All language subtitles for History of Sri Lanka

Hi, this is Matt Baker. Today, I'm going
to discuss the history of Sri Lanka, an

island nation located just south of
India.

This particular country holds a special
place in my heart because I lived there

for almost 10 years while working as a
teacher at a not -for -profit vocational

school. In this video, I'm going to give
you a brief overview of the entire

history of Sri Lanka from the arrival of
the first humans all the way to today.

This will include a look at the family
trees of several ruling dynasties. And

please note that this video will be a
bit longer than usual because I'm doing

as a fundraiser for Tea Leaf Trust, a
charity operated by former colleagues

and students of mine in the
underprivileged tea growing areas of Sri

I'll be sharing more about the charity
and my own experience in Sri Lanka at

end of the video. But for now, here are
two ways you can donate.

The best way is to go to UsefulCharts
.com slash donate.

But if you'd rather stay on YouTube, you
can also simply click the applaud

button as I'll be donating all of the
income from this video to the charity as

well.

Approximately 60 ,000 years ago, humans
left Africa and slowly started to spread

along the coast of Asia, all the way to
Australia.

At this point, the water level was
lower, and Sri Lanka was connected to

continent via a land bridge, so no boats
were necessary for humans to arrive

there. In fact, the earliest skeletal
remains of our species ever found in

outside of the Middle East, were
actually discovered in Sri Lanka.

That specimen is known as Balangoda Man,
and he is thought to have lived around

38 ,000 years ago.

But let's zoom ahead to the year 3000
BCE, which is when the first human

civilizations started to appear in
places like Egypt, Sumer, and the Indus

Valley. At this point, the inhabitants
of Sri Lanka were still living as hunter

-gatherers, although there is some
evidence of cereal cultivation and

even trade with Egypt.

For the next 2 ,000 years, many urban
civilizations would come and go in the

Middle East.

In North India, the Indus Valley
civilization would eventually be

Vedic culture.

And in South India, a unique Dravidian
culture emerged, which started to have

contact with the inhabitants of Sri
Lanka.

We know this because during this period,
South India and Sri Lanka shared the

same pottery, customs, and even a proto
-writing system.

Some claim that these symbols represent
a missing link between the earlier Indus

Valley script and the later Brahmi
script, but so far nothing conclusive

said. Also around this time, a famous
story started to be told in North India,

one that involved Sri Lanka.

That story is the Ramayana, and it
centers around four main characters,

his wife Sita, his friend Hanuman, and
Ravana, an evil demon king from Sri

who kidnapped Sita.

During my time in Sri Lanka, I actually
lived very close to the spot where Sita

was supposedly imprisoned, which is now
marked by this Hindu temple.

From an archaeological point of view,
though, there is no evidence of any

sizable kingdom in Sri Lanka during this
time period or any time earlier.

However, it was around this time that a
permanent settlement did start to emerge

near what would eventually be called
Anuradhapura.

But like I said, the Ramayana is a
product of Indian culture. One of the

major works of literature from the
island of Sri Lanka itself is the

composed by a Buddhist monk.

It tells the story of how the Sinhalese
people, currently the largest ethnic

group on the island, came to live there.

That story, which is a mix of legend and
real history, begins around the year

600 BCE with an Indian princess named
Supadevi from the kingdom of

Vanga. She supposedly had a son with
some sort of lion man named Sinha.

That son was named Sinhabahu and he went
on to establish a city named Sinhapura,

the exact location of which is unknown.

The eldest son and heir of Sinhabahu was
a prince named Vijaya.

However, Vijaya was seen as unfit to
rule and was expelled along with

700 of his followers.

They left Sinhapura by boat and landed
in, you guessed it, Sri Lanka.

According to the Mahavamsa, this
occurred on the exact same day that the

died, which it calculates to have been
in the year 543 BCE.

As the legend goes, when the Buddha
reached heaven, he asked the gods to

Vijaya so that Buddhism could eventually
flourish in Sri Lanka through Vijaya's

descendants. Let's now switch to a map.

of Sri Lanka for the rest of the video.

