Sri Lanka officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest.
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Republic
Latitude 5° 55. to 9°50. north, Longitude 79° 42. to 81° 52., 650km north of the equator
430km North to South,225km East to West
1,340km
65,525km
Genting Highland – 2000 meters above sea level, Genting Highlands.
4 February 1948
Sri Jayewardenepura
Colombo.
Typically tropical, with a northeast monsoon (December to March) bringing unsettled weather to the north and east, and a southwest monsoon (June to October)bringing bad weather to the south and west
Mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in south-central interior.
Pidurutalagala, 2,524m
Bambarakanda, 263m
The Blue Water Lily (Nymphaeastellata).
21,128,773
1.3%
309 people per sq km
74 female, 64 male
Female 87.9 Male 92.5
Sinhalese 73.8%, SriLankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%,unspecified 10% (2001 census)
Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8% Note: English (a link language commonly) is used in government and spoken competently by about 10% of the population
Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10% (2001 census)
Sri Lanka Standard Time is five and a half hours ahead of GMT. (Allowance should be made for summer-time changes in Europe.)
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