Talk:Sri Lanka/Archive 11

Who came early?
Tamils or sinhals?--Kaiyr (talk) 15:27, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Federal solution rejection
Let me be very clear here: I have absolutely no opinion whatsoever on whether or not that part about the president rejecting the "federal solution for Tamils" is appropriate for the article. All I know is that I remember seeing a discussion before where the consensus was that the information was not important enough to be in this article (see WP:UNDUE); I don't recall what thread it was--maybe someone involved can find it in the archives. I honestly don't care if it stays or goes; all I care is that there is no edit warring against consensus. If you want to try to change the consensus, feel free to do so, including using any aspect of dispute resolution you find necessary. Qwyrxian (talk) 01:15, 29 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I think Qwyrxian, if you have no idea about the issue you should stay back on the issue until a clear Edit War starts and then you apply your admin powers. Just reverting the sourced detail and then claiming, "I'm acting as an administrator to enforce the consensus determined on the article talk page" will make the Wikipedia Project a joke over the time. Sri Lanka Page on Wikipedia was not expanded on consensus basis but rather adding information citing sources (some of them are either questionable or not reliable) and giving undue weight to the page. If you are so clear cut on "consensus", then a large amount of information should be removed on the page and then should added/expanded on consensus basis.HudsonBreeze (talk) 06:58, 2 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I can't remember there was a discussion that the information was not important enough to be included in this article on the basis of (see WP:UNDUE); If that is there we can restart the discussion.HudsonBreeze (talk) 07:02, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

History - Medieval
In the middle of the first paragraph in this section, we read the following sentence:


 * "This marked the end of the two great houses of dynasties of ancient Sri Lanka, the Moriya and the Lambakanna."

"...two....houses of dynasties" does not make sense. "Houses" and "dynasties" are almost synonyms. Someone who knows the subject should choose one of these words and delete the other.CorinneSD (talk) 23:44, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
 * 'Dynasties' alone is surely universally understood. Rothorpe (talk) 00:50, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

History - Ancient
The third sentence in the second paragraph in the sub-section "Ancient" in the section "History" is as follows:


 * "Ancient Sri Lankans excelled in various constructions such as tanks, dagobas and palaces."

I have not often heard "construction" used as a plural countable noun. It is usually an uncountable noun. I wonder if there is not, perhaps, a better word than "constructions", or whether the same information could be expressed differently.

The only problem is that there is a link at "various constructions" to an article which also uses "constructions" as a countable plural noun. If we change one, we would have to change the other. Any thoughts? (In certain situations, the word "structures" could be used instead of "constructions".)CorinneSD (talk) 23:00, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I would certainly prefer 'structures', but maybe 'constructions' is normal usage in Sri Lanka. Rothorpe (talk) 00:48, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I made a small change.CorinneSD (talk) 21:53, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Colonization
I have a question about the third sentence in the first paragraph in the section headed "Colonization":


 * "In 1592 Vimaladharmasuriya I moved his kingdom to the inland city of Kandy, a location more secure against an attack from western invaders."

Since the only Western invaders mentioned in this paragraph are the Portuguese, I wonder whether Vimaladharmasuriya I felt threatened by any other western powers. If not, and it was really only the Portuguese from whom he was trying to protect his kingdom, then perhaps some editing could be done to make this paragraph a bit more concise. I'd be interested to hear from someone who really knows the history.CorinneSD (talk) 01:11, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * During this period it would have only been the Portuguese.--Blackknight12 (talk) 08:14, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the information. Based on that information I have revised the paragraph a bit to make it more concise.CorinneSD (talk) 14:14, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Human Rights
Why are the statements of UN Human Rights Commissioner about Sri Lanka becoming an authoritative,removed by editors from Sri Lanka?How do they think that the Statements of UN High Commissioner about Sri Lanka should not be in Human Rights section!. That is true. (49.249.139.219 (talk) 03:38, 2 September 2013 (UTC))

Removed "The Colombo Telegraph reported that "Sri Lanka’s minority Muslims continue to be subjected to violence and persecution, often at the hands of militant Buddhists, who are very active at the grassroots level:

Statement is abrupt and have no connectivity to other paragraphs or an another sentences. It represent subjective opinion of the writer based on the one news papers article(source is not very reputable one). As I stated in my talk page I like to acknowledged that there were few incidents of violent hate-speech against Muslim by Hardline Sinhala Buddhist organization like Bodu Bala Sena and Ravana Balaya for last several months. This was not the persistence or long-term situation in country and recent minor development. But in contrary this sentence indicate persistence long-term discrimination against Muslim which is incorrect(not acknowledge by any watch dog, UN or US).This kind of statement is not worth to include in a country profile. I did not try to cover up the statement. In my opinion writer should either include this as a recent development or should elaborate it more.Lipwe (talk) 17:00, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Removed statement about BBC article. Sentence is non descriptive, abrupt and misinterpreted. No mentioning about what this all about or time frame. Before presenting supporting information, exact problem should be stated. This is just a supportive piece information for recent development in Sri Lanka. I don't think mentioning about news paper article in middle of country profile witch have no connectivity to other paragraph is best way to give a important information about country. Please talk before doing future modifications.Lipwe (talk) 15:55, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Human rights and media section
The Human rights and media section was removed earlier today by User:DinoGrado citing WPC WP:WPC as an excuse. I have reverted. WPC WP:WPC's structure and guidelines are "advisory only", they are not policy. The inclusion of "negative" content has been much discussed over the last two years and the current article is a compromise which has generally been accepted by those involved in previous disputes. User:DinoGrado's actions threaten this and provoke more disputes.-- obi2canibe talk contr 15:01, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
 * While I have no opinion on the inclusion or removal of the section (I'm generally a neutral advisor/admin on this page), I will say that 1) It was fine for DinoGrado to remove the section based on the WPC guidelines and 2) equally acceptable for Obi2canibe to revert. We can assume good faith that DinoGrado was simply trying to make the page conform to a set of suggestions (not binding, as Obi2canibe points out), but now all editors need to see if those suggestions make sense here, especially given the contentious history of this page. The question now is, does that section make sense given this specific page? The section should stay in while this matter is discussed. Qwyrxian (talk) 15:07, 13 October 2013 (UTC)


 * i. I have removed the Human rights and media section form the article citing WP:WPC, not the disambiguation page mentioned by User:Obi2canibe - WPC.


 * ii. This article is about the country of Sri Lanka which falls under the scope of WP:WPC guidelines. But it is not about the Human Rights in Sri Lanka or about the Media of Sri Lanka. WP:WPC guideline suggests what are the sub sections which must be covered by the country article. (Etymology, History, Geography, Demographics, Economy etc.). HR or Media are not included in the list.


 * iii. Sri Lanka is a country which has a relatively longer history than many other countries. So there are so many important and significant incidents in the history of Sri Lanka that are related to the Human rights.


 * iv. The sub section on Human rights does cover-up some of the most notable incidents related to Human Rights in the modern history of the country, such as Great Rebellion of 1817–18, Matale Rebellion, 1971 JVP Insurrection & the 1987–89 JVP Insurrection (Caused more than 60, 000 deaths), ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese villagers by LTTE specially in the Eastern province of the country to form a mono ethnic state called Tamil Elam or the Expulsion of Muslims from the Northern province by LTTE for the same purpose.


 * v. The Human rights sub section mainly focuses on some selected areas of HR violations during the civil war in Sri Lanka and about few attacks against media personals alleged to the present government. But it does cover up many other important cruel acts by the members of the LTTE or by the members of the JVP. (None of these incidents are suitable to be included in the main article of a country)


 * vi. This section ignores the pillar of Wikipedia WP:NPOV and is not compatible with WP:WPC. It gives an imbalanced biased view to the neutral reader of Wikipedia.  Since there are two separate articles to cover the areas of HR in SL and Media of SL, there is no necessity to expand this subsection to include all the major HR incidents in the main page of the country. Hence  I  suggest to remove this sub section from the main page of the country.


 * Thank you. DinoGrado (talk) 07:29, 15 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Apart from spotting my typo, you are wrong on all counts. As mentioned in my first post, WP:WPC's structure and guidelines are "advisory only", they are not policy. WP:WPC have discussed the inclusion of a section on human rights, in another country article, and they concluded that it can if general sources mention human rights issues, which they do in Sri Lanka's case. Incidentally, the discussion also pointed out that the project's guidelines should not be used as a "template". Many country don't follow the guidelines. Four featured articles (Australia, Chad, Germany, Rwanda) have sections on media. One featured article (Belarus) even has a section on human rights. Four good articles (Bahrain, Brunei, Malawi, Zimbabwe) also have sections on human rights. Even articles that don't have separate human rights section mention it in other sections (e.g. Cameroon, Indonesia, Rwanda).


 * The length of Sri Lanka's history is not relevant to whether we should have a section on human rights. The only relevant factor is whether the section complies with Wikipedia polices, particularly WP:V and WP:NPOV. The human rights and media section does not violate WP:NPOV/WP:UNDUE. It is a small part of a very large article and placed towards the end of the article. It is not mentioned in the lead. And it is sourced using reliable sources. The fact only includes human rights abuses from the civil war is also not a valid excuse to remove the section. If abuses from other conflicts, such as the JVP insurrections, warrant inclusion they should be added to the section. [BTW, Sri Lanka does not have a longer history than other countries. This one of many myths propagated by Sri Lankan nationalists. Every continent on the planet had been colonised by humans 14,000 years ago therefore every country in the world has a long history.]


