hey guys,
im a half Iraqi half Indian girl whose recently been to sri lanka and I am just curious to know the ethnic origins of Sinhalese people. For the most past part they seem like a racially ambiguous group. Prior to my visit i thought all sri lankans were dark skinned and resembled south indians.But i was surprised because nearly 60% of the people i saw was quite tanned and had middle eastern features such as hooked noses,curly hair and tanned skin.So are sinhalese decscendents of middle easterners?
below are google image results for each group
fyi keep in mind that simple google searches are not always representative of the searched ethnic group for a wide variety of reasons (some individuals of an ethnic group or sub-groups of ethnic groups get more media coverage than others for a wide variety of reasons)
(I know this is a very sensitive question and I'm definitely not asking to start an argument but to listen and understand)
So a bit of context, I am from a somewhat large Sinhala family and I was inside that bubble for most of my life. I had a few Tamil friends in school and university and maybe one who I was really close to but he is not in SL anymore.
Since moving to Europe (Czech Republic more specifically), I have gotten used to being the first Sri Lankan person that people here have met. The frequent exception is when I meet someone from Scandinavia and they speak about their Sri Lankan friends there, who are frequently Tamils who have settled there after fleeing the war. This got me thinking that if you were ever in a situation where you had to flee the country, your sentiment towards the people there would not be very positive.
Of course, that is an assumption I made, which is why I am asking, what is your / your family's view of Sinhalese people? Is there any lasting resentment?
Sinhalese people think Tamil Tigers divided the country when the Tamils never saw Sri Lanka as the Island as a whole as their country ever in the first place.
Sinhalese people have 0 knowledge on Tamil independence movement in Sri Lanka. They don't know why Tamils took up arms, how they(we) were forced into taking up arms, they live far away from North and Eastern part of Sri Lanka(Tamil Eelam). They think Tamil Tigers started the armed conflict, the armed conflict was the final outcome of decades of oppression. People don't take up arms for no reason. Also remember North and Eastern Part of SL(Tamil Eelam) had literacy rate around 95 as early as 1955. Also Tamil Tigers didn't start the armed conflict. They were just 1 of many organizations that took up independence movement for Tamils. Several groups, some armed, many that were not joined it on. Tamil Tigers was the only one that succeeded, PLOTE and TELO was much bigger than Tamil Tigers even until 1983-1985. TELO has been around 1950s. Prabhakaran's inspiration was 2 TELO leaders(Thangadurai and Kuttimani)who were tortured and murdered by the Sri Lankan police in 1983. They came from same village as Prabhakaran. They were inspiring to him. side note: TELO leaders came afterwards were scumbags, mostly proxy and were bought by SL and even Indian intelligence.
Sinhalese people have 0 knowledge of on-ground reality. Because the government controls, police (incompetence Tamil police are hired to work under Sinhalese top police officers like British hired Indians as sepoys), military and convinced Sinhalese people it was Tamil Tigers that started the war. They have also 0 knowledge on atrocities such as murders and rape done by SL army. Sinhalese people think Tamils are forced to live under Tamil Tigers lol. Imagine British Empire telling the English crowd that Subhas Chandra Bose is waging war against the peaceful British Colonial Empire and ruining the unity of British Empire and Indians.
Bias and manipulated news. When you have the Government, Military, Police and official recognization you can do whatever you want. And on top add the fact that 1. Sinhalese people have no understanding of what lead to armed conflict 2. What is actually happening and how tamil people feel and who they support.
Sinhalese people tell us what we saw and experienced is wrong and waht they heard through their biased government and military is right. How do you think that makes us feel? They don't admit the killing, murde
... keep reading on reddit β‘I canβt find it anywhere. All I get is Tambapanni which was given by the ancient Greeks, Sarabdip from the Persians and Arabs, Ceilao from the Portuguese and Ceylon from the British/Danish. What did WE call it?
As an example King Dutugamunuβs anglicised name should be Gamunu the Villan or Devanampiyatissa should be Piyatissa the Divine.
