Culture and Customs
Sri Lanka has a rich heritage and ancient culture and no one on a gap year in Sri Lanka can miss the diversity of cultural heritage. Sri Lankans are artistic people who enjoy music, dance and art in everything they do. The traditional agricultural life style made people come together to help each other in work. The gatherings for work created a nice atmosphere for dance and music. The art, music and dances of Sri Lanka were derived from the elements of nature. The temple paintings and carvings used birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers and trees. The colours were all used from nature
Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century B.C and became the core of Sri Lankan culture ever since. In many ways Sri Lankan art is an inspiration of this long Buddhist tradition which in turn absorbed and adopted countless regional and local tradition for thousand of years, evolving to be a unique variant of Sri Lankan arts. Unsurprising, most of Sri Lankan arts originated religious beliefs, represented in many artistic forms such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and so on.
Sri Lankan artistic style varied from kingdom to kingdom along its historic lines, each of which has successively added some characteristic elements, becoming the completely priceless inheritance you will be able to now see during your gap year travel to Sri Lanka..
Sri Lanka Culture The Music is of several kinds. The folk music is created with only a few instruments. The folk songs and poems were used in social gatherings to work together. The Indian influenced classical music has grown to be unique. The traditional drama, music and songs are typically Sri Lankan.
Rice and curry are the staple main course food of Sri Lanka, but the term 'curry' conceals an enormous variety of subtle flavors. Coriander, chilies, mustard, cumin, pepper, cinnamon and garlic are just some of the common ingredients which add flavour to both sea food and meat curries. Fresh sea food - crab, lobster and prawn, as well as fