Click to see a larger map

The teardrop-shaped island of Sri Lanka is separated from India by the Palk Strait. Rugged central uplands give way to fertile plains in the north. The majority Sinhalese, an Indo-Aryan people originating in northern India, have a Buddhism-based identity. Independent since 1948, Sri Lanka suffered from 1983 from a protracted civil war involving the attempted secession of the minority (and mainly Hindu) Tamils in the north and east.