1000 years ago, an empire of technocrats emerged on the island of Ceylon. They transformed Sri Lankaβs environment and human geography, and then faded away into the jungle.
Sources:
-A History of Sri Lanka, K. M. de Silva
-Elephant Complex; Travels in Sri Lanka, John Gimlette
-The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers, Gordon Weiss
-The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History, Sanjeev Sanyal
-This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War, Samanth Subramanian
+ Various news sources, especially The Economist
00:00 Intro
00:35 Early History
02:32 Anuradhapura
08:05 Buddhaβs Bodhi Tree
09:28 Colombo
12:00 Pettah
13:48 Temple Trees
16:04 Galle Face
18:10 Conclusion
source
Thank you for putting these facts together in this video.
Thanks, found very informative
You are different from all other vloggers. You have done some research into Sri Lankan history before comming.
Your channel is so underrated
Awesome Content..!!! π±π°
A brilliant short documentary
β€π±π°
The Anuradhapura part is better than the Colombo part in the video. Thank you.
Sorry there was no Indian race called Sinhalese in the past. There were many people migrated to Sri Lanka in early history. It is highly possible Sinhalese is the combination of indigenous and migrating people from mostly India. So name Sinhalese originated in Sri lanka. Infact one of the meaning of the term Sinhala is sive + helaya which means everyone.
Need to correct something. "Sinhalese did not come from India" and "Veddas are not the only Indigenous people". Sinhalese is a race that was created 2500 years ago, along with the immigrants from India and all other Indigenous races (Yakka, Naga, Deva). So actually Sinhalese are indigenous people too. only 2%- 5% of them immigrated from india. Veddas are the people who did not merge into the newly built Sinhalese race. Veddas said, "you guys go ahead, we will remain as we are". That's it.
PS: In pre Sinhalese era, those indigenous races were called "Hela" collectively. Separately they were Yakka, Naga, Deva (major) races/clans and some other small clans. According to folklore "Hela" people has a 10,000++ years of history in Sri Lanka (Actually country's name 'Lanka' is from King Rawana's Era), Some Popular kings from those eras were, Manu (ΰΆΈΰΆ±ΰ·), Bali (ΰΆΆΰΆ½ΰ·), Tharaka (ΰΆΰ·ΰΆ»ΰΆ) , Rawana (ΰΆ»ΰ·ΰ·ΰΆ«). king Rawana is also mentioned in Ramayanaya (india). Sinhalese are truly indigenous people in SL. After the newly built Sinhalese race, first 5 kings were (Wijaya, Upatissa, Panduwasdewa, Abhaya, tissa) were of Indian origins. First Hela descendent king was Pandukabhaya (ΰΆ΄ΰΆ«ΰ·ΰΆ©ΰ·ΰΆΰ·ΰΆ·ΰΆΊ – ΰΆ΄ΰΆ¬ΰ·ΰΆ ΰΆΆΰ·) and he is regarded as the first true king of sinhale indigenous people.
Very clear explanation πππ
You have done a good lot of research! Excellent stuff on Sri Lanka's history. There is another important religious place in Sri Lanka apart from the Sri Maha Bodhi and Temple of the tooth relic. It is known as Sri Pada (Sacred foot print). You must climb this mountain. Also Sigiriya (The lion rock) is another fascinating location to explore.
THANKS BRO
Nice content, however, the fact about the Weddas and beginning of Sinhalese may little different than explained. Thank you for making this nice content.
Simply, Brilliant. Keep it up.
Even today there is no Sinhalese race or language in India.. so it would be wrong to say they arrived from somewhere. Sinhalese are native to Sri Lanka and the language is only spoken here. However Sinhalese language was influenced by ancient Sanskrit,Pali and Dravidian languages.
Given the production value, this video should have way more than 1000 views and this channel deserves way more than 2000 subscribers. I'm hooked. Keep up the good work
Very Interesting documentary. Good luck ππ±π°
There are also very interesting strories behind the Sigiriya Rock Fort. How 'King Kashyapa' build his great Rock Fort with rich architects and engineering, War planing, after war tranformations etc..
Very nice documentary with, Brilliant explanation. Thank you for making such a nice content.
Thank you so much π
Love and respect from sri lanka π±π°
Wow. I'm amazed by the artistic quality of the video. Being a Sri Lankan, I also can vouch for the accuracy of the facts (well… most of those. ;-)) as well.
Sri lanka being at d epicentre evryone want a piece of it all the time. Word super powers strategically killed d agriculture of the country. Thru our greedy politicians. We were a self sufficient now we r begging for every thing.i guess their plan worked. Felllow sri Lankan
Nice content, videography and production. Enjoyed it. Hope you have more content.
cinematography is awesome. loved seeing colombo as well.
Many kings of Anuradhapura era, were able to control the whole country. But your said that was never happened. Apart from that statement, this video is very interesting.