Sorry this is later today, I am with the future in-laws and have been busy celebrating late Christmas with them and my wonderful fiancΓ©, so I just found space and time to write this out.
Was thinking about Australia today and found these people, so meet the Sinhalese in Australia!
How Unreached Are They?
The Sinhalese in Australia are 0% Christian and 100% Buddhist. That means out of their population of 113,000 there are likely only a few believers at best.
There is a full Bible translation in their language (Sinhala).
What are they like?
Typical qualification that all people groups can't be summed up in small paragraphs and this is an over generalization.
>The Sri Lankans eat curries, fish, rice, soup and vegetables for example. Coconut milk is a very important ingredient with regards their cooking of meals. They have holidays each month when there is a full moon. With Buddhists, May is the most important full moon holy day as Gautama Buddha was born and passed away then. Sinhala is the main language spoken amongst the Sinhalese.
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>The Goyigama Caste of the Sinhalese is the main one. Sri Lankan Americans do not use caste limitations when mixing with Americans. They live in single units but not with relatives. Relatives may come to live in the same community though.
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>Cross cousin marriages are most favored. The preferred person for a man to marry is the daughter of the sister of his father and with the woman the favorite way to marry is with the son of the brother of her mother. Children can refuse the marriage partner chosen by their parents even though marriages are arranged. The Sri Lankans have nuclear families of husbands, wives and their children who are not married. Joshua Project
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>The Sinhalese are the dominant ethnic group in Sri Lanka (formerly, Ceylon), an island off the southeastern coast of India. Composing about three-fourths of the population, they live mainly in the central and southwestern portions of the island. The Sinhalese have lived in Sri Lanka for more than 2,000 years. They were ruled by various European powers for over 400 years until Sri Lanka was granted independence from Great Britain in 1948. Since that time, they have been engaged in nearly constant conflict with the Tamil minority, who have called for an independent state on the north side of the island.
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>The Sinhalese are divided into two major g
I'm using a throwaway account for personal reasons and I'm not sure if it is okay for me to post about this issue that I'm facing in this sub.
My dad is from Sri Lanka and he's been in Malaysia for over 20 years and my mum is a Malaysian Sinhalese. I'm aware of the war that happened and I understand the frustrations he had which he still carries until today.
Both my parents hate the Tamils so much that there isn't a day that goes by without them talking about it. I find it toxic and frustrating! Being born in Malaysia, I never bothered about someone's race when I want to talk to them and be friends with. I've had Tamil friends that have helped me a lot throughout my life. There was also some bad experience but I feel that race shouldn't be held accountable for someone's bad behavior.
I'm dating a Tamil guy and I have to keep it as a secret because my parents are completely against it. I did bring it up once and I was treated badly. I'm already turning 27 and I feel really depressed about this situation.
I don't understand what's with the extreme hate. Is it normal for Sinhalese to hate Tamils? I don't want to cause a controversial issue here.
I came across some studies on genetic testing for Sri Lankans, specifically Sinhalese people, and it showed that they were mostly Bengali Indian. According to this wikipedia page, they are 72% Sinhalese, 12% Gujarati, and 16% Tamil.
I thought, 72% is actually a really high percentage. That should be high enough to the point that physically they should look a lot alike, at least for many people. And sure enough...:
Singhalese:
Anarkali Akarsha - Miss Sri Lanka/actress
Bengali:
I am a female UK born teenager who was grown up to be quite nationalist when it came to the Tamil Tigers. My paternal uncles fought in the Tamil Tigers and I was grown up to be proud of this, and to believe that the South of Sri Lanka was an awful place and that the Sinhalese were bad. I remember bringing the Tamil Tigers flag to school, not knowing the truth about it and telling people how great and brave these soldiers were. Only recently after reading this BBC article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-45347956 and seeing a post on this subreddit of how some guy put a up a Tamil Tigers flag on his window and seeing all the negative comments the post got, got me realising how awful this organisation actually is. I am so embarrassed about how much I supported it, not knowing about what they actually had done. Does anyone have any good articles on the actual history?
