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Sinhalese people

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Sinhala
Regions with significant populations
 Sri Lanka       14,100,000[1]
Other sources claim 13,342,000[2]

Other significant populations:
 Saudi Arabia400,000[3]
 Australia73,849[4]
 Thailand67,000[2]
 United Arab Emirates50,000[5]
 Italy45,575[6]
 Malaysia25,000[2]
 Oman24,000[2]
 Singapore20,000[2]
 Qatar17,000[2]
 Norway13,000[2]
 Libya12,000[2]
 United States11,000[2]
 Cyprus5,400[2]
 Canada4,700[2]
 India3,400[2]
 Maldives2,100[2]
 Brunei1,100[2]
 Kenya400[2]
Languages
Sinhala, English, Tamil
Religion
Predominantly Theravada Buddhism.
Minority Christianity and Hinduism.
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Aryans, Sri Lankan Tamil, Veddahs, Bengali,

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. More than 400,000 live in other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom[7].

Etymology

The Sinhalese are also known as "Hela" or "Sinhala". 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 its origins here.

Distribution

Percentage of Sinhalese people per district based on 2001 or 1981 (cursive) census.[8]

Sri Lanka

The vast majority of the Sinhalese live in Sri Lanka (mostly in the south and west of the island).

Expatriates

There are significant percentages of Sinhalese people among Sri Lankan expatriate communities in Southeast Asia as businessmen; as well as in the Middle East, where Sri Lankans are often employed as both guest workers and white collar professionals. Smaller communities also exist in Australia, Europe (notably the UK and Italy) and in North America (in particular United States and Canada).

History

Main article: History of Sinhalese people
See also: History of Sri Lanka

Prehistory

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.

Ancient period

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 and 483 BC[citation needed]. These people arrived in Sri Lanka after exiled from 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 Pāli 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. 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. To this day Buddhism has survived in Sri Lanka while it was forcibly rooted out in other parts of the subcontinent, hence Sri Lanka is the last bastion of Theravada Buddhism in South Asia.

Modern period

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.

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. The life expectancy has gone up because of the state funded health care.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Sri Lanka

Language

The spread of Sinhalese language in the United States

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.

Literature

Main articles: Sri Lankan literature and Sinhalese literature

Religion

File:DSCN1365.JPG
The Buddha statue at Mihintale.
Main article: Buddhism in Sri Lanka

Most of the Sinhalese (93%) are Buddhists. They are the only ethnic group in South Asia to adhere to the Theravada sect of Buddhism.. There are also a minority of Sinhalese Christians which are mainly in the Roman Catholic denomination. Their cultural centre is [(Negombo)].

Genetic Studies

The Sinhalese are not a distinct group that is entirely or even mainly of Indo-Aryan origin, which is itself a linguistic categorization and not a palpable 'racial' group.

As the Sinhalese originate from India they, like other Indian tribal and caste populations, derive largely from the same genetic heritage of a southern asians and western asians in the Pleistocene, who migrated from West Eurasia. They are likely to have have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene. [9]

According to genetic evidence, the Sinhalese have their origins in South India and North-East India, particularly Tamil Nadu and Bengal . Due to relatively easy access from South India and Tamil workers being brought from South India under British rule, mixing of the Tamil and Sinhalese groups has been occurring for many generations. The Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils have been in close proximity to each other historically, linguistically, and culturally for over 2000 years. This explains why they share a common gene pool of 55%.[10]

A genetic admixture study found the Sinhalese had the greatest contribution from South Indian Tamils (69.86% +/- 0.61), followed by Bengalis from the northeast India (25.41% +/- 0.51). Similarly, Sri Lankan Tamils have a greater contribution from the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka (55.20% +/- 9.47) than Indian Tamils (16.63% +/- 8.73).Thus, the evidence suggests that the legend of the Sinhalese being the descendents of Prince Vijaya and his companions may not be true, or that the genetic contribution by Prince Vijay and his companions has been erased by the contributions of other population groups, such as the Tamils and Bengalis, over 2000 years.[11]

This is also supported by a genetic distance study, which showed low differences in genetic distance between the Sinhalese and the Tamil, Keralite and Bengali volunteers.[12] D1S80 allele frequency (A popular allele for gentic fingerprinting) is also similar between the sinhalese and Bengalis, suggesting the two groups are closely related.[13] In addition, the Sinhalese and South indian Tamils have similar cultures in terms of kinship classification, cousin marriage, dress and housing.[14]

