The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (in Sinhala in Tamil) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of theIndian subcontinent. The capital of the country is Sri Jayawardanapura while the largest city is Colombo.

It was known as Ceylon before 1972, and Serendib and Sinhale, among other names, before that. It is South Asia's oldest democracy.

Sri Lanka has three main ethnic groups. They differ in their religions and origins, and there has often been difficulties between the groups. The total population of the island is over 20 million people, and rapidly expanding.

The largest of the three groups is the population of Sinhalese people, who are Buddhist, and who have their own language, Sinhala. They make up about 75% of the population.

The second largest group is the Tamil people, who are Hindu. There are about 2,271,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The third largest group is the Sri Lankan Moors, who are Muslim. There are over one and a half million people in this group. They useTamil as their language today.

There are a number of smaller ethnic groups, of which the Veddas are notable because they may be the original inhabitants of the island, or at any rate the earliest to survive today. They have "indigenous people" status in the island.

National symbols of Sri Lanka

National bird of Sri Lanka	National flower of Sri Lanka	National tree of Sri Lanka

Flag

The Sri Lanka flag is also known as the Lion flag because of the Lion on it. The Lion is holding a sword in its right paw. There is a crimson background with four leaves in each corner. There is a yellow border. On the left of the flag there are the colors green and saffron.

The lion represents bravery. The four leaves represents Karuna, Meththa, Muditha and Upeksha. The orange stripe represents the Sri Lankan Tamils and the green stripe represents the Sri Lankan Moors.