This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 220.247.247.95 (talk) at 07:29, 16 June 2004 (attributes of sinhala history and current threat of extinction). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 07:29, 16 June 2004 by 220.247.247.95 (talk) (attributes of sinhala history and current threat of extinction)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sinhalese make up a majority of Sri Lanka, whom probably came from Northern India. They speak the Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language. Legend has it that they descend from King Vijaya and his party of several hundred that set foot on the island around 500 BCE.
Sinhalese are also said to be mixed with North and East, in addition to Javanese.
They are generally considered to be a Caucasoid race, but display some traits of their Dravidian neighbours (Australoid with strong Caucasoid traits), possibly due to assimilation of Tamils.
The sinhalese have maintained the longest written history in the world for over 2500 years.
The sinhalese are a unique race in the world though not well known that have revered even the the good of it's enemies in the written history of Sri Lanka. Troughout that history the Sinhalese kings have shown much tolerance and given refuge to minorities from the wrath of foreign invaders such as the Portugese and the English. Ironically these same minorities have grown in size and are now threatening the existence of the Sinhalese race contributed to by the stupidy of the sinhalese themselves.