Edit: I would like to thank you all so much for the amazing unbiased replies I have received.
When there is a discussion about SL education, something I have heard often is to implement English medium in schools. I am wondering whether that actually solves any problem in our education system. To be specific, this is not about teaching English in schools, but rather teaching other subjects in English.
I believe that a good curricula/education in any language is a good education. There's no doubt that a person in English medium has higher accessibility of materials online. So doesn't that mean that such a person can effectively go through a bad school education but come out ok? I went to an international school, which probably lead me to this opinion.
I would like to hear your opinion. Education reform should be done to improve the curricula in the native language and not be replaced with English.
I've noted a tendency on reddit and international media to blame a lot of the actions of Sinhala Extremists and mistakenly identify them as Buddhist extremists. In every instance I've come across even the controversial monks that some people are claiming to be Buddhist extremists are all voicing concerns about the survival of the Sinhala Race not anything to do with Buddhism.
The Pali Canon and Buddhist literature makes it bleedingly obvious how much the Buddha advised against violence and hatred (Physical, verbal and mental). No one is stupid enough to read a Buddhist textbook and interpret it as a call to violence. This is in contrast to some other religions and political literature which are sometimes quite ambiguous and leave room for the reader to make his or her own individual interpretations.
Even the idiotic people who reddit claim to be "Buddhist extremists" understand this. So why are people harming such a beautiful religion/philosophy by labelling them "Buddhist extremists" when the correct name should be Sinhala Extremists.
Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Black July easily fits this definition so for the people who are not aware... acknowledge it as a GENOCIDE instead of a mere "riot"
I will also link the investigation and report by The Swiss NGO, International Commission of Jurists who concluded that this was genocide against Tamil people.
ICJ Review no. 31 (December 1983) | International Commission of Jurists
The report: ICJ-Review-31-1983-eng.pdf
I didn't have to make a post but the number of upvotes this particular redditor received who argued with me over it being a riot and not a genocide made me realize, there were many here who need to become aware!
Inb4 mods take down the post for who knows what excuse, because this is /r/sinhalese and not /r/srilanka. Oh boy, can't wait!
Edit: Keep downvoting. It only proves how badly this sub needs to be renamed XD
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
I saw the news about that lawyer guy where he put Human instead of Sinhalese. I personally believe it was to get clout.
Other thing is putting Sri Lankan as the race. Sri Lanka is a country not a race and Sri Lankan is a nationality.
If I remember correctly, the government tried to bring a legislation that automatically put Sri Lankan as the race in the birth certificate. It looks like something the Nazis would have done. IMHO it looks like a soft cultural genocide to me.
This is also bad for minorities who would lose their cultural and racial identity to Sri Lankaness that mainly comprises of the Sinhalese values.
What we need to do is taking actions to minimize discrimination.
Hey all, Iβm seeking advise on SLβs view on interracial relationships. My boyfriend is Sinhalese from SL and Iβm of fully Chinese descent. We met during a study abroad program (not in SL). We do have plans to get married in the future. His parents are fine with our interracial relationship. What Iβm worried is, the wedding. From the posts Iβve read here, it seems that SL culture is on the conservative and traditional side, and weddings are a big affair with many guests. Iβm just afraid his other extended family members may criticise us, like why he didnβt find a Sinhalese wife instead. He told me not to worry much about it though because we donβt plan to stay in or settle down in SL. Can you guys share your opinions? Is interracial relationship (with foreigners) acceptable in SL?
This timeline is for the fanfiction, "Summoning India", which is currently being written. It does not describe what is going to happen, but what happened before the teleportation event. This would help give anyone a brief understanding of this Alternate India from 2000, so that no one gets confused with the IRL one.
And yes, I know this is like a bio chapter but hey, I don't want people coming to me and being like, "Hey India had Su-30MK in the year 2000, not the F-16! And why is India using the M113 and not the BMP-1/2!!!"
Link for my fanfiction's cover art
Also sorry for any mistakes, I am new to Reddit and still figuring out myself.