Thanks for visiting Anuradhapura, the first capital of modern Sri Lanka. The irrigation system indeed is unique, and it referred to as ""Ellanga system". The tanks are intricately interconnected such that a serially as well as parallelly connection makes the system of tanks not only to preserve the precious water during the dry season but, also to protect the very system from damaging from heavy rains.
Original people called "hela"..
They are the first. Then tamil traders came from north india around 200bce I think and settled in jaffna some might mixed with hela people also. Then south Indians came and mixed with hela people became Sinhalese race I think. Then Tamil cholas came and all messed up π
This is my country. The description you provided is correct. thank you.
Gotabayya, other rajayaksha, that their accomplice ra nil totalled srilanka, curse on them
This is quite old vedio the situation has changed, no furl que gas que or any food shortage any more like in passed months
Educate before speak
Great vid. Some other related points.
1. There's more wildlife, especially elephants per sq km than other Asian elephants in Sri Lanka due to the water reservoirs that were created and then abandoned over the centuries.
2. The new Maduru Oya tank bund is in the wrong place technically as when the modern engineers located the best place to place it, they found an ancient one and so they had to build the new one in a not as good spot.
3. Pollonaruwa reservoir is smaller than it originally was due to the British rebuild as they wanted to minimise the technical abilities of the uncivilized culture (this is what I heard).
Although you have nailed almost all the facts greatly.The word sinhalese you have got it,wrong brother.
Sinhalese did not arrive from anywhere,but they were the indeginous people of srilanka.
The indeginous people of srilanka don't have any indian genome in them at all until the time of anuradhapura. This is proven evrytime with all the prehestoric bones found in srilanka which dates back to time peruods of 30 000 to 150 000bc.
The fact that sinhalse are indigenous people mixed with indians is not true at all and a big misunderstanding. Plenty of research has been done and proven wrong on this fact. Sinhalese are not indeginous srilankans mixing with indians at all. The Word sinhalese or sinhala is very old before the times srilankans were influenced by indians.
And present sinhalese people's dna would have genes from indians, dutch,Portuguese, british and etc.
The word Sinhalese, comes from sivhelaya. Siv means four and helaya means land. Hence sivhelaya has the meaning,Land of the 4s. And the 4s are the 4 races srilanka had called naga,deva,raksha, and yakka. Old four races had kingdoms and kings separately.
This idea of sinhalese being indians is believed to be true due to the written records of history in srilanka. Which is one of the oldest in the world along with india and china. Those history records start from King vijaya, who is an indian and during his time, there have been other kings in srilanaka ruling different parts of srilanka. So the history being falsey written deliberately those times to favour and savour the blood line of King vijaya.
Vedda/ indegieous people are just another race only said to come down from the first queen of vijaya named quweni, and they do not represent other srilanakans at all.
Unfortunately, many srilankans do not know what is a hoax is and a fact like the majority of the world.
But a great video nevertheless. Very well done. You are a great traveller and a researcher indeed. Srilanka's hyrdaulic civilization u have nailed on it. Keep doing what u do, the great one. Love it.
The documented history of the island begins with the arrival of Vijaya from India.
Although the origins of the Sri Lankan communities are unclear, genetic studies of the Sinhalese have revealed that the majority of the Sinhalese community is genetically related to South Indians as well as Bengalis and Gujaratis
Because there has been a genetic mutation of the people of Sri Lanka, what do we expect from the Sri Lankan community with mixed genes?
Caste order in Sinhalese society
1. Govigama (landlords, farming, cattle management)
2. Karawa (killing fish)
3. Salagama (crushing)
4. Durawa (toast breeding, liquor trade)
5. Lime (fly ash industry, cement industry)
6. Visitor/ Achari/ Galladu (Metal Work, Painters, Carpenters)
7. Rada/ Hena (weavers, clothes washers)
8. Wahampura/ Hakuru (Jag formation)
9. Potters
10. Dura (Protection of Sri Maha Bodhi, Elephants)
11. Nakathi / Drum (Nakshatra, dance work, drumming) Tom-tom beaters (traditional drummers
12. Bathgama / Padu (Servants, Nattami)13. Gahala (dead drumming)
14. Kinnara (mat weaving, flax industry)
15. Rodi / Hulawali (begging/beggers, Making the brooms)
16. Nari Village (Prostitution Business)
17. Pannikki (beauticians, barbers, chefs) 18. Porovakkara (wood cutters) 19. Panna (grass cutters)
20. Hannali (Taylors, Tailors) Although inter-caste marriages take place on the basis of love relationships, same-caste marriages still take place. And it is very difficult to accurately determine the caste based on a person's surname. Considering the Sinhala caste system, approximately 20 castes can be seen. In addition, small and unknown castes may be present in different regions. THEIR IS A SECRET TRADITIONAL – MOST SRILANKAN BUDDHIST FAMILY MALES MUST HAVE SEX WITH THEIR OWN MOTHER BEFORE MARRIAGE.In cases where a young girl has reached puberty, that girl must first have sex with her own father.
This is celebrated as a ritual in every buddhist house