 * Excluding the human rights and media because they have separate articles is another fallacy. Every section in the article, even those recommended by WP:WPC, has a separate article: History of Sri Lanka, Geography of Sri Lanka, Politics of Sri Lanka, Economy of Sri Lanka, Demographics of Sri Lanka, Culture of Sri Lanka. If we excluded everything that has a separate article, this article would have no content.


 * The merits of including negative content on this article has been discussed several times. Everyone of the excuses used by DinoGrado has been used in previous attempts to censor negative content from this article. This article should portray an accurate image of Sri Lanka, not just the image that the Sri Lankan government and the tourist authority wants to portray.-- obi2canibe talk contr 19:22, 15 October 2013 (UTC)


 * i.The claims you make in the first para of your comment need to be verified, isn't it?

""WP:WPC have discussed the inclusion of a section on human rights, in another country article, and they concluded that it can if general sources mention human rights issues""


 * when was it done? & can you give the wiki link?
 * Further,

""Incidentally, the discussion also pointed out that the project's guidelines should not be used as a "template". Many country don't follow the guidelines.""


 * What are those many countries that do not follow the guide lines of WP:WPC ?


 * ii. Since few featured articles have separate media sections and one featured article has a HR section Why there should be a separate combined HR and Media section in the main page of Sri Lanka? What is the policy behind it? (United States is a featured article and does not have a HR sub section, Human rights in the United States is not even linked to the article )


 * iii.Sri Lanka does have a longer civilized history than many other countries and the chronicles Mahavamsa & Dipavamsa, Ancient stupas of Sri Lanka and Irrigation works in ancient Sri Lanka accounts for it. According to you those Chronicles, Stupas and Irrigation systems are myths ??????????


 * iv. The length of the history of a country may not be relevant to the existence of a Human Rights sub section, but the prominent HR violations in the history should be included to maintain the NPOV in this article. Only a selected portion of the violations attributed/committed to a single group of the community does not do the justice to the section as it is the case in the existing odd HR & Media section of the SL main page, which not compatible with either WP:NPOV or WP:WPC. Surprisingly this pathetic section does not talk about the following three significant HR issues;
 * The forcible excessive use of thousands of abducted poor Tamil Children as Child soldiers by the LTTE
 * The Human shield created by the loosing LTTE using the poor Tamil civilians
 * The use of Tamil youth as suicide bombers by the LTTE
 * While this section make sure to cover up the HR violations by the LTTE, it also puts the number of detained JVP activists also to the account of detainees during the Civil war in Sri Lanka.
 * v. Recommended sections for a country article by WP:WPC such as History, Geography, Politics, Economy, Demographics, Culture have separate articles and that is fine. But my question is why we should have a section on HR and Media in a country article that follows the guideline of WP:WPC? Is it because four featured articles have media sections and one featured article hava a HR section in other country articles???


 * vi. I also feel that this article should portray an accurate image of Sri Lanka, not just the image that the mono ethnic Tamil Elam supporters wants to portray here. The current HR and Media section is not fair, proportionate and neutral. All of the significant views and historic content are not represented in this odd section, which is primarily used to portray a negative image of Sri Lanka in the main page.


 * DinoGrado (talk) 04:57, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

Comment by Nishadhi:

User:DinoGrado,User:Obi2canibe, dear friends,

First of all please calm down, both of you... In my opinion, Sri Lanka needs a human rights and media section in the main article space and there are enough reasons to justify its inclusion. However, Obi2canibe, with out completely dismissing Dinogrado's suggestions we should try to address his concerns regarding the coverage. This section has to be very precise, concise and at the same time should give an overview about the evolution, current status and future of the relevant topics. So boys, why don't you put your heads together. (or you can continue the head butting)

User:DinoGrado, once logged in, we become wikipedians, we are no longer Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims. Lets try to leave these ideas behind. Thanks. Nishadhi (talk) 17:14, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * @User:DinoGrado - Please read my previous comment, follow all the wiki links, then come back and comment.


 * @User:Nishadhi - I welcome yourself, DinoGrado or anyone else adding to the Human rights and media section so that it covers other issues. But I can not stand by as hollow excuses are used to censor the entire section.-- obi2canibe talk contr 20:01, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * @ Nishadhi - Welcome to the discussion! Thanks for your advice, I will try to follow it as far as possible. Although you have said that there are many reasons to justify the inclusion of this odd HR & Media section you have not mentioned them ? I have given enough reasons in the discussion above, why it should be removed from the main page per WP:NPOV & WP:WPC. Are there any policies or guidelines in the Wikipedia to add this section to the main page?


 * @ Obi2canibe - I can't see any valid reasons in that 6 1/2 year old discussion to add a HR & Media section to the Sri Lanka country page. That discussion is about the main page of Cameroon, where currently there is no section for Human Rights exist. Few HR issues are given in the Politics and Government section. As far as I see, I have given valid reasons to remove this odd section, but can't believe why you see them as hollow excuses? BTW, You have not come up with any answers for my questions in the previous comment.
 * DinoGrado (talk) 10:25, 20 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I think that is good advice by Nishadhi, we should keep issues of race, religion and ethnicity out of this discussion. Also I too think there should be a Human rights and Media section, whether as one or two sections it does not matter, but the article deserves one. However DinoGrado is right in saying maybe there is too much recentism. Therefore the maybe we can reach a compromise and have a more balanced re-written Human rights and Media section? DinoGrado, as obi2canibe has said there is no strict format or layout we have to stay to in writing country articles, pretty much all of them are different and have made way to what is specific to them. Right now (in the past century) the Human rights and Media of Sri Lanka is relevant as a national topic as both have been violated or restricted. The issue is quite relevant therefore I think that is enough justification for the inclusion of this section. It is just a matter of what we are going to say in it.--Blackknight12 (talk) 03:47, 21 October 2013 (UTC)


 * @ Blackknight12 - I can't agree with you on the latter part of your comment. Sri Lanka is not the only country in the world that has problems with Human Rights or its Media. For an example USA also has problems with the Human Rights, but there is no Human Rights section in the country page of USA, and the pages Human rights in the United States and Torture and the United States are not even linked to the country article. There are similar examples elsewhere in the Wikipedia too. Since there are two separate articles to discuss the topics Human rights in Sri Lanka and Media of Sri Lanka, I reiterate that, there is no need to include them as a combined section in the country article of Sri Lanka.
 * DinoGrado (talk) 10:48, 22 October 2013 (UTC)


 * What other country articles do or don't include is irrelevant. There is no policy reason for excluding the section. It can only be removed by consensus after discussion here. The consensus here is that the section should be kept, albeit expanded to included other periods in Sri Lankan history. When your block has expired, I suggest you expand the section rather than keep going against the consensus and removing the section.-- obi2canibe talk contr 14:11, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Human rights and media
I just have a few concerns about the organization of this section.

1) A minor point, but worth considering:  The heading is "Human rights and media", but the overall organization of the section is media first, then human rights.

2) The first three sentences of the second paragraph are as follows:


 * "Officially, the constitution of Sri Lanka guarantees human rights as ratified by the United Nations. However, human rights in Sri Lanka have come under criticism by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United States Department of State. British colonial rulers, the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government of Sri Lanka are accused of violating human rights."


 * The verb in the third sentence, "are accused" suggests present time – now. It is equivalent to "stand accused [of]".  However, violation of human rights at least by British colonial rulers, and probably also by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was in the past.  Even if you change the verb to "have been accused [of]", it is still incorrect.  It would be more correct to separate the first two and use past tense ("were accused [of]") and use "has been accused [of]" for the government of Sri Lanka (because it is in the recent past up to the present).


 * The first two sentences ("Officially,..." and "However,...") are about the present and the recent past. It does not make sense, therefore, to follow it with examples from the distant past (British) and the past (Tamil Eelam).  Perhaps the topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph should be changed, and perhaps the paragraph should be organized more chronologically.


 * The sentence that follows these three sentences is an example of the British colonial rulers violating human rights back in the 1800s. Then it jumps to the present with an example of the modern Sri Lankan government violating civil rights.  There is no example for the Tamil Eelam.  I see that the later paragraphs in this section give more examples of recent human rights violations (presumably by the government, but it is not absolutely clear), but it seems that there is only one example for the British (it is not clear whether the "scorched earth policy in Uva province" was part of the rebellion of 1817-18 or not; if not, the date should be given for the latter; then it will be clear it is a second example). – CorinneSD (talk) 19:05, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Updating image
When I click on the following image to enlarge,


 * File:Distribution of Languages and Religious groups of Sri Lanka 1981.jpg

the words in the legend are very small, fuzzy, and illegible. Also, I notice that it is from a 1981 census. I wonder if someone could find a more up-to-date map and substitute it for this one, and add it in such a way that the legend is legible. – CorinneSD (talk) 15:58, 29 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Have a look at File:Sri Lanka - Ethnicity 2012.png and File:Sri Lanka - Religion 2012.png.-- obi2canibe talk contr 13:55, 1 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you. They are both clearer.  However, I don't see them in the article.  Is there a reason for that, or are there links that I have not come across?  I see that there is another map from the 1981 census in the article, making two.  I guess I just don't understand why there would be maps from the 1981 census in the article at all if there are more up-to-date maps.CorinneSD (talk) 19:40, 1 December 2013 (UTC)


 * I can't answer that - I haven't contributed much to this article. Perhaps those who contribute aren't aware of the maps' existence. I created the maps specifically for the Demographics of Sri Lanka article (which also had outdated maps with 1981/2001 data) but I agree they should be used in this article as well. On a related note, the images on this article can be overpowering to readers, particularly for those with 4x3 monitors - there are too many images, there are too large and they are placed in the wrong position. For example, the Demographics section has five images whereas two is more than enough given the size of the section.-- obi2canibe talk contr 21:38, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

Ancient history and interaction with Roman Empire
Reference 53 should be removed as Flickr does not fullfil WP:VER and paragraph rewritten V29 (talk) 22:37, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 March 2014
Useful Links for travelers and locals.