According to the Mahavamsa, Prince
Vijaya landed near Manar and called the

island Tambapani, which is supported by
the fact that the Greeks called Sri

Lanka Taprobane.

According to the Mahavamsa, when Prince
Vijaya arrived, the island was inhabited

by people called the Yakas and Nagas.

The Yakhas may have been the ancestors
of the same indigenous tribe that still

lives on the island today.

These people are known as the Veddas and
their current population is around 3

,000. The Nagas were probably South
Indian traders who had migrated to Sri

prior to Prince Vijaya.

In any case, according to the Mahavamsa,
Prince Vijaya and his followers ended

up becoming the dominant group.

establishing the kingdom of Tambapani.

Very little is known of this early
kingdom, though, and much of its history

thought to be primarily legend.

What we do know is that a king named
Pandukabaya, who was the grandson of

Vidya's nephew, eventually settled in
Anuradhapura, which then became the

capital of the Sinhalese kingdom for
well over a thousand years.

Starting with Pandukabaya, the kingdom
of Anuradhapura developed one of the

complex irrigation systems in the entire
ancient world, one that was used and

continuously expanded over the next 1
,500 years and involved the construction

of large artificial lakes.

By the time we get to Pandakabaya's
grandson, Devanampya Tissa, we have

definitely moved from legend to
verifiable history.

This is because Devanampya Tissa reigned
in Sri Lanka during the same time that

the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka was
reigning over most of India.

It is said that Ashoka sent his
firstborn son Mahinda to Sri Lanka, and

Mahinda who introduced the island to
Buddhism.

A cutting from the tree under which the
Buddha received enlightenment was

brought to Sri Lanka around this time
and planted in Anuradhapura.

Today, the tree that grew from that
cutting is the oldest human -planted

for which we have a known planting date.

During the reign of Devanampya Titha,
the first Buddhist temple was built in

Lanka. Note the dome -like structure in
the middle, which is known as a stupa or

dagaba. These are very common features
in Buddhist architecture. They are built

to contain a relic in the center and are
used as a focus for meditation and for

other rituals such as circling the relic
in a clockwise direction.

By this point, there were probably
several Hindu temples on the island as

particularly at key port cities such as
Mantai and Trincomalee, where Tamil

traders from South India were active.

This includes the famous Konaswaram
Temple, dedicated to the god Shiva,

nowadays is the largest Hindu temple on
the island.

Devanampya Tissa was followed by several
of his brothers, and during this time,

too many kingdoms developed south of the
main kingdom.

known as Calania and Ruhuna.

These were ruled by other members of the
Sinhalese royal family.

But meanwhile, the kingdom of
Anuradhapura was coming under increasing

from invaders coming down from South
India.

This came to a head when a Tamil prince
named Elalan from the Chola dynasty

captured the throne.

Interestingly, although Alalin was a
foreign invader, the Mahavamsa paints

as a wise and just ruler. And generally
speaking, he is seen as a positive

figure by Sinhalese people today.

However, he was eventually overthrown by
a member of the Sinhalese dynasty named

Dutugamunu. There is an interesting
legend involving Dutugamunu's mother,

Mahadevi. Her father was the prince of
Kalania.

and he once put to death an innocent
monk in a very cruel way.

As the story goes, the gods punished him
by causing a huge tsunami to flood the

land. To appease the gods, he placed his
daughter Vihara Mahadevi in a boat and

sent her out to sea as a sacrifice.

This calmed the sea, but unexpectedly,
her boat came ashore in Ruhuna, where

ended up marrying the king there and
giving birth to Dutukamuna.

Dutukamuna is one of only two Sri Lankan
kings to have earned the suffix the

great. Not only did he defeat Alalin and
reclaim the kingdom of Anuradhapura,

he also became the ruler of both Kalenya
and Rahuna, thus becoming the first

king to rule over the entire island.