The Sinhalese are likely to have recieved little or no genetic flow from neighboring East or Southeast Asian populations.[15] A study looking at genetic variation of the FUT2 gene in the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil population, found similar genetic backgrounds for both ethnic groups. With little genetic flow from other neighbouring asian population groups.[16] A study looking at protein and blood group loci suggest that Sinhalese are closer to Iranians and Afghans than to Mongoloids.[17] Root and canal morphology of Sri Lankan mandibular molars, also suggest the the Sinhalese have closer affinities with europeans (Western Eurasia), than people of East Asian origin.[18]

A 2004 biomedical central study found the frequency of the average proportion of mtDNA gene flow from West Eurasia in the Sri-Lankan population to be 15%[19]. This proportion is similar to Central, South (23%, 11% and 15% in Maharashtra, Kerala and Sri Lanka, respectively) and East Indian groups (13% in Uttar Pradesh and around 7% in West Bengal and Bangladesh).

Studies have also found no significant genetics difference with regards to blood group, blood genetic markers and single-nucleotide polymorphism between the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil population.[20][21].[22]

A study in 2007 found similar frequencies of the allele HLA-A*02 in sinhalese (7.4%) and North Indian subjects (6.7%).HLA-A*02 is a rare allele which has a relatively high frequency in North Indian populations and is considered to be a novel allele among the North Indian population. This suggests possible North Indian origin of the Sinhalese.[23]

Major Holidays

Elephants at the Esala Perahera.
Main articles: Sri Lankan festivals and Sinhala and Tamil New Year

The celebration of the New Year on April 14 is an important tradition.

Education

Main article: Education in Sri Lanka

The Sinhalese have a very high regard for education, as such the first lesson of writing for young children is done in a ceremony by an important family elder at an auspicious time.

Architecture

Jetavanaramaya stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka is the second largest brick structure in the world
Main article: Architecture of ancient Sri Lanka
See also: Ancient constructions of Sri Lanka and Ancient stupas of Sri Lanka

References

  1. ^ www.statistics.gov.lk
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Sinhalese". joshuaproject.net. Joshua Project. 27-April-2009. Retrieved 2009-05-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108492.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2008 - Saudi Arabia
  4. ^ http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/poa-2008.pdf The People of Australia - Statistics from the 2006 Census
  5. ^ http://www.worldchristiandatabase.org
  6. ^ http://www.cnel.it/cnelstats/dettagliI.asp?topic=010&fen1=001&fen2=004&nazi=005&regi=&prov=&anno=2004 CNEL Statistics of registered immigrants in Italy, year 2004
  7. ^ Ethnologue report for language code:sin
  8. ^ " Department of Census and Statistics
  9. ^ http://hpgl.stanford.edu/publications/AJHG_2003_v72_p313-332.pdf
  10. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8543296
  11. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8543296
  12. ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/110484906/PDFSTART
  13. ^ Surinder Singh Papiha (1999). Genomic Diversity: Applications in Human Population Genetics. London: Springer. 7.
  14. ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/667927
  15. ^ http://www.springerlink.com/content/986ptl5731n44573/?p=37e63a258dab46cf82ec815755ef55e4&pi=0
  16. ^ http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/trfu/abstract.00007885-200512000-00015.htm;jsessionid=KzPChpMlnTCSJstRsDdmjFyVBHvCBkJyG3011lv6QCRQGN9yhN20!-514211921!181195628!8091!-1
  17. ^ Roychoudhury AK, Nei M (1985) Genetic relationships between Indians and their neighboring populations. Hum Hered 35:201–206
  18. ^ http://www.springerlink.com/content/11r252m83g83216l/?p=470608506841447e84e90c39159a74e8&pi=4
  19. ^ http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2156/5/26
  20. ^ http://www.jstor.org/stable/2799860?seq=5
  21. ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110482916/abstract
  22. ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121515782/HTMLSTART
  23. ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117982701/abstract

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Other References

  • De Silva, K.M. History of Sri Lanka (Univ. of Calif. Press, 1981)
  • Gunasekera, Tamara. Hierarchy and Egalitarianism: Caste, Class, and Power in Sinhalese Peasant Society (Athlone, 1994).
  • Roberts, Michael. Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited (Colombo-Marga Institute, 1997).
  • Wickremeratne, Ananda. Buddhism and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka: A Historical Analysis (New Delhi-Vikas Publishing House, 1995).
  • Fernando, Basil Thoughts of a Sinhalese about some Sinhala habits (Asian Human Rights Commission, 2006).]
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