The culture of Sri Lanka is an assemblage of music, architecture, religion and literature. Sri Lanka is multi-ethic and multi-lingual and rich with different cultural groups like Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others.
Art of Sri Lanka
It is the architecture that one sees as the strongest evidence of Sri Lankan artistic skills and craftsmanship. The art and architecture of Sri Lanka is deeply influenced by the religion. Unique craftsmanship can be found in temples, architecture, shrines, fountains and the design of religious objects. Temples are constructed mainly to house the images and statues of the Buddha. The walls are often decorated with beautiful paintings depicting episodes from the lives of the Buddha. Art and religion is so deeply interlocked that it is impossible to separate the one from the other. All art form & express both Buddhist and Hindu iconography.
Food of Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans are great foodies and their food varieties are hot, spicy and nutritious. Sri Lankan style of cooking has been influenced by south Indian cooking. An average Sri Lankan meal always consists of leaves and dry fish, and several vegetable curries. They make special sweets with coconut milk, floor and Honey at cultural festivals like New Year.
Rice and curry is the staple food of a Sri Lankan which is usually consumed daily, can be found at any special occasion. Meat curries and fish dishes are the hot favourites among the tourists.
Music of Sri Lanka
The rhythm, beats and bounce of Sri Lankan traditional folk and classical music is spiritual enough to sooth you and entertaining enough to cheer you. Sri Lankans are artistic people who enjoy music, dance and art in everything they do. The traditional agricultural life style made people come together to help each other in work and these gatherings for work created a nice atmosphere for dance and music.
But modern music of Sri Lanka is the amalgamation of indigenous traditions and influences of commercial and historical foreign cultures – specifically, Bollywood cinema and European Pop/R&B music.
Further type of Music can be seen in South India and northern part of Sri Lanka and used by the Tamil community.
People of Sri Lanka
The people of Indo-Aryan community are the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a population of 19 million. The people of Sri Lanka belong to different cultural groups. The biggest cultural group is the Sinhalese. Other major groups in Sri Lanka are Tamils and Muslims who live mainly in the north and eastern region.
Religion of Sri Lanka
The religious life of Sri Lanka is dominated by the omnipresent Theravada-Buddhism, which was brought to the country more than 2,300 years ago. Today, about 70% of the population call themselves Theravada Buddhists. Hinduism is the second largest religion followed in Sri Lanka and others being Islam and Christianity.