He is also remembered for building the
Ruanwalesya stupa.

which contains the largest collection of
Buddha relics in the entire world.

He was followed by his brother, and then
by several nephews, until once again

the kingdom came under the control of
Tamil invaders, this time a series of

rulers known as the Five Dravidians.

At this point, I should probably explain
some terminology.

The two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka
today, as well as throughout all of Sri

Lankan history, are the Sinhalese and
the Tamils. The Tamils originate from

South India, whereas the Sinhalese,
according to the legend of Prince

originate from North India, particularly
from the area known as West Bengal.

This is backed up by the fact that Tamil
is a member of the Dravidian language

family, found primarily in South India,
whereas Sinhalese is a member of the

Indo -Aryan language family.

found in North India.

Generally speaking, the other big
difference is that Tamils are mostly

whereas the Sinhalese are mostly
Buddhist.

But according to genetic studies, the
divide between the two groups is not

necessarily as clear -cut as what some
people think.

As we'll see when we get to the recent
history of Sri Lanka, the last 70 years

or so have seen some very intense
conflict between the Sinhalese and

Modern political rhetoric has thus led
many to assume that the two ethnic

have always been fierce enemies.

But this is simply not the case.

Throughout most of Sri Lankan history,
Sinhalese people and Tamil people have

lived together peacefully.

And from what we know from recent
genetic studies, it seems that they even

intermarried quite a bit.

Yes, there were times, such as during
the period of the five Dravidians, where

there were power struggles between
Sinhalese rulers and Tamil rulers.

But it's also important to keep in mind
that most of the time, the two groups

coexisted without conflict.

In fact, Sinhalese kings often took
wives from South India. I should point

that in South India, there were three
main dynasties, the Cholas, the Pandyas,

and the Cheras.

Alalin, who I mentioned earlier, was a
Chola. However, the five Dravidians were

Pandyas. At this point, let me remind
you that this video is a fundraiser for

Tea Leaf Trust, which, among many
things, works to foster cooperation

the various ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

To donate now, you can click the link in
the description or in the pinned

comment. Or you can go to youthfulcharts
.com slash donate.

Finally, you can also simply click the
applaud button and donate directly

through YouTube.

Let's now continue down the family tree
chart.

Valagamba, who had been deposed by the
five Dravidians, eventually won back his

kingdom. He went on to build the
Abhayagiri Vihara, an important Buddhist

monastery, as well as the Dambulla Rock
Temple.

which includes some of the oldest
painted ceilings in the world.

Valagamba was followed by two of his
sons, then a grandson.

And then we get the first ruling queen
in Sri Lankan history, Queen Anula.

The Mahavamsa paints her in a very
negative light, claiming that she

least six of her husbands.

However, considering the fact that
female rulers throughout world history

often portrayed by later chroniclers as
villains, it's hard to know how much

truth there is to that story. What we do
know is that around the time that the

Roman Empire was starting to dominate
the Western world, the original line of

Sinhalese kings came to an end and a
different Sinhalese dynasty rose up to

its place, known as the House of
Lumbacarna.

The first king from this family was
Vasubha. He is credited with expanding

kingdom's large -scale irrigation
system. But it is Vasubha's grandson,

Gajabahu, who is the more famous king.

Gajabahu came to the throne around the
same time that the great Chola king,

Karakala, was ruling in South India.

There appears to have been some conflict
between the two regions around this

time, with Gajabahu successfully
maintaining Sri Lankan independence.

King Gajabahu also shows up as a
character in the Tamil epic

which centers around a woman named
Kanaki, who is now worshipped as a

Among the Sinhalese people, Kanaki is
known as Patini.

And ever since the time of King
Gajabahu, she has been considered the

deity of Sri Lanka.

Gajabahu was succeeded by his father -in
-law, who was also a Lambakarna, and

then by nine of that king's descendants.

We then get three members of the
Lambakarna dynasty who were not closely

to each other before the throne finally
settles on that third branch.

that of Gotabaya.

Gotabaya was the father of Mahasena,
another one of Sri Lanka's more well

kings. Mahasena expanded the kingdom's
irrigation system and built the

Jetavana Ramya Stupa, which at the time
of its construction was the third

tallest building in the world, surpassed
only by the two tallest pyramids at

Giza, Egypt.

Originally, it was 400 feet high, but
now it's only about 230 feet.

Throughout this time, the kingdom of
Anuradhapura was trading with the

as evidenced by the many Roman coins
found on the island that date to this

period. It was also during the reign of
Mahasena that the Mahavamsa, or Great

Chronicle, was written.

Going forward, most of Sri Lankan
history is known from the Chulavamsa, or

Lesser Chronicle, which were later
additions made to the Mahavamsa.

Anyway, Mahasena was followed by seven
of his descendants, after which Sri

fell under the rule of invading
Dravidians again.

Which brings us to one of the most
famous stories in Sri Lankan history,

story of Sigiriya.

a huge rock that once housed an
elaborate palace on top.

The story starts with King Datasena, who
expelled the Tamil rulers and

reestablished Sinhalese rule under a new
house, the House of Maurya.

He is remembered for commissioning this
43 -foot -high statue of Buddha,

carved out of granite.

but he is remembered even more so for
the conflict that arose between his two

sons. His eldest was named Kashiapa, but
Kashiapa was the son of

a concubine, and therefore it was
Magalana, the son of the queen, who was

rightful heir to the throne.

But before Magalana could become king,
Kashiapa stole the throne from his

father. and had his father killed by
entombing him in a wall.

He then went on to build Sigiriya,
which, I've got to say, is the most

place I have ever visited in all my
life.

Like I said, it's a huge rock in the
middle of a large plain.

To this day, you can still see the ruins
of Kashiapa's palace on the top.

and the entrance to the palace is still
guarded by two large lion paws.

The assumption is that there was
originally a lion's head as well, but

the head has been lost to time.

On the sides of the rock are some unique
works of art made using a fresco

method, as well as a wall that was
supposedly so polished that it acted as

mirror. Finally, surrounding the rock is
an elaborate series of gardens and

pools, which were originally all
connected via some sort of ancient

plumbing system.

Anyway, Kashiapa's rule from this
magnificent location eventually came to

a bloody end.

His brother, Magalana, had escaped.

to South India and several decades
later, he amassed an army there and

to Sri Lanka where he defeated Kashyapa
and claimed his throne.

His descendants went on to rule the
kingdom of Anuradhapura for the next two

centuries until the throne then passed
back to the house of Lambakarna.

During this period, Muslim traders
arrived on the island and established a

permanent presence.

There is also evidence of trade with
China by this point. However, in the

1017, the mighty kingdom of
Anuradhapura, which had existed for

well over a thousand years, finally came
to an end. This was due to the rise of

the greatest king in all of South Indian
history, Raja Raja Chola.

During his reign, the Cholas not only
conquered most of South India and Sri

Lanka, they also controlled much of
Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula as well.

During the Chola period, the capital of
Sri Lanka was permanently moved from

Anuradhapura to a new location, a city
called Palanaroha. Eventually, one of

descendants of the Sinhalese royal
family, who had taken refuge in the

man named Vijayabahu, was able to
capture Polonnaruwa from the Cholas and

-establish Sinhalese rule from the new
capital. Thus began the start of Sri

Lanka's second major kingdom, the
Kingdom of Polonnaruwa. But soon after

Kingdom of Polonnaruwa was established,
a conflict began between two branches of

the Sinhalese royal family, the Kalingas
and the Aryas.

The Kalingas had intermarried with the
Kalinga royal family from Andhra

whereas the Arya branch had intermarried
with Tamil royalty.

Eventually, the Arya branch won out with
the rise of Parakramabahu, the second

of only two Sri Lankan kings who are
regularly given the appellation The

Parakramabahu the Great was one of the
last Sri Lankan kings to have a firm

over the entire island. And during his
reign, the famous irrigation system that

had watered the island for over a
millennia reached its most advanced

If you visit Polonnaruwa today, you can
still see the ruins of Parakramabahu's

palace, his audience hall, and his
swimming pool.

not to mention the many religious
monuments that were built during his

The greatest of these, perhaps, being
the three giant Buddha statues at Gol

Vihara, one sitting, one standing, and
one resting.

Parakramabahu is also notable for having
captured a port city in India and for

fighting a war in faraway Burma. After
the death of Parakramabahu the Great,

The Kalinga versus Arya conflict
returned, and the throne jumped around

several different members of the royal
family, including Parakramabahu's wife,

Queen Lilavati.

Another ruler worth noting from this
period is Nisankamala.

He is credited with commissioning this
26 -foot -long stone tablet,

which serves as an excellent example of
the Middle East Sinhalese script.

Note that while the Sinhalese language
is of northern Indian origin, the

Sinhalese script is of southern Indian
origin and has many similarities to the

ancient Tamil script.

The curvy nature of the modern Sinhalese
script is a testament to the fact that

it was originally written on leaves, not
parchment.

Curvy lines are less likely than
straight lines to tear a hole in a leaf.

By this point, you'll recognize a
pattern that has repeated itself several

throughout Sri Lankan history.

You get long periods of Sinhalese rule,
but then eventually things decline and a

foreign invader from India ends up
taking over for a time. In this case,

next big invader was a man named Kalinga
Maga. But this time the situation

changed for good.

So great was the destruction around
Anuradhapura and Palanarua that most of

Sinhalese people, along with their royal
family, migrated permanently to the

south and western parts of the island,
where they established a new kingdom at

Dambadenia. And the newcomers from India
settled in the far north, establishing

their new capital at Jaffna.

Thus, there were now two independent
kingdoms on the island, the Tamil

kingdom of Jaffna in the north and the
Sinhalese -speaking kingdom of

in the south.

The Jaffna kingdom eventually came under
the rule of the house of Arya

Chakravarti and the Dambadenia kingdom
came under the rule of the house of

Sirasangabo, which traced its origins to
King Sirasangabo.

who we saw earlier on the chart about 1
,000 years back.

The Dambadenia Kingdom was the less
stable of the two.

Because of internal conflict, the
capital kept being moved until it

ended up at Kote, which is near Colombo,
the current capital of Sri Lanka.

It was around this time, in the early
1400s, that the famous Ming explorer

He visited Sri Lanka, and a brief
conflict ensued between China and

Sri Lanka.

During the mid -1400s, there was a brief
period when the kingdom of Kote came to

rule the Jaffna kingdom.

But then, in the early 1500s, two events
occurred that severely weakened the

Sinhalese kingdom.

The first was the arrival of the
Portuguese in 1505.

They were the first European power to
set foot on the island, which they

Ceylon. The second was an event in 1521
known as the Plunder of Vijayabahu.

It is named after the king of Kote at
the time, Vijayabahu VII.

Vijayabahu VII had three sons by his
first wife.

But then, after she died, he remarried
and had a fourth son.

When the three older brothers learned
that the king planned to make his

son his heir, they plotted against their
father, having him killed. They then

divided the kingdom into three parts,
each taking a part for themselves.

By this point, a fourth Sinhalese
kingdom had also arisen, called the

Kandy, which was ruled by one of their
more distant relatives.

The division between the Sinhalese
kingdoms made it easier for the

gain a foothold on the island.

They slowly took control over the
coastal areas, converting many of the

to Catholicism and playing the various
Sinhalese kingdoms against each other.

By 1597, they had conquered everything
that had once been the Kingdom of Kote.

And in 1619, they conquered the Jaffna
Kingdom as well, leaving the Kingdom of

Kandy as the only local kingdom left on
the island.

For the next part of the video, I'm
going to use my Asian Royal Family Trees

poster, which includes all of the
various monarchs of the Kingdom of

If you want to buy a copy of this
poster, you can find a link to it in the

description. So, here you can see King
Vijayabahu VII and his three sons

who split the kingdom of Kote, leading
to its demise in 1597.

