Sri Lanka, in full, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic in the India an Ocean, lying off the southeastern tip of the Indian subcontinent.
Sri Lanka is an island that is captivating both by its name - that means Land of Splendour - and by what it actually offers to the visitor. The attractions of Sri Lanka - known to the world by several names from ancient days - have been known through the centuries. While legend has it that this is the Lanka of the Ramayana, it is the name by which it has always been known to its own people.
The Romans called it Taprobane, marked on Ptolemy's map of the world, derived from "Tambapanni" - land of copper coloured earth and lotuses given by the first known migrants from North India. The Arab traders of the past called in Serentivu and Serendib - island of delight, which gave birth to the English word Serendipity - the prospect of discovering pleasant surprises. The Portuguese corrupted this to Ceilao; the Dutch to Ceilan and the British called it Ceylon. But the people of the East, as distant as Indonesia, always knew the island by the name given by its own people - Sri Lanka.