=
==========================


 * Directories of Sri Lanka
 * SLT National Telephone Directory, Business Directory
 * Mycity.lk Directory of Sri Lanka lets you explore the cities of Sri Lanka to navigated & reach vital urban information's whether you are a longtime resident, a experienced local, a business traveler or a first time visitor.

Mycity.lk (talk) 10:02, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

❌ as we are not a directory whilst proposing a link to a website to which you appear to be connected is a conflict of interest - Arjayay (talk) 10:25, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 March 2014

 * drives_on = right

Omkasun (talk) 21:51, 14 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Not done - see this archived topic for why the drives_on=left is correct. Ravensfire ( talk ) 22:15, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Unreliable source
In the ancient history section of the article, there is the following: "Sri Lankan monarchs undertook some remarkable construction projects such as Sigiriya, the so-called "Fortress in the Sky", built during the reign of Kashyapa I who ruled between 477 and 495AD. Sigiriya Rock Fortress is surrounded by an extensive network of ramparts and moats. Inside this protective enclosure were gardens, ponds, pavilions, palaces and other structures. The 1,600 year old Sigiriya Frescoes are an example of ancient Sri Lankan art at its finest." It is sourced to: "Ponnamperuma, Senani (2013). Story of Sigiriya. Melbourne: Panique Pty Ltd. ISBN 9780987345110." If you visit this site, you will see that in fact Ponnamperuma is the CEO of this small publishing company, which has published nothing other than his own work. Absent informatino about independent editorial processes, it does not appear to me to mee the standards of being a reliable source. That said, it is quite possible that the text it supports is sound. I have deleted the reference and inserted a 'cite needed' tag. Can anyone find a more reliable source on this? hamiltonstone (talk) 10:40, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 April 2014
There is no confirming source for the assertion:

", and the first known Buddhist writings were composed on the island."

This should be deleted from the second paragraph, unless a source is available.

69.181.33.116 (talk) 22:07, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Source is available, cf. my recent edit and Pāli Canon. Sam Sailor Sing 09:30, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 April 2014
After being the losing finalists in 5 major competitions in the last six years, Sri Lanka finally broke the jinx to win the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in Bangladesh in April of 2014. They beat India by 6 wickets and claimed their maiden World T20 championship.

mayo (talk) 12:21, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Do you want that to be added? If so, where? Jackmcbarn (talk) 14:25, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 May 2014
I would like to at the large formatting to all Sinhala text, adding ... around Sinhala text because the default Sinhala text is too small. Similar to Tibetan and Bengali fonts.

94.205.101.192 (talk) 14:05, 26 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm not quite sure as to what exactly you want changed. Please be more specific. --JustBerry (talk) 17:10, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

When is/are the Monsoon Seasons?
The article should say when and how wet the Monsoon Seasons are. 94.30.84.71 (talk) 13:33, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 January 2015
DEAD Link Error!

Sri Lanka's cast system was structured based on jobs done by people as follows:

ERROR starts here: (should be removed)

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=aab00d3fe5&view=fimg&th=146f85fed659f1bf&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=b4b8b7d57a03070e_0.1.1&attbid=ANGjdJ-8HDwl7M2ucHmRTS2wZ8pwyyxYuH9DfkJ2jHuwT1IH1DIVsfb7zNZklHjX4GZOS9Cj2IbysTdUyKRhmVSpK47sqxz4qrwGOIIUbessyFVk5F4CC9S3Tr63VT4&sz=s0-l75-ft&ats=1419843996035&rm=146f85fed659f1bf&zw&atsh=1

Error Ends here.

You may want to replace with one of these links instead? (I think the first one is a better link.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_Sri_Lanka

OR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_Sri_Lanka

Thanks 108.180.96.54 (talk) 12:22, 7 January 2015 (UTC) KHI     End User only. Not a good writer!
 * ✅ I've removed the entire paragraph. Thanks. Zhaofeng Li [ talk... contribs... ] 12:45, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Ceylon or lanka?
Accroding to my knowledge Sri Lanka was known as Lanka during 1948-1972 and it was known as Ceylon before 1948. Ariyaratnecol (talk) 15:03, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi, Wikipedia doesn't accept Original research. You can add/change content if you have a source or a reference.-- Chamith  (talk)  15:37, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 January 2015
Ranil Wickremesinghe has sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

174.6.24.5 (talk) 13:18, 9 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. — &#123;&#123;U&#124;Technical 13&#125;&#125; (e • t • c) 14:16, 9 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Comment ✅ by someone else. Information is accurate as per Sri Lankan presidential election, 2015.-- Chamith  (talk)  14:43, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 January 2015
Sri Lanka recently underwent the latest presidential polls. Need to update the name of the new president as its outdated. If this request cannot be granted, please update the name as Mr. Maithreepala Sirisena

Tdevinda (talk) 10:02, 9 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. — &#123;&#123;U&#124;Technical 13&#125;&#125; (e • t • c) 19:00, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Coordinate error music srilanka
The following coordinate fixes are needed for

—93.168.30.133 (talk) 08:23, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * You haven't explained what you think is erroneous about the coordinates in the article (and I don't understand the reference to "music" in the heading, as there don't appear to be coordinates associated with any musical concept in the article). The coordinates for the country itself appear to be correct, given the rounding to the nearest whole degree, but I've tweaked the coordinates of Colombo slightly to indicate a point on land rather than offshore. If you still think that there is a coordinates problem, please post again below, clearly explaining what change you think needs to be made. Deor (talk) 10:09, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Eelam
We have an entire article on Eelam, why delete a single sentence noting that this is another term for Sri Lanka in Tamil? Literally: "An alternative name for Sri Lanka in Tamil is Īḻam (ஈழம்), usually rendered in English as Eelam." Ogress smash! 23:17, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

4th Buddhist Council Historical Error
This is my first time contributing to the editing of a Wikipedia article.

In the section on the 4th Buddhist Council it states that Sri Lanka is like the Rome of Buddhism because the Buddha's teachings were written down in Sri Lanka, just as the Christian scripture was written in Rome. This is historically inaccurate. The writings now considered Christian scripture were both originally written and copied in various locations. Over time churches began to accept these writings as scripture, and as early as 397 CE at the Council of Carthage (a city in Africa), official canonical lists of writings considered to be scripture were produced by church councils 192.231.177.228 (talk) 19:28, 14 August 2015 (UTC)JFM
 * Well, I updated the page as the information there was uncited and badly-written. It no longer states anything about Rome. Ogress smash! 20:52, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 17 one external links on Sri Lanka. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/asi/asi-45.html
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://srilankanheritage.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28&Itemid=32&lang=en
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.resettlementmin.gov.lk/download/SituationReport%2015.12.2011.pdf
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.climatetemp.info/sri-lanka/
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/for_cou_144.PDF
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.parliament.lk/handbook_of_parliament/leaders_of_house.jsp
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://socialsciences-ejournal.org/SP%2012.%20Shathasiri.pdf
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.parliament.lk/about_us/evolution.jsp
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.parliament.lk/functions/legislative_power.jsp
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.ds.gov.lk/dis_sec/dis_eng/District_Secretariats.php
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.statistics.gov.lk/GNcode/introduction.pdf
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.colombo-plan.org/viewPressContent.php?id=93&page=4
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.albanytribune.com/22082011-india-sri-lanka-1921-conference-on-fisheries-and-ceding-of-kachchatheevu-%E2%80%93-analysis/
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.historyofceylontea.com/articles/tea_feat_echoes_plantation_economy.html
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.languagescom.gov.lk/about_us.htm
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://discoversrilanka.com/religion/Hindu.php
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.ugc.ac.lk/en/statistics/educational-indicators.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 13:19, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Error in Tamil translation
The right Tamil translation for 'Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka' is "இலங்கை சனநாயக சோசலிசக் குடியரசு". But, This was written as "இலங்கை சனநாயக சமூகவுடமைவாதக் குடியரசு". This is wrong according to my knowledge. Please check Tamil article about Sri Lanka in Wikipedia Tamil - https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%87%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%99%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AF%88. In all documents of government of Sri Lanka this is written as "இலங்கை சனநாயக சோசலிசக் குடியரசு" ifham nawas 06:36, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 November 2015
Ceylon was a Dutch colony before it was British. "from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon" is not right. During the Dutch colonial rule its name was Ceylon too. Better is: "from the beginning of the Dutch and later British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon"

Sam14569 (talk) 09:47, 14 November 2015 (UTC)


