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Sinhalese people
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The Sinhalese are the main ethnic group of Sri Lanka. They speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and number approximately 15 million people with the vast majority found in Sri Lanka, while more than 400,000 live in other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom
Sinhalese are also known as "Hela" or "Sinhela". These synonyms find their origins in the two words: Sinha (meaning "lion") and Hela (meaning "pristine").
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Encyclopedia
The Sinhalese are the main ethnic group of Sri Lanka. They speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and number approximately 15 million people with the vast majority found in Sri Lanka, while more than 400,000 live in other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom
Etymology
The Sinhalese are also known as "Hela" or "Sinhela". These synonyms find their origins in the two words: Sinha (meaning "lion") and Hela (meaning "pristine"). The name Sinhala translates to "lion people" and refers to the myths regarding the descent of the legendary founder of the Sinhalese people, the prince Vijaya. The last royal dynasty on the island was the Sinha (Lion) royal dynasty and the word Sinha finds it origins here.
History
Legendary accounts recorded in the Indian epic saga, the Sanskritic Ramayana, discuss mythic tales of deities battling over the fate of the ancient island of Lanka (presumably modern Sri Lanka), including that of the legendary King Raavana. The name of the island and its various peoples are often traced to the people and places named in the saga, or their supposed analogues.
According to local legend, the Sinhalese are descended from the exiled Prince Vijaya and his party of several hundred who arrived on the island between 543 to 483 BC. A people who arrived in Sri Lanka after being forced from their native regions in Kerala and the Sinhapura kingdom in north west India. The origin legend and early recorded history of the Buddhist Sinhalese is chronicled in two historic documents, the Mahavamsa, written in Pali around the 4th century BC, and the much later Chulavamsa (probably penned in the 13 century CE by the Buddhist monk Dhammakitti). These are ancient sources which cover the histories of the powerful ancient kingdoms of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The Mahavansa describes the existence of fields of rice and reservoirs, indicating a well developed agrarian society. The oral tradition of the Sinhalese people also speaks of many royal dynasties prior to the Sinha royal dynasty: Manu, Tharaka, Mahabali, Raavana, etc. Many Sinhalese have mixed with the colonizing Portuguese and English. The Sinhalese have spread to other countries like the Maldives and Mauritius.
Buddhism was introduced to the Sinhalese from India by Mahinda, son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, during the 3rd century BC. Buddhism has since been closely tied to both the Sinhalese identity and the history of Sri Lanka.
Genetic and anthropological assessments
Most Sinhalese, like most Indian populations show a high degree of genetic similarity with the population of the island dating to roughly 12,000 BC. A 2003 Stanford study analyzed the origins of various South Asian populations (including 40 Sinhalese and over 90 Tamils from Sri Lanka). This study found that most of the population of the island and India, (including Indian tribal and caste populations) derive from Pleistocene era southern and western Asians without significant genetic evidence for external influences prior to the Holocene.
These findings are corroborated by numerous other studies, including a 2004 Biomedical Central Study. This study revealed that the average proportion of mtDNAs from West Eurasia among Indian caste populations is 17% (Table 2). In the western States of India and in Pakistan frequencies reach Kashmir and Gujarat, nearly 60% in Indian Punjab, and approximately 50% in Pakistan (Table 11, see Additional file 6, Figure 11, panel A). These frequencies demonstrate a general decline (SAA p < 0.05 Figure 4) towards the south (23%, 11% and 15% in Maharashtra, Kerala and Sri Lanka, respectively). This tendency is even more pronounced in eastern India (13% in Uttar Pradesh and around 7% in West Bengal and Bangladesh). The low (<3%) frequency of the western Eurasian mtDNAs in Rajasthan may be in part a statistical artifact due to the limited sample size of 35 Rajputs.