But you can also see Sena Samata
Wickramabahu from the same royal house,

who became the first king of Kandy.

His line ruled Kandy until his grandson
Kareliada Bandara allied with the

Portuguese and embraced Catholicism.

This led Rajasinghe I from the nearby
kingdom of Sitawaka to attack

Kandy. Kareliada Bandara died while
trying to escape, leading the Portuguese

declare his daughter Kusumasana Devi.

the rightful monarch, giving her the
Christian name Donna Caterina.

But Rajasinghe I managed to hold on to
Kandy for over a decade, until a man

named Vimaladharma Surya took over.

To solidify his rule, he married
Kusumasana Devi.

Like Kusumasana Devi, he too had
converted to Catholicism. But at this

they both renounced their conversion and
returned to Buddhism.

Vimaladharma Surya is seen as the second
founder of Kandy because he helped

reestablish Buddhist institutions in Sri
Lanka and managed to once again make

Kandy independent.

He is perhaps best remembered for
bringing the Buddha's tooth to Kandy,

where it remains to this day in the
famous Temple of the Tooth.

Throughout the entire history of Sri
Lanka, that tooth was the most important

Buddhist relic, and it was often moved
from place to place whenever power

shifted between kings.

Anyhow, Vimaladharma Surya was followed
by his brother, Senarat, who married his

widow, Kusumasana Devi.

Kusumasana Devi and Senarat's son, Raja
Singha II, then became the next king.

ruling for 52 years.

It was Raja Singha II who helped usher
in the next era of Sri Lankan history.

an effort to get rid of the Portuguese,
he allied with the Dutch, offering them

a trade monopoly if they helped him to
defeat the Portuguese.

The Sinhalese have a saying for when
something goes from bad to worse.

They say it's like exchanging ginger for
chili.

Well, this saying is said to have
originated in the fact that the Dutch

being worse for the country than the
Portuguese.

However, although the Dutch controlled
most of Sri Lanka, which they called

Ceylon, from 1640 to 1796, the Kingdom
of Kandy did

manage to maintain its independence
throughout that entire time.

Rajasinghe II was followed by his son
and then a grandson.

But that grandson failed to produce a
legitimate heir. So upon his death, the

throne passed to his brother -in -law,
who was a Nayakar.

The word Nayakar is a South Indian term
meaning leader.

And in this case, the Kandy Nayakars
were the descendants of Telugu nobles

spoke Tamil.

Interestingly, the final four kings of
the Sinhalese Kingdom of Kandy were all

Dravidian Hindus, although it should be
noted that they were also strong

supporters and patrons of Buddhism. This
further illustrates the point I

mentioned earlier about the various
ethnic groups in Sri Lanka living

peacefully most of the time. So, first
came the Portuguese, then second, the

Dutch. Well, the third and final
colonial power to take control of Sri

was the British.

They defeated the Dutch in 1796, taking
control of most of the island, which

they, as I keep mentioning, called
Ceylon.

During the reign of King Sri Vikrama
Rajasinghe of Kandy, the British

fought several wars against the last
remaining Sinhalese kingdom.

and finally took control of it in 1815,
becoming the first colonial power to

rule over the entire island.

The 19th century was, of course, the
heyday of the British Empire and Sri

was just one small piece of that
gigantic puzzle.

During the middle part of the 1800s,
British Ceylon became one of the largest

exporters of coffee.

However, in 1869, a devastating fungus
spread across Asia,

decimating all of the coffee plants.

The plantations in Ceylon therefore
turned their attention to the product

up until today, is the product Sri Lanka
is most known for, tea.

And this is finally where the charity
I'm supporting today comes into the

picture. You see, during the 19th
century, the British brought thousands

-paid workers over from South India to
work on their tea plantations.