 * That's not correct either. The island of Sri Lanka has been known as Ceylon (and variants such as Ceilão, Zeilan, Seylon) since ancient times.-- obi2canibe talk contr 12:28, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 3 one external links on Sri Lanka. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110930154652/http://www.ices.lk/publications/esr/articles_jul97/Esr-kmdesilva.PDF to http://www.ices.lk/publications/esr/articles_jul97/Esr-kmdesilva.PDF
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070811204127/http://www.expressindia.com:80/ie/daily/19971212/34650923.html to http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971212/34650923.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20131115144722/http://www2.adb.org/Documents/CPSs/SRI/2008/CPS-SRI-2009-2011.pdf to http://www.adb.org/Documents/CPSs/SRI/2008/CPS-SRI-2009-2011.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 12:30, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 4 one external links on Sri Lanka. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20131102055412/http://www.scenicsrilanka.com/history-of-sri-lanka-1948.html to http://www.scenicsrilanka.com/history-of-sri-lanka-1948.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140518080126/http://unplanka.com/ to http://www.unplanka.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140408215752/http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/south-asia/sri-lanka/business-corruption-in-sri-lanka.aspx to http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/south-asia/sri-lanka/business-corruption-in-sri-lanka.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20140714003824/http://www.lanka.com:80/sri-lanka/dance-and-drama-of-sri-lanka-104.html to http://www.lanka.com/sri-lanka/dance-and-drama-of-sri-lanka-104.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 22:22, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Human rights and media should be two seperate sub sections
First paragraph goes on talking about media in general until the it gets abruptly tangented out mid paragraph with nothing to the join two topics. This looks exteamely unrefined. If "media" does not have enough content to justify it's own sub-section, remove it altogether. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.135.75.103 (talk) 19:07, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

Local Government
This article (nor any of the others that deal with the administrative divisions and local government) is not clear at all how local government relates to the administrative divisions of the country. I guess what I'm asking is can a council's boundaries cross the boundaries of a divisonal secretariat? Is local government simple an additional layor over the administrative divisions? --Criticalthinker (talk) 06:40, 23 May 2016 (UTC)


 * The short answer is yes, local authorities boundaries can cross a DS Division's boundaries. The long answer, when Divisional Council's (a form of local authority) were created in the late 1980s their borders were commensurate with existing DS Divisions. However, since then several new DS Divisions have been created but they haven't necessarily created new Divisional Councils. For example, Point Pedro Divisional Council covers two DS Divisions - Vadamarachchi East Divisional Secretary's Division and Vadamarachchi North Divisional Secretary's Division. Municipal Councils and Urban Councils (two other forms local authority) have existed for much longer and are usually a small part of DS Division and entirely surrounded by a Divisional Council, similar to the way a city may be surrounded by a county in the USA.-- obi2canibe talk contr 10:14, 5 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks. So do you think you - or anyone else - can better clarify/seperate the difference between administrative divisions and local governments on this page?  It sounds to me from your explanation that urban and municipal councils are akin to municipal corporations or incorporated cities in a lot of developed nation, and DSs are administrative divisions of the state more akin to townships (Districts, the administrative division above DSs, would be more akin to counties, I think).  So, it would be good to clarifiy that every section of the country is covered by a divisional secretariats, and that urban and municipal councils are option and subordinate to whichever municipal division they are located in.  Just as an example so I understand this, when a population and area figure is given for, say, Colombo, the city proper is considered to be the Colombo Municipal Council like it would be given in most other parts of the world, right?  Also, does the municipal council boundaries exists both in the Colombio DS and Thimbirigasyaya DSs? --Criticalthinker (talk) 20:26, 7 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Sri Lanka is a highly centralised country and the central government undertakes many local services that in other countries are carried out by democratically elected local authorities. Districts, DS Divisions and GN Divisions are used by the central government for administrative purposes. The heads these areas (District Secretary, Divisional Secretary and Grama Niladhari respectively), aren't elected but are civil servants appointed by the central government.


 * Every part of Sri Lanka is covered by a District/DS Division/GN Division and every part is also covered by a democratically elected local authority (municipal council, urban council or divisional council). There is no relationship between the central government's administrative service (District Secretary, Divisional Secretary and Grama Niladhari) and local authorities - one isn't sub-ordinate to the other. It's a bit like federal agencies providing services across the USA event though every part of country is covered by local authorities (city councils, county commissions, board of supervisors etc).


 * The population figures should be the population of the relevant local authority - so in the case of Colombo it should be the population of Colombo Municipal Council which, coincidentally, covers two DS Divisions (Colombio and Thimbirigasyaya).-- obi2canibe talk contr 10:21, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

World War II
There's hardly any mention of World War II in this article, can the part of the lead which claims Sri Lanka was strategically important in WWII link to somewhere where that is demonstrated? e.g. Ceylon in World War II — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.67.250.216 (talk) 03:39, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

GA Review Discussion
This article was recently nominated as a good article by myself. The article nomination was reviewed by Chipmunkdavis, who consequently failed the nomination ; see Talk:Sri Lanka for reasons why the nomination failed. I propose to discuss changes to article here, and renominate it for a good article. I would suggest that we first address: If the source does not meet WP guidelines, the content will be removed, until an alternate source that meets the guidelines is found. The reviewer raises concern regarding the claim about Sri lanka hosting the first human hospital and its strategic importance in world war 2, I seek comments from other users regarding this whether this source meets the WP guidelines. -- Eng. M.Bandara -Talk  16:42, 22 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Neutrality

Media upload of historical photographs of Sri Lanka
Dear editors,

I would like to draw your attention to a media upload that may be of relevance to this page:

The Temminck Groll Collection consists of 2,641 historical photographs taken by the Dutch architect and architectural historian Coen Temminck Groll (1925-2015). The photos were taken in regions with which the Dutch have had historical relations, including countries in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia (see the category description for a full listing). The photos were taken during Temminck Groll's travels and study of 'shared cultural heritage' (heritage of the Netherlands located outside the country’s borders) and mainly date to the 1960s and 1970s. The photographs were digitised by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and made available to Wikimedia Commons in the context of the project The Netherlands and the world. If you have any questions about this upload, or have other media requests regarding Dutch shared cultural heritage, don't hesitate to leave a message at the project page!

Kind regards, --AWossink (talk) 14:53, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Input needed from editors with an interest in Sri Lanka on National Anthem article
The famous Obi came across several 2011 articles that claim Rabindranath Tagore wrote "Namo Namo Mata" around 2013. He found these sources very credible as they were not written by anyone of Sinhalese descent and thus more reliable in his eye. Subsequently he set about changing the article to reflect this view. He did this though it is an established fact that Ananda Samarakoon wrote "Namo Namo Mata" even among Western journalists and almost all sources for 70 plus years. The articles from 2011 that convinced him of Tagore's authorship were light on evidence to back up their claims and were opinion pieces which are not meant to be used to back up statements of fact on Wikipedia according to WP:RS. Further one of the articles is from a paper that has a history of publishing false articles as stated in its wikipedia article. Now that I have challenged him on these sources, he has found a number of articles published in 2015 that have content that is nearly identical and seem to be sourced to wikipedia (the wikipedia article on the Anthem stated exactly what they are being used to source before their publication) which would violate WP:Circular. Need some third opinions on this from neutral parties. See here: BlueLotusLK (talk) 05:54, 11 January 2017 (UTC)


 * I have added a great deal of info to the Talk:Sri_Lanka_Matha page: excerpts from five major Sri Lankan newspapers (2015 and 2016) about the anthem's origins and languages and the links to pertinent the web pages. These sources should certainly enable anyone to write definitive text for that article. Peter K Burian (talk) 14:08, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Etymology of Sri Lanka
Reading through Etymology of Sri Lanka, I see that it says "In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā ("Island")". The reference is more appropriately from the Hindu mythology "Ramayana". Altafrafique (talk) 19:07, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Differentiation between commercial and administrative capital
The infobox distinguishes between a commercial capital and an administrative capital. For a lot of countries, this is a common occurrence e.g. USA, Brazil, UAE or Turkey.

Usually, the commercial capital is the biggest city in a country. It seems like, the article for Sri Lanka, is the only one where there is a clear distinction between both major cities in the infobox. I think it is totally Ok, to mention it in the main part of the article, but not in the infobox. It is already mentioned below the capital row in the infobox, that Colombo is the largest city. Furthermore, for the specific separation between the administrative and commercial capital, there is no source mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Da Vinci Nanjing (talk • contribs) 14:28, 25 June 2017 (UTC)


 * I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is many Sri Lankans would agree with your thoughts including myself. But the bad news is, I am afraid the multiple capitals are officially defined. Check the government official information site > Country Overview > Basic Data, please. Removing this piece of vital information will only escalate the confusion. So I am reverting your edit assuming bona fide.-- Chanaka L  ( talk ) 10:50, 4 July 2017 (UTC)


 * I can understand showing the administrative capitals in the infobox for countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada and Turkey where they are distinct cities, often hundreds of miles from the commercial capitals. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte on the other hand is essentially a suburb of Colombo. Other than the parliament, all of the organs of power (presidential palace, government ministries, supreme court, foreign embassies) are in Colombo, not Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. We shouldn't just go by what official sources say, we should go by what most WP:RS say.--Obi2canibe (talk) 15:52, 10 July 2017 (UTC)