This evidence supports the probability that the Sinhalese are largely indigenous to Sri Lanka and adopted many Indo-Aryan traits through cultural diffusion. The genetic evidence also shows substantial genetic drift that corresponds to geography and in the case of Sri Lanka supports the notion that most Sinhalese stem from very early migrants, rather than later invaders. Modern Pakistani, Indian, and Sinhalese donors, examined for combinations of mini- and microsatellite loci, along with a number of Y chromosome and mtDNA markers (24), show varying degrees of diversity due to waves of migrants from Southwest Asia and West Asia at different times. DYS287 or Y chromosome Alu insertion polymorphism also demonstrate the gradual decline in insert-positive Y chromosomes from Africa to East Asia, reaching a transition point from polymorphic levels (1 to 5%) to private polymorphism in Pakistan.
Other studies done from different perspectives and with different goals substantiate these findings. In a 2003 American Journal of Human Genetics study entitled 'The Genetic Heritage of the Earliest Settlers Persists Both in Indian Tribal and Caste Populations', the 'West Asian', Indo-Aryan and other, genetic indicators show that, their frequency is the highest in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, 60%, and diminishes threefold, to an average of 7%, in the rest of the caste groups in India. These findings all include sample groups from Sinhalese populations in Sri Lanka who were thus compared to other South Asian and other Eurasian groups. From an anthropological perspective, the modern Sinhalese represent a fusion of a wide variety of influences that nonetheless are overwhelmingly indigenous to the island of Sri Lanka. The genetic variations (based on Y-chromosomes and MtDNA only) between the Sinhalese and their Tamil and Veddah neighbors is marginal and may be restricted to a small proportion of differences rather than anything universal. Nonetheless some genetic drift has occurred among distinct linguistic groups.
Expatriates
The vast majority of the Sinhalese live in Sri Lanka (mostly in the south and west of the island), but there are significant expatriate communities in Southeast Asia, as well as the Middle East, where Sri Lankans are often employed as guest workers. Smaller communities also exist in Australia, Europe (notably the UK and Italy) and in North America (in particular Canada).
Language
The Sinhala language, also known as "Helabasa", has two forms: spoken and written. The written form uses many words of Sanskrit origin, whereas the spoken form is unique. Many early Sinhala texts such as the Hela Atuwa were destroyed after their translation into Pali. Other significant Sinhala texts include Amar Wathura, Kavu Silumina, Jathaka Potha and Sala Liheeniya.
Religion
Most of the Sinhalese (93%) are Buddhists. They are the only ethnic group in South Asia to adhere to the Theravada sect of Buddhism. Many Sinhalese Buddhists also venerate Hindu deities alongside indigenous gods.
Modern Sinhalese
The Sinhalese are identified through their Sinhala language and ancestral heritage as well as their Buddhist faith. These culture complexes set them apart from the main ethnic minority of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Tamils. In recent times, the Sinhalese majority have exercized political and economic dominance over the majority of the island nation.
A policy of universal healthcare provision has raised average life expectancy to 72 years. Female emancipation reflects many social changes including greater parity between the sexes. Prominent female politicians include former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The Sinhalese have a stable birth rate and a population that has been growing at a slow pace relative to India and other Asian countries. The Sinhalese make up about 74% of the Sri Lankan population.
Sinhalese ethnic flag
The Sinhalese ethnic flag is displayed at right.
When Vijaya, the first King of the island of Sri Lanka, arrived in Sri Lanka in 486 BCE, he brought with him a flag with a symbol of a lion on it. Since then the Lion symbol played a significant role in the history of Sri Lanka. It was used extensively by monarchs who followed King Vijaya and it became a symbol of freedom and hope. When the legendary King Dutugemunu embarked on the campaign in which he defeated the Indian King Elara, who had occupied part of Sri Lanka, he carried with him a banner which portrayed a lion carrying a sword on his right forepaw along with two other symbols, the Sun and the Moon.
Online references
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- [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html#People CIA Factbook-Sri Lanka]
- (Science 291, 2 March 2001).
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