In Sri Lanka today, the descendants of
these people are known as Indian Tamils,

in contrast to the Sri Lanka Tamils who
have lived on the island since ancient

times. Many of these Indian Tamils in
Sri Lanka still work on tea plantations

today and are among the lowest paid
workers in the country.

The Tea Leaf Trust runs educational
programs throughout the tea growing

Sri Lanka, which helps give the young
people there more opportunities.

As someone who drinks a lot of tea, the
Tea Leaf Trust is definitely a charity

that I like to support.

More on them in just a moment.

But for now, let's return to the history
of Sri Lanka and finish the story.

If we zoom ahead to the end of World War
II, we come to the period in which many

British colonies around the world were
achieving independence.

For example, India got theirs in 1947
and Sri Lanka got theirs

in 1948.

But in 1948, Sri Lanka was not quite Sri
Lanka yet.

It was still called Ceylon, and it still
had the British monarch as its head of

state. That all changed in 1972, which
is when the country officially changed

its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka and
became, for the first time in its

a republic.

But by 1972, tension between the two
main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the

Sinhalese and the Tamils, was already
high.

During the 1950s, several laws were
passed by the majority Sinhalese

that ended up putting Tamils at a severe
disadvantage, such as one that made

Sinhalese the only official language.

There were also major anti -Tamil riots
in 1956,

1958, 1977, and 1981 in which hundreds
of

Tamils were killed.

During the 1981 riot, the Jaffna Public
Library, which had housed one of the

largest collections of books and
manuscripts in all of Asia, was burnt to

crisp. All of this led to the emergence
of several Tamil separatist groups who

wanted to create a country of their own
in the north and east called Elam.

Over time, the separatist group that
came to dominate was the LTTE, also

as the Tamil Tigers.

In 1983, they ambushed a Sri Lankan army
patrol, killing 13 soldiers.

The country responded with the largest
anti -Tamil riots yet, an event known as

Black July.

The death toll was estimated to be in
the thousands, with injuries and people

left homeless numbering in the tens of
thousands.

Many Sri Lankan Tamils fled abroad at
this point, with my country, Canada,

actually being one of the top
destinations.

Others joined the Tamil Tigers because,
at this point, Sri Lanka had descended

into a full -scale civil war.

one that unfortunately lasted for 25
years, from 1983 to 2009.

I won't go through all of the sad
details, but let's just say that there

lot of bloodshed on both sides,
including several major assassinations

Tamil Tigers, including that of Indian
President Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan

President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

The Tamil Tigers also became well -known
for using suicide bombers in civilian

areas. For example, in 1996, they bombed
the central bank in

Colombo, killing 91 people and injuring
1 ,400, many of whom were left

blind. It was just two years later, in
1998,

that I arrived in Sri Lanka as a bright
-eyed young teacher, fresh out of

university. My ex -wife and I taught
English for a full year in the town of

Norelia, in the tea -growing region. We
decided to return to the country on a

more permanent basis just a few years
later, in 2002.

By then, my firstborn son Moses, who, by
the way, runs the YouTube channel Mo

Gaming, was with us.

And a few years later, my second son was
born as well. He was born the year of

the Asian tsunami.

Anyway, with the help of a few friends,
my ex -wife and I started a vocational

school called Beacon Hill Academy, which
operated for 13 years, seven of which

we served as teachers.

We stayed in Sri Lanka until 2009 and
were able to witness the end of the

War in May of that year.

It's now been 12 years since the end of
that war. The current prime minister of

Sri Lanka is the man who has dominated
Sri Lankan politics for the last 15

and who has built a cult of personality
around himself, Mahinda Rajapaksa. And

the current president is his brother,
Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

So, yeah, Sri Lanka still has a way to
go when it comes to being a full

democracy. However, since the end of the
war, the country has made some enormous

strides in terms of increasing its score
on the Human Development Index and

boosting its economy via megaprojects
like the Lotus Tower and Colombo's new

port. So that was a look at the entire
history of Sri Lanka from

38 ,000 years ago to today.

And now I want to share with you a bit
more about the charity I'm supporting by

doing this video.