 * The reason that Kotte is the capital of Sri Lanka is due to it's historic role in being the capital of pre-colonial kingdoms on the island, whereas the majority of administrative buildings in Colombo are descended from colonial era rule. I think that Kotte should be considered to be the capital of Sri Lanka (akin to Amsterdam) while Colombo should be listed as the largest city. Lankandude2017 (talk) 23:31, 10 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Sri Lanka has had many capitals. Kotte was only a capital for about two centuries and even then it was never the capital of the whole of Sri Lanka - there were other kingdoms in Sri Lanka at the same time which had their own capitals e.g. Kandy, Jaffna.--Obi2canibe (talk) 10:48, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 26 external links on Sri Lanka. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140531083515/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_01_Amd.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_01_Amd.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/anuradhapura.html
 * Added archive https://archive.is/20120715154617/http://print.dailymirror.lk/features/139-feature/38344.html to http://print.dailymirror.lk/features/139-feature/38344.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053732/https://www.dlib.pdn.ac.lk:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/3125/1/D.P.M.%20Weerakkody%20-%20Modern%20Sri%20Lanka%20Studies%20Vol.%20II%20Nos.%20I%20%26%20II%20-%201987.pdf to http://www.dlib.pdn.ac.lk:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/3125/1/D.P.M.%20Weerakkody%20-%20Modern%20Sri%20Lanka%20Studies%20Vol.%20II%20Nos.%20I%20%26%20II%20-%201987.pdf
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.worldheritagesite.org/tags/tag622.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160305012159/http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2008/11/35271_space.html to http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2008/11/35271_space.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120331091614/http://www.rrcap.unep.org/pub/soe/srilanka_coastal.pdf to http://www.rrcap.unep.org/pub/soe/srilanka_coastal.pdf
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.srilankanwaterfalls.net/about/forests.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140531083515/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_01_Amd.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_01_Amd.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140921054039/http://www.priu.gov.lk/execpres/Indexep.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/execpres/Indexep.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141118180853/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/CONTENTS.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/CONTENTS.html
 * Added tag to http://www.constitution.lk/static_pages/view/26
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141016025856/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Schedle_8_Amd.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Schedle_8_Amd.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141016025819/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Schedle_1_Amd.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Schedle_1_Amd.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090707214924/http://www.priu.gov.lk/ProvCouncils/ProvicialCouncils.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/ProvCouncils/ProvicialCouncils.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.peace-srilanka.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=296%3Aaccepting-reality-and-building-trust&catid=1%3Alatest&Itemid=121
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090524142033/http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2006/10/8947.html to http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2006/10/8947.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.albanytribune.com/22082011-india-sri-lanka-1921-conference-on-fisheries-and-ceding-of-kachchatheevu-%E2%80%93-analysis/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160303213156/http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090710_04 to http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090710_04
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090521113622/http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090518_10 to http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090518_10
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160215151122/http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20100522_09 to http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20100522_09
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120608192339/http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/111083007.asp to http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/111083007.asp
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.rda.gov.lk/supported/expressways/stdp.htm
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.rda.gov.lk/supported/expressways/cke.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221202/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_02_Amd.html to http://www.priu.gov.lk/Cons/1978Constitution/Chapter_02_Amd.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160428015938/http://www.rda.gov.lk/source/rda_roads.htm to http://www.rda.gov.lk/source/rda_roads.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131218191441/http://print.dailymirror.lk/editorial/106-editorial/12395.html to http://print.dailymirror.lk/editorial/106-editorial/12395.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 17:41, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Geographic Confusion
"The Donoughmore Constitution, drafted by the Donoughmore Commission in 1931, enabled general elections with adult universal suffrage (universal adult voting) in the country. It was the first time a non-white country within the empires of Western Europe was given one man, one vote and the power to control domestic affairs."

This is worded very poorly, as Sri Lanka is not in any way within Western Europe.

2warped@gmail.com 68.36.147.128 (talk) 03:51, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree its poorly worded, and the source does not support some of the claims. I changed it to this. "The Donoughmore Constitution, drafted by the Donoughmore Commission in 1931, enabled general elections with adult universal suffrage (universal adult voting) in the country." -- Eng. M.Bandara -Talk  11:35, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Sri Lanka is not the oldest Asian Democracy
1) Sri Lanka is not a democracy and apparently never has been, since it is a republic, a quite different method of government. In a democracy, the people vote the laws (like New England town hall meetings).  In a republic the elected representatives make the laws.  Also I wonder if in a "socialist republic" even elected representatives make the laws, as opposed to the party.

2) Apparently some Ionian Greek city-states in Anatolia (Asia, now part of Turkey) were democracies way back in Ancient Greek History. https://books.google.com/books?id=MQsrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA172&dq=smyrna+ionia+city-state+anatolia+democracy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFzvP_lqjXAhVq4YMKHdjMC3kQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q=smyrna%20ionia%20city-state%20anatolia%20democracy&f=false (PeacePeace (talk) 19:43, 5 November 2017 (UTC))


 * There are two things called Direct democracy and Representative democracy, Right? I am afraid, in modern times there are some logistical difficulties in gathering 14 million voters in a town hall, common sense told me.-- Chanaka L  ( talk ) 04:41, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Concerning the translation of "Sri Lanka"
Do you think it would be acceptable to translate the name as "Great Island"? It would fit in with the definition "1. a great or distinguished person." and also be neutral throughout all the languages. It would also help show foreigners how Sri Lankans view the relationship with the mainland outside politics. Lankandude2017 (talk) 08:45, 14 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Provide your citations first, please. I haven't heard that before, it sounds dubious to me, I am afraid.-- Chanaka L  ( talk ) 11:17, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

A definition of "great" in the English language is "1. a great or distinguished person." This fits in with the definitions for Sri and the word "great" is used in a similar manner to Sri as well. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/great (The word Majestic comes from the Latin word "Magnus" meaning great, which is still used in many European languages). Lankandude2017 (talk) 12:03, 14 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Nah mate, I mean the citations for "Sri = Great" and "Sri Lanka = Great Island". Unless you cannot provide the citations we cannot include it in the article. Cheers-- Chanaka L  ( talk ) 04:01, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Sri is derived from the Sanskrit word Sri, pronounced as “shree” in the Indian subcontinent as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." or "Ms." in written and spoken language, but also as a title of veneration for deities.Although the usage and meaning may change subtly from country to country. The “Sri” in Sri Lanka means resplendent therefore Sri Lanka means resplendent island. Omega 9 (talk) 15:39, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

Suicide Rates in Sri Lanka
The article doesn't mention even once about the suicide rates in Sri Lanka, which is the highest in the world – List of countries by suicide rate. I may add this factual information under the Health Section and Health in Sri Lanka wiki page as well. I have the relevant references as well. As a matter of fact, the article on South Korea mentions their suicide as well in the Education as well as the Health sections. Pen down your thoughts on whether this should be done, or not. Nipun Chamikara  Weerasiri  17:42, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
 * UPDATE: I added the info on suicide rates to the article. I would give the honours to someone else to do the same for the article Health in Sri Lanka, and maybe link the page Suicide in Sri Lanka to the same. Thank you. Nipun  Chamikara  Weerasiri  11:07, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I took the liberty of copyediting the paragraph to make it sound more neutral. It'd be great if we could cover more aspects of mental health in the same section; though, I'm glad that you at least covered the details regarding high suicide rate. -- ChamithN   (talk)  12:06, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated it. Nipun  Chamikara  Weerasiri  02:45, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 March 2018
I spotted some spelling mistakes Ahamed Gazally (talk) 08:09, 25 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Rivertorch FIREWATER  16:26, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 May 2018
Sri lanka came into existence after the birth of Siddhanth Sampath. 2A02:C7D:26EC:BE00:F901:5524:1D9A:2555 (talk) 00:09, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. L293D (<b style="color:#000">☎</b> • <b style="color:#000">✎</b>) 00:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 May 2018
http://www.housesforsalelanka.com/ 2A01:E35:2F09:4270:C0F4:9C57:DC5D:F3AF (talk) 11:44, 7 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. <b style="color:#060">L293D</b> (<b style="color:#000">☎</b> • <b style="color:#000">✎</b>) 11:58, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 June 2018
Please remove Tamil as Tamil is not spoken where I am in Sri Lanka 74.70.26.47 (talk) 11:37, 9 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Tamil may not be spoken where you are, but it remains one of the official languages of Sri Lanka. <b style="color:#060">L293D</b> (<b style="color:#000">☎</b> • <b style="color:#000">✎</b>) 13:22, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

Rubies of ancient Sri Lanka
From The book of Duarte Barbosa: Including the coasts of Malabar, eastern India, further India, China and the Indian archipelago (1967)

"The table which follows gives the value of the Ceylon(Sri Lanka) rubies in fanams, the weights being given in quilates. The quilate is stated to be half a fanam in weight. Thus a Ceylon ruby of 1 quilate (| fanam) is worth 30 fanams in money, while two of ..."

I didn't get the full details because his book was in snippet preview. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.216.83.162 (talk) 12:48, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 31 October 2018
The Prime Minister is now the Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as changed by the president, his excellency, My Maithreepala Sirisena with his right as per the 9th Amendment. Please be kind enough to read the Sinhala version of the Sri Lankan constitution. Sinhala is the official language of Sri Lanka. Ethertoair (talk) 07:13, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. Please take this up at WP:SRI LANKA. &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 13:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Srí Lanka or Sri Lanka?
There is a redirect from Srí Lanka (note the diacritic over the 'í') to this article (Sri Lanka). The Wikidata item for this article (an instance of "island nation") has the normal 'i', as does this related OSM relation. There is also a Wikidata item with the diacritic 'í' (an instance of "island"), which is associated with this OSM relation by the same name.

