan Prince Vijaya from Madura of India who came with his 700 followers’ and settle-down in Sri Lanka in the 5th century BC. Theravada Buddhism is the core of the civilization of Sinhalese that giving more dignity and elegance to them.

The Sinhalese were renowned for their irrigation systems. With the challenging geology and climate in the northern and eastern parts of the island where they first settled, the Sinhalese tried to subdue the aridity by irrigating waters from the Mahaweli Ganga river through its irrigation network into plains, allowing them a sufficient supply of water for cultivation in the region. The excellent network of the irrigation system consequently formed the basis of a prosperous economy with a large agricultural surplus that sustained a vivacious civilization.

Tamils

The people who use the Tamil language as their native tongue are collectively referred to as Tamils, accounting for 18% of the total population. The substantial stream of Tamils emigrants started during the centuries of the conflicts between the southern Indian kingdoms and the Sinhalese kingdom on the island, which ended with the conquest over northern Sri Lanka by one of those kingdoms, Chola (around the fifth and sixth century A.D.). 

There are two groups of Tamil speakers with different origins in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Tamils, a native minority of 11.2% of the population has traced their emigration to the distant past and the Indian Tamils who migrated to Sri Lanka under the British patronage to work on tea plantations. They comprise 4.2% of the population. More than 80% of both Tamil groups are Hindus. 

Muslims

Sri Lankan Moors descendent from Arab between the 8th to 15th centuries AD makes up approximately 9.7% of the population. Sri Lanka is on the trading routes between East & West has been frequented by traders from the Middle and the Far East. Islam was introduced by Arab Traders of the coast, mainly in the Southern and South-Eastern Coastal cities which were the main trading ports in the region. These Arab traders have spoken the Arabic language. However, Sri Lankan moors no longer speak it.  Until the recent past, the Moors employed “Arwi” as their mother tongue, although this is also extinct as a spoken language. The Sri Lanka Moors culture has been shaped by Islam and Islamic law.

Malays

The Malays, part of the Sri Lankan moors community originated in Southeast Asia. During the Dutch colonial period, they were migrated from Indonesia as soldiers of the Dutch force. The identity of the Malay people in Sri Lanka is their language. In the 1980s the Malays comprised about 5% of the Muslim population in Sri Lanka.

Burghers

The Burgher people in Sri Lanka was originated from the Portuguese. Since the Portuguese women coming to the Island at that time were very few, the Portuguese enhanced their populace in the new land by intermarriage with the native women. This method of settlement was very successful; there were more mixed Portuguese people speaking Portuguese, practising Catholicism, and better suited to the tropical climate than the European born Portuguese.

After the Portuguese, the Dutch came into dominance over the island; they, too, searched for some colonies for Dutch citizens. The inter-marriage with native women (often the Indo-Portuguese women) was permitted only if that particular woman professed Christianity, and the daughters of this union had to marry a Dutchman. By then, the Portuguese and the Dutch mixed, allowing the growth of the European community in Sri Lanka in the 18th century. They dressed like Europeans, became members of the Dutch Reformed Church and spoke Dutch or Portuguese. However, with the passage of time, the Burgher community developed into two distinct communities: Dutch Burghers and Portuguese Burghers. 

For generations, there has been an influx of newcomers from Europe which mixed with the Burgher families, making their community able to retain its distinctive cultural traditions. During the British rule, the Burghers were employed in the colonial administration and soon, abandoned the use of the Dutch language and adopted English as their own language.