Like I said, I lived in Sri Lanka for
almost 10 years and I even helped start

school there in the tea growing region.

Well, the school that I worked at no
longer exists.

However, several of my former colleagues
and students are carrying on its

mission through another school.

known as Tea Leaf Vision, which is
funded primarily by the UK charity, Tea

Trust. For the rest of this video, I'm
going to play a short film produced by

them that explains what they're all
about.

If you like what you see, I encourage
you to donate by going to UsefulCharts

.com slash donate.

or by clicking the applaud button.

Like I said, all the proceeds from this
video will be going to them.

Sri Lanka's hill country is home to Sri
Lanka's tea industry.

Tea is grown and picked by hand on an
industrial scale.

It's a major export for Sri Lanka and
accounts for around 15 % of GDP,

generating roughly 700 million US
dollars annually.

But the people who grow and pick the tea
are the poorest and most

underprivileged class in Sri Lankan
society.

Crushing poverty and limited access to
good quality education ensures there is

always another generation of
undereducated youth who will be forced

the tea estate's needs for cheap manual
labourers.

Tea Leaf Vision is working hard to try
and change this.

They believe that the only way to help
the next generation escape the low wages

and back -breaking work is through
education and personal development.

Tea Leaf Vision runs an intensive one
-year full -time diploma programme for

students aged between 18 to 24 years
old. This free course teaches English

grammar and speech, IT, business studies
and personal development.

The diploma is designed to help young
adults who have had to leave education

to poverty or have been let down by an
under -resourced state school system.

many of the schools in the plantation
area, Teaching standards tend to be very

poor as a result of the employment of
unqualified staff.

This leads to many school leavers not
achieving the academic results required

find meaningful employment or continue
higher level studies.

I think that tea leaf vision is
different than Sri Lankan government

because it's based on the...

The notion of encouragement and the
notion of potential and the notion that

because these students have failed at
Sri Lankan Government School doesn't

they're failures.

And just because the education system
has failed them doesn't mean that they

have to give up and just accept their
lot in life.

And Tea Leaf Vision, through helping
them to find their potential, through

encouraging them, through kindness,
actually allows them to...

become complete individuals and self
-confident individuals and individuals

capable of achieving their goals.

Before I came to the television, I
couldn't speak in English, but once I

the television, now I finished an 11
-month course and now I can speak in

English nicely.

I studied government school.

At that moment, they didn't teach
English.

If they teach one day, next day they are
not going to teach like that they are

teaching. Because of that, we didn't
improve a lot English.

After my A -levels, I couldn't get good
results. I thought I am a stupid and I

can't study well like that.

Once I came here, I did all the things
successfully and I got good marks.

So I'm proud of myself and T -Leap
Vision.

Here we are teaching the important
thing, that everything is important in

life, but the thing is, which we need it
if we are going for employability in

Sri Lanka.

Whatever the things that we need, we are
not learning in government school, but

we are learning here.

And that is the main purpose here, and
we are trying to change their life.

T -Leap Vision provides a supportive
environment.

where only English is spoken by all the
staff and students 100 % of the time.

This is done to accelerate the learning
process, but can be daunting at first to

new pupils.

Before I came to television, I couldn't
understand anything, but nowadays I can

answer to your questions also.

So I have confidence too.

If I ask any English questions, I can
answer.

In front of you.

As part of the course and the school
ethos of giving back to their

students are trained throughout the year
and monitored by teaching staff to give

a basic English programme to 7 -12 year
olds once a week at remote primary

schools serving key estates.

The students go out to teach during
terms 2 and 3.

The one of the main...

The course has been designed to instil
in students the importance of community

service and boost their personal
confidence, while simultaneously

English lessons to hundreds of children
who would not otherwise have access to

English classes.

Through the course, it's amazing because
they go from being nothing within their

communities to being change agents,
being role models to the young men and

in their communities, saying, yeah, this
time last year, I couldn't speak

English either, and now I'm teaching
you.