Is this correctly trying to identify a different English name for the island and the country, or did the Czech/Slovak/Gaelic/Hungarian/Icelandic version of the name (the ones that use the diacritic, according to d:Q854) get mis-placed? It came up as I'm trying to figure out if it's correct that there is more than one OSM relation, each also with point labels, some with and some without the diacritic, and some with the primary (unqualified) name tag in Tamil or Sinhala instead of Latin (English). —&#91;  Alan M 1  (talk) &#93;— 18:18, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

name ceylon from portugese Ceilão is most certain false
Knowledge in Translation: Global Patterns of Scientific Exchange, 1000-1800 CE

countries listed in 13th century Zhu Fan Zhi lists Silan or Xilan as island of ceylon before the portugese, so ceylon must have been based on a local name. 60.54.13.118 (talk) 05:09, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 April 2019
Change "cope up with" to "cope with". OghamTheBold (talk) 12:09, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done <b style="color:black">Nici</b><b style="color:purple">Vampire</b><b style="color:black">Heart</b> 21:53, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 April 2019
Change '207 killed'to 215 killed' in the modern history section to do with the bombings. FireDragon157 (talk) 18:05, 21 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Everything I've seen so far has had 207 as the highest. <b style="color:black">Nici</b><b style="color:purple">Vampire</b><b style="color:black">Heart</b> 21:56, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. signed,Rosguill talk 15:36, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 August 2019
In "Economy" section, it says "Sri Lanka ranks 8th in the World Giving Index, registering high levels of contentment and charitable behaviour in its society." This data is based on the data published on 2015. The 2016 data shows that the Sri Lanka ranks 5th in the World Giving Index. Please see the following URL: https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/1950a_wgi_2016_report_web_v2_241016.pdf?sfvrsn=4 Kanishkegb (talk) 00:25, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done --Trialpears (talk) 16:54, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 December 2019
change casing to causing Dinnu93 (talk) 04:58, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done RudolfRed (talk) 17:59, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

Lead
WP:Lead states, "As a general rule of thumb, a lead section should contain no more than four well-composed paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate." In this article it is fragmented to smaller paragraphs. FAs such as Australia, Belarus, Japan and India all follow this guideline. I think we should too oblige. Cheers -- <b style="color: SteelBlue;">Chanaka L</b> ( talk ) 10:57, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Capital city?
I know that Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the administrative capital of Sri Lanka, but that does not make it the capital of Sri Lanka. See for example: Malaysia, which lists Kuala Lumpur as the capital despite it *not* being the administrative capital. The examples of Bolivia and South Africa list multiple capitals. Does Sri Lanka have a constitutional capital? Encyclopedia Brittanica does list Colombo as its "national capital". Googlemaps lists both colombo and kotte as capitals. Apples&#38;Manzanas (talk) 08:14, 27 April 2020 (UTC)


 * UPDATE: For the time being i've updated this to specify that Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital and Colombo is the executive and judicial capital. For readers coming new to this talk page, the previous version of the article (may 5 and before) simply stated that Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte was the capital city without any mention of Colombo. I've made the article mention both capitals in line with the examples of Malaysia, Bolivia, and South Africa with this version. Apples&#38;Manzanas (talk) 07:35, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

British East India Company
Can anyone dare to inform the person who wrote the main article that the name of the company was really the English East India Company? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.97.173.190 (talk) 06:56, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 May 2020
Early Modern Sri Lanka - 4th paragraph. "Weliwita Sarankara" should be changed to "Weliwita Sri Saranankara" 175.157.41.201 (talk) 14:53, 14 May 2020 (UTC)


 * ❌ per MOS:HONORIFICS. If there's some other reason, you'd need to explain why the change is appropriate. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon &bull; videos) 15:26, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

The History of Sri Lanka wiki contents should be revised and changed.
The history of Sri Lanka

The contents of this wikipedia about the history of Sri Lanka were included some wrong and distort details regards the civilization and history of the Sri Lanka. The references that have taken as Mahavamsa, Culavamsa, Rajavaliya are not the exact resources that should fetch details to this wiki page. These resources are re-written books later days, and the original formats of these are not publicly available also. Otherthan these, there are so many proofs of the Sri Lankan history, which are included in the epigraphs and palmleaf manuascripts found in temples and stone caves and also original versions of Mahavamsa which were written a long days ago,that the above re-written books were written.

1) According to the current wiki content, it is given that Sri Lanka was civilized by the prince Wijaya who came from Indian subcontinent at 5th century BCE, is the first to wrong and distort the history. Sri Lanka had a great civilization before, that many of ethnic groups were living so called, Yakha, Naga, Deva and Kumbhanda were the four of main civilized groups in this territory. They had their own territories in Sri Lanka, which were called Siv Helaya ( Four of Hela) including Yakha Helaya, Naga Helaya, Deva Helaya and Kumbhanda Helaya and each one was governed by a selected King of the ethnic group. For example when the era of Wijaya came to Sri Lanka by a mistake, Yakha helaya was ruled by a King Bamba and Mannar was their kningdom.
 * Wikipedia is an index of data found by verified source. You can't create information on Wikipedia to be a primary source. – NirvanaTodayt@lk 11:34, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

2) Kuweni (Kuwera ethnic group) was a pricess and she was the daughter of King Bamba and she was a Yakha clansman. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Manula.Madushanka (talk • contribs) 12:24, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Prehistory Sri Lanka and Fiction
The prehistoric details on a country should be based on written or physical evidence. It cannot be based on a fiction written by a poet. Do not add fictional story of Ravana without discussing. – NirvanaTodayt@lk 11:31, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

In the same way donot remove cited statements blatantly.Use talk page before cited content removal for user consensus.<span style="background:grey;font:Helvetica;padding:0.4em;font-size: 80%;border-radius: 2em;margin: 0.25em;k; color:blue">Outlander07 11:38, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
 * The cite has been removed by the original publisher because the original article carried unverified information. Check the missing citation. – NirvanaTodayt@lk 11:40, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Out of provided four only one seems to be dead.How can you say the original publisher removed the article as of unverified information? <span style="background:grey;font:Helvetica;padding:0.4em;font-size: 80%;border-radius: 2em;margin: 0.25em;k; color:blue">Outlander07 11:52, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Toponymy suggested edit.
On the Teahouse wrote:

However, the cited source is a general guide to pronunciation of Sanskrit, and does not specifically mention the pronunciation of "Sri Lanka", moreover the article is giving the pronounci8ation in Sinhala not in Sanskrit. Therefore I am not making the suggested change unless a better source is provided. DES (talk)DESiegel Contribs 00:26, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

Dating back 125,000 years
Provide accurate source: “evidence of Prehistoric human settlements dating back at least 125,000 years”. Reference source (12) not found to contain evidence. --Letusbeaccurate (talk) 21:42, 12 July 2020 (UTC)--Letusbeaccurate (talk) 21:42, 12 July 2020 (UTC)--Letusbeaccurate (talk) 21:42, 12 July 2020 (UTC)
 * The paper "Pre-and protohistoric settlement in Sri Lanka" by S. U. Deraniyagala, included in the Proceedings of the XIII congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Prothistoric Sciences, Volume 5 Section 16, pages 277-285, states that "By about 125,000 BP it is certain that there were prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka". JBW (talk) 22:36, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Just came here because 125,000 years before present seems too early. According to a peer-reviewed 2020 paper in Science Advances, "As the site of the earliest fossil appearance of Homo sapiens in South Asia (5), Fa-Hien Lena cave in southwestern Sri Lanka is a crucial locale for understanding the adaptive capacities and cultural flexibility that humans required as they first moved throughout the diverse environments of Asia." In another recent study, the authors report that: "Our analyses demonstrate that Fa-Hien Lena represents the earliest microlith assemblage in South Asia (c. 48,000–45,000 cal. years BP) in firm association with evidence for the procurement of small to medium size arboreal prey and rainforest plants.,". In another recent paper, the authors document, "The results of our new multidisciplinary analyses document specialized, sophisticated hunting of semi-arboreal and arboreal prey taxa from ca. 45,000 years ago, in the tropical rainforest environments of Sri Lanka." . So, it's likely there were anatomically modern humans at least a little before 45,000 years ago, but it seems like the 125,000years estimate doesn't reflect the current anthropological evidence. Suggest that the section describing earliest human settlements reflect the estimate of ~48 - 45,000 years before present. Jesseseeem (talk) 21:56, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Transliteration not allowed?
Why was the transliteration of the official Sinhala and Tamil names of Sri Lanka I added, removed? It is standard practice on wiki articles for countries to have the official native names transliterated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.107.110.24 (talk) 04:32, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Chief Justice of Sri Lanka
Former Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya was appointed to the post of Chief Justice of Sri Lanka in May 2019. In the Wikipedia Infobox it is mentioned that Nalin Perera, who previously held the post as the current Chief Justice. It must be updated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.134.210.52 (talk) 08:09, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 February 2021
In the paragraph "Since independence in 1948, the primary focus of the armed forces has been internal security, crushing three major insurgencies, two by Marxist militants of the JVP and a 26-year-long conflict with the LTTE." Make the word "LTTE" redirect to the wikipedia page of the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" and the word "JVP" redirect to the wikipedia page of "Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna",Thanks. I-help-people-learn (talk) 14:09, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Done. CMD (talk) 14:51, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Mention impacts of climate change?
Would it be acceptable if I insert a sentence and a link to climate change in Sri Lanka in this article? Fiven that Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts (e.g. from extreme weather events) I hope that there wouldn't be massive resistance to mentioning something about it in this article? As there has been opposition for some other country articles, I am asking here first to seek consensus or suggestions on how such a mention & link could be made. FYI, User:PlanetCare. EMsmile (talk) 02:00, 25 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Having a link is a good idea. I see no downside User:EMsmile. PlanetCare (talk) 15:17, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

IvanTheGrumpy (talk) 12:17, 1 April 2021 (UTC)I was astonished that there was no in-page reference to climate change in respect of a country apparently "ranked as the 4th most affected country by climate change in 2016". What drew my attention to this anomaly was the simple absence of references to heights above sea-level for an island that has been physically linked to India ans must be largely low-lying. Having an entirely separate page for this subject is better than nothing, but it is less than transparent.