Time line starts from here.
1947- After 200 years under British rule, British India gained its Independence. As per the Indian Independence Act passed in the Westminster Parliament, the British Raj was partitioned into two separate independent nations, Secular Dominion of India under the elected Prime Minister Vallabhai Patel and Muslim dominated Dominion of Pakistan.
(Change of leadership - Vallabhai Patel was a man of action and known for his support for his armed forces and a strong united nation, both internal and external power projection. Thus Nehru becoming his deputy here instead )
1947/48- First Indo-Pak War. Both nations were still suffering from the communal violence that had ensued following the partition when an armed conflict arose on the question of who will take the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. The war began with a surprise Pakistan sponsored raider attack, overwhelming the State forces.
The ruler of the state, King Hari Singh signed the instrument of accession, which allowed the Indian Army to move in and fight off the raiders. Consequently, regular Pakistani Armed Forces entered combat and, after a year of intense fighting, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire. They left Pakistan with a third of Kashmir and India the rest.
[The Point of Divergence]
August 1950- India answers the call to arms by the United Nations and sends 6 Battalions (4200 soldiers) of the 1st Gorkha Rifles and an Army Medical unit 60th Parachute Field Ambulance to assist the Republic of Korea (South Koreans) in the Korean war. This act puts India to be seen in a better light by the United States and its allies. Indian troops would go on to fight commendably in the war, gaining widespread recognitio
... keep reading on reddit β‘Do your worst!
In this subreddit there some talks about the ended war!
Can we all just leave what happened in the past! Coz nothing is gonna change,but we the next generation of this golden island can make some differrence our ancestors didn't have the thought of sri lankans (most of them),but we are not like them.We are divided by races but we have to and we must united by nation! so don't talk about sinhaleses or tamils or the muslims Just talk about sri lankans LONG LIVE SRI LANKA!!
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies π
It really does, I swear!
Theyβre on standbi
Buenosdillas
In Sri Lanka, a former British colony, which has been facing a certain bankruptcy and a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis, an inept, inefficient President leading a highly corrupt regime, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been bestowed with the honorary title of βSri Lankadheeshwara Padma Vibhushanaβ by the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha invoking the blessings of the Maha Sangha. This Award supposedly symbolized the need of President Gotabaya Rajapaksaβs leadership for the motherland as well as considering the unblemished (my foot!)past and present deeds of the President. Ven. Hemaratna Thera, delivering the sermon, said: βPresident, your journey is on the right path which is in line with βSaubhagyaye Dekmaβ (Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour) policy statement. If it succeeds, the next generation will be able to experience the resultsβ.
Gotabaya thanks to a set of cronies among the Maha Sangha who gave him a lifeline, expectedly in gratitude started stirring the Sinhala Supremacist pot in the process. He reminded about the condition of the Buddhist sites like Kuragala, Muhudu Maha Vihara and Deeghawap and pledged to guard and nurture the Buddhist philosophy on this nation. βWe must always protect the Sinhala culture and heritage that has a history of thousands of years. Therefore, the government will continue to provide patronage to protect our values, traditions and customs.β Mahindaβs Tirupathi visits and Gota β Gnanakka links shows where their loyalties lie and their hypocritical Buddhist leadership roles! The 69m lakhs Sinhala Buddhist electorate which voted him will bear witness to his βservicesβ to their lot.
Social media was agog with many posts which questioned the wisdom behind this absurd Award to a ruler whose regime, the electorate almost unequivocally calls as the βmost inept, inefficient and corruptβ in Post-Independence history. This widely criticised award comes at a time when his government is in disarray and being blamed for putting Sri Lanka in a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis with fears it could go bankrupt in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket and its coffers run dry. One of the most pressing problems for Sri Lanka is its huge foreign debt burden. In the next 12 months, in the government and private sector, Sri Lanka will be required to repay an estimated $7.3bn in domestic and foreign loans. Food and gas shortages have led to queues and public desperation have led to hootin
... keep reading on reddit β‘
