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Many of the Buddhist ruins in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa date from the 12th century.
Photograph by Priit Vesilind
The words mean "resplendent isle," and the natural charms of this pear-shaped island in the Indian Ocean that nearly kisses the southeast tip of India are indeed splendid. • Peopled mostly by Sinhalese, the result of waves of Indo-Aryan emigration, the island is mostly flat, with gentle mountains in the south. • The Portuguese and the Dutch once waged proxy wars here; by 1802 the island was a British colony. • This century saw bloody civil war, as the Liberation Tigers, representing minority Tamils, fought the Sinhalese and their domination of politics and economics. • In 2009 the Tigers were vanquished. • Today peace prevails.
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