Semi-protected edit request on 15 April 2021
84.15.183.53 (talk) 16:15, 15 April 2021 (UTC) Sri lanka yra 8 žemynas isidėstęs prie indijos vandenyno.
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. If i am reading Google Translate right, back the claim that Sri Lankan is the 8th continent (kinda hard, since Zealandia has been recently acknowledged to be found as a continent), and also what you want to change in the article. – robertsky (talk) 16:23, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 April 2021
Himanshurd (talk) 16:06, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Pupsterlove02  talk • contribs 16:17, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 April 2021
established_event1    = Kingdom established Himanshurd (talk) 02:38, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

It is the source Himanshurd (talk) 02:38, 19 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Unclear what is being requested, the suggested source already appears in the article. CMD (talk) 02:47, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 May 2021
In the politics section; it says won by lanslide when it should say landslide. 2601:14B:280:E530:890B:75E4:5761:5B9E (talk) 12:19, 18 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:31, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 May 2021
Need to change the president name on this page because the current president’s name is Gotabhaya Rajapaksha. The name on the page is the name of the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksha’s name Expertdeadlygamer (talk) 11:32, 29 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is listed as the current president, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is listed as the current prime minister. I fail to see what should be changed here, perhaps you can specify where exactly you see a mistake? Sam Sailor 11:46, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

++ Point of view? ==

Re: "by venerable Mahinda Maurya" … Does "venerable" violate "neutral point of view" or is it merely being polite to the source?

The photo used on the Food and Festivals section is not appropriate
The photo used on the Food and Festivals section titled "Sri Lankan rice and curry" is not an accurate depiction since it contains lamb. Lamb is not commonly eaten in Sri Lanka. There are barely any sheep bred here.

A plant-based village meal would be more appropriate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:D000:A200:B543:6184:6D53:13F4:EFA1 (talk) 21:30, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Pronunciation
I am Sri Lankan by heritage and my parents are both native born. I have never in my life heard them or any other Sri Lankan person pronounce it "Shri Lanka" with the "shhhh" sound, and discussing with them they are pretty clear it should be pronounced as it's spelled, Sri (it comes from a word meaning "bountiful"). The only people I've ever heard pronounce it "shri" are Americans and other native English speakers who seem to have invented this out of whole cloth or a mangling that's somehow become a tradition; I personally dispute that this should be considered an official or even acceptable English pronunciation though I've heard it A LOT, even from many English speakers who have spent time in the country. That's my opinion. 173.18.195.91 (talk) 17:47, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Suggestion for section on science and technology
Hi, just a suggestion, many country articles have sections or subsections for 'science and technology', this could be a section on this article as well.

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 11:39, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 September 2021
The name of the country

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රජාතාන්ත්‍රික සමාජවාදී ජනරජය (Sinhala)

ஸ்ரீ லங்கா சனநாயக சோசலிசக் குடியரசு (Tamil)

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Then why its called இலங்கை - Illangaiin (Tamil) which was old name as Ceylon. Don't it to be one name for the country irrespective of the language? 2402:4000:1382:84B6:1:0:5E6A:2FF9 (talk) 07:12, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 11:01, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Dsteele77.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:05, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Driving Side
Driving Side of Sri Lanka has to change as"Right" it says "Left" in the article 37.186.35.252 (talk) 14:35, 22 February 2022 (UTC)
 * If you are driving on the right-hand side of the road in Sri Lanka you are breaking the law :-) --Obi2canibe (talk) 15:13, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

What does the name mean?
What does 'Sri Lanka' mean? Sort of worked it out that 'Lanka' perhaps means 'Island'.

Sri means like Honor Don't know what means by Lanka Pamoda Rivihas (talk) 07:22, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Lanka does indeed mean island, but some past names of sri Lanka are; taprobane which was what the Greeks called Sri Lanka, and Ceylon which was what the British called Sri Lanka. Somepersononerth (talk) 07:16, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

Fertilizers and economic crisis
This is being discussed at WP:RSN. Briefly, the Sri Lankan government desires a green revolution, which could spell disaster for the Sri Lankan economy. It's like a house wherein the first floor has been flooded, and the solution of its owner is setting fire to the second floor. tgeorgescu (talk) 08:42, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

Hi,. You stated it is a problem of WP:DUE rather than WP:RSN. The gist is: banning urea and pesticides is extremely likely to blast Sri Lanka's agriculture back to the production levels of the 16th century. Why isn't that due weight? Several WP:RS have reported that a major economic crisis is already taking place in Sri Lanka. Rationing will be introduced if it has not been already introduced. According to The Hindu, "President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods."

Let me repeat it: Sri Lanka, facing a major economic crisis, is seeking to introduce peacetime rationing, under the control of the army. Why would that be irrelevant to this article?

It seems that Sri Lanka adopted a clusterfuck bad agricultural policy, which seeks to return the country to the Middle Ages. tgeorgescu (talk) 11:25, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
 * A couple of initial observations:
 * You have added the same text in three articles (Sri Lanka, Agriculture in Sri Lanka, Economy of Sri Lanka). Now, Agriculture in Sri Lanka and Economy of Sri Lanka are clearly subs of Sri Lanka (and arguably, Agriculture in Sri Lanka a sub of Economy of Sri Lanka), so one would except to see a detailed description in the specialized article(s), and a summary with hatnote in the main page. And all this has been copypasted from Organic farming (where the country is spelled "Sri-Lanka"...). Every change and update to the passage will have to be done in 4 pages, and this will not even happen without hatnotes. More likely, we will get 4 content forks of the same event.
 * A citebomb does not create weight. For every recent event, it will be easy to find 5-10 reports in quality media. But per WP:NOTNEWS and WP:NEWSEVENT, it's not only about WP:V. If it's due for mention here (something which I leave to others to discuss about), 1 or 2 quality sources will suffice.
 * The added text says By end of 2021 Sri-Lanka experienced massive drop in farming output by up to 50% and food shortages. It is still September, so this is WP:CRYSTALBALL. It is sourced to this Aljazeera article (1 Sept 2021), which actually says: tea plantation owners are predicting crops could fail as soon as October and “If we go completely organic, we will lose 50 percent of the crop, (but) we are not going to get 50 percent higher prices,” [tea maker] Gunaratne said. So we are stating the predictions from figures in the tea-producing sector, who strongly oppose the program, in Wikivoice and as accomplished facts.
 * The economic crisis is a notable event, but is not solely caused by the fertilizer ban. It has begun earlier, and as The Hindu (a good source that has disappeared in the new version) puts it: The government’s ban on the use of chemical fertilisers in farming has further aggravated the crisis by dampening agricultural production. (emphasis added). So a holistic account of the current situation cannot not be pinned to a single cause.
 * These are just my first observations. I might go deeper into this later, maybe not. The article has 1,085 watchers, so WP's self-healing process probably will go its way anyway. –Austronesier (talk) 13:13, 6 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Yup, some of the purported facts are actually predictions. But organic farming simply cannot compete against farming using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It is to put it bluntly a pipe dream that it could do that. Organic farming produces a considerably lower quantity at a considerably higher cost. These are facts all experts agree upon. According to, its yield is 40% to 85% lower, and the product cost is 150% higher than in conventional agriculture. That is 4.16 times to 16.66 times less efficient. Allowing for the statement up to 150% in addition to, I would evaluate that at 3 to 15 times less efficient.
 * Besides, Sri Lanka cannot produce all the required quantity of organic fertilizers, so they will have to import organic fertilizers from other countries. The global demand for organic tea is also limited, so by switching to organic tea, Sri Lankans won't be able to sell all their yield at today's prices for organic tea (price would fall).
 * World trade in manure was 0.5 billion USD, while nitrogenous fertilizers were at 23.7 billion USD . So, the market for manure is 47.4 times smaller than the market for nitrogenous fertilizers. I don't see if Sri Lankans would get all the desired quantity of organic fertilizers, even if they were able to pay for it at today's price (price would rise). And regardless of the price, I don't know if the production of organic fertilizer would then be enough for every country which demands it.
 * The conclusion is that all cited experts agree that it is a bad policy for Sri Lanka. They all predict the country will get into trouble.
 * So, yeah, I fully endorse the principle that unsubstantiated speculation should not be presented in the article. But this isn't unsubstantiated speculation.
 * While the ban on chemical fertilizers isn't the cause of the crisis, it might well be the death blow to the economy. The cure is worse than the disease. tgeorgescu (talk) 08:10, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The function of this talk page is how to present the best information based on the best sources in the most faithful manner and with due weight, and not to establish whether things are good/bad/right/wrong. If those predictions are well-sourced, then please present these predictions as such. Just because they might indeed not be unsubstantiated speculation, there is no reason to state them as facts here. Pinging to this discussion as the original author of the paragraph. –Austronesier (talk) 09:22, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you for pinging me - I don't know much about Sri Lanka but since I'm interested in the subject of organic farming, I've spotted this news and did some research which resulted in this paragraph in Organic farming. The selection of sources there should be more than enough for WP:RS on that particular change. Regarding economic crisis, this article from June explicitly warned that because Sri Lanka exports are centered around tea production, any blow to the industry will result in currency collapse. Cloud200 (talk) 14:56, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * So you deliberately present a prediction as an accomplished fact because of its presumed inevitability? –Austronesier (talk) 15:02, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * These are scientific warnings from and before June when the bad was introduced. The other sources are from August and September and describe what has already happened. Cloud200 (talk) 15:08, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * "By end of 2021 Sri-Lanka experienced massive drop in farming output by up to 50%". When is end of 2021 (in my understating somewhere starting Oct/Nov), and where's the source that the "drop [...] by up to 50%" already has occurred? If these are "scientific warnings", they should be flagged as such. And we can meet again at the end of 2021 to report what will have happened by then. –Austronesier (talk) 16:08, 7 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I get your point, the past tense comes from my incorrect reading of this source: "The tea crop hit a record 160 million kilos (352 million pounds) in the first half of 2021, thanks to good weather and old fertiliser stocks but the harvest started falling in July." Will adjust to reflect the downward trend rather than collapse which was predicted in October. Cloud200 (talk) 16:25, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

However note this also: Cloud200 (talk)

"The government’s ban on the use of chemical fertilisers in farming has further aggravated the crisis by dampening agricultural production. Earlier this year, Mr. Rajapaksa made public his plan to make Sri Lanka the first country in the world with an agriculture sector that is 100% organic. Many, such as Sri Lankan tea expert Herman Gunaratne, believe that the forced push towards organic farming could halve the production of tea and other crops and lead to a food crisis that is even worse than the current one."


 * Yup, just one snarky remark: if the organic fertilizer does the job, they shouldn't care. But I'm afraid the organic fertilizer will be too little, too late. tgeorgescu (talk) 17:27, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

It's not that simple. This article provides further details:


 * Domestic production of organic fertilizers does not satisfy the demand after the ban. As a farmer you need a fertilizer for the season but one has been banned "because organic" and the other one is not there. New supply chains need to be established from abroad, which is not done overnight and increases the cost of farming.
 * Organic farming generally has lower yield from the same land area. To supply the same amount to the market, you need to farm more land, it's more labour-intensive and needs more fertilizer, which aggravates its supply shortages.
 * Ban on pesticides means large part of the harvest is lost due to pest. This further aggravates the problem described above and creates even more pressure on the farmers and the food markets.
 * Increased cost of farming increases food prices, which increases inflation domestically, which drives national currency exchange down. Increased cost of farming also makes the exported foods (tea) less competitive, which reduces export income even furthers.

There's a strong positive feedback loop on each of this steps, which is I believe he primary reason for the alarming warnings voiced by the scientific and farming community. Obviously, they do care as the decision to impose ban seems simply suicidal. In good old Soviet tradition meanwhile, the government blames "food hoarding" for the problems... Cloud200 (talk) 09:33, 8 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi, are you denying that Sri Lanka is at the present time going through an economic crisis? Are you denying that the government blames food hoarding for the problems of the economy? Even OpIndia, which is blacklisted from Wikipedia, remarked In other words, Sri Lanka is going back to primitive agriculture. To answer the WP:BALL charge: the agricultural disaster did not happen yet, yet it will happen with mathematical precision. The same as construction engineers can compute how should you build something to resist a magnitude 6 earthquake, agricultural engineers can tell you with mathematical precision that disaster will happen due to the ban on urea. So, the diagnosis of economic suicide is not a hypothetical scenario, which may or may not happen, but it is a certainty waiting to happen. Of course, the Sri Lankan government is still able to recant its plan of transitioning to organic agriculture before widespread famine strikes the land. Otherwise The Great Famine Strikes the Land and every informed citizen knows that it is about to happen. No wonder citizens are hoarding food, politicians cannot hide the reality from the people. The citizens cannot fill their bellies with political chatter and empty promises of a better tomorrow. tgeorgescu (talk)  09:56, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Hi I just wanted to add that the current situation of sri Lanka is not stable as huge protests are still going on as of April 8 2022 with huge amounts of p both public and private property being damaged in course and many injured, and the police have been forced to fire tear gas at protestor for being too violent. All of these protests were organized in social media forcing the Sri Lankan government to shut down social media sites for a day, and imposing curfew island-wide, not to mention the current fuel crisis and economy, and also the currency crisis, Sri Lanka is in debt. The International Monetary Fund pulled out like they did to Pakistan, the people are protesting demanding that the government steps down, however it is impossible to hold an election as there is no fuel to transport the ballot boxes. Somepersononerth (talk) 07:11, 8 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Kindly read WP:NPOV, WP:RECENTISM, WP:UNDUE. I see many issues with your statement.


 * "sri Lanka is not stable": According to who?
 * "huge amounts of both public and private property being damaged": Nope, protests have been largely peaceful up to now. Although some did turn violent.
 * "Sri Lanka is in debt": So does almost all countries on earth.
 * "The International Monetary Fund pulled out": That's news to me, kindly provide a citation.
 * "it is impossible to hold an election as there is no fuel to transport the ballot boxes": LOL, I assume you got this information from your good friend the Election Commissioner?

So information regarding already added in the lead's fourth paragraph.-- <b style="color: SteelBlue;">Chanaka L</b> ( talk ) 07:49, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

Transport section
Currently, there are ten country Featured class articles. See. I also referred four good class Asian country articles, ie; Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. Except for Nauru, none of these articles has a level-one transport section. Therefore I will merge the transport section with the Economy section. Cheers. <b style="color: SteelBlue;">Chanaka L</b> ( talk ) 12:56, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

anomalous text
Howard from NYC (talk) 20:20, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

The following paragraph could be deemed as anomalous, the prose is stilted and passive, also breaking the flow of the section:

"Sri Lanka wants to transition to 100% biological agriculture; the trade in chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been banned. The government cancelled some of these measures, but importing urea remains banned."

Perhaps re-writing the entire section is required; while I am willing to do the re-write, I for one lack sufficient background on the topic and am clueless as to what qualifies as reliable primary sources of fact-rich content to plagiarize. Please advise as to next steps.

suggested new section
Howard from NYC (talk) 20:39, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Q: should there be a new section added, "Economic Crisis of 2020-2202"?

if so it could cover multiple interwoven topics: response to COVID (1Q2020); the impact of COVID patient treatment (2020); fall off of tourism (2020-2021); struggling to get enough vax imported; ongoing realization of consequences of 'long COVID' (2022); slow restoration of tourism; ballooning debt; shortage of 'cheap money' as major nations (US, UK, EU, etc) all raise prime interest rates to combat inflationary trends in their national economies;

text lacks context
Howard from NYC (talk) 20:29, 23 June 2022 (UTC) The following phrase lacks context:

"The constitution defines English as the link language"

Q: what is a "link language" and why is it significant enough to explicitly include in national constitution?


 * A: A link language is basically just a lingua franca. Some countries define national languages in their constitutions, such national languages are called de jure national languages. Sri Lanka is essentially tri-lingual. All government documents, media, and education are conducted in all three languages.

Q: are there other nations with a "link language"? if so, one new article could be referred by all those nations; if only Sri Lanka, then context ought be detailed in this section.


 * A: As far as I know, there is no other country that uses the term "link language", but there are many countries that have defined their own lingua francas. Eg. India - English (as a national language), Swahili in the East African countries. I think this article, List of lingua francas, serves the purpose you mentioned.-- <b style="color: SteelBlue;">Chanaka L</b> ( talk ) 16:02, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Not finding a good explication of the "socialist" part of the country name
The name of the country is "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka." However, the Government section is totally missing any explication of the constitutional socialist nature of the republic that is reflected in the formal name of the country.

It could be that the term "socialist" in the name is a vestigial leftover from the 1960s, and that there is no socialist economic or political system baked into the constitution any longer. Or it might be important. But either way, it should not be ignored in the encyclopedia of human knowledge, where global readers like myself read articles to learn and become educated on a topic. Cheers. N2e (talk) 17:15, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

English
The name of the country is "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka." However, the Government section is totally missing any explication of the constitutional socialist nature of the republic that is reflected in the formal name of the country.

It could be that the term "socialist" in the name is a vestigial leftover from the 1960s, and that there is no socialist economic or political system baked into the constitution any longer. Or it might be important. But either way, it should not be ignored in the encyclopedia of human knowledge, where global readers like myself read articles to learn and become educated on a topic. Cheers. N2e (talk) 17:15, 25 July 2022 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Akitte19 (talk • contribs)

Incorrect grammar?
One of introductory paragraph ends with:

"It has also led to an eruption of street protests, with citizens successfully demanding that the president and the government step down."

Because "led" is past tense, shouldn't "demanding" be "demanded"? I would have made the correction, but apparently this article is written in Sinhalese English, so I didn't want to trouble anyone.

I would recommend the following sentence, with the preposition changed to accommodate the change in tense:

"It has also led to an eruption of street protests, where citizens successfully demanded that the president and the government step down." PhalanxDown (talk) 22:55, 9 August 2022 (UTC)PhalanxDown PhalanxDown (talk) 22:53, 9 August 2022 (UTC)


 * No&mdash;the sentence is correct as it is. ...with citizens demanding could easily (but clumsily) be rewritten as ...in which citizens were demanding. The use of the present participle doesn't make the whole sentence or clause present tense. ...with citizens demanding is stylistically the best of the three options. Koro Neil (talk) 00:00, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Sloppy chronology
''Hinduism has been present in Sri Lanka at least since the 2nd century BCE. Hinduism was the dominant religion in Sri Lanka before the arrival of Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE.'' If Hinduism was the dominant religion before the arrival of Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE, then Hinduism has been present in Sri Lanka since at least the 3rd century BCE, and presumably significantly earlier, if it was already dominant. Koro Neil (talk) 23:49, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Emailed
Shouldnt “and later email” be ”and later emailing” 73.169.184.146 (talk) 05:11, 17 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Done, CMD (talk) 06:24, 17 March 2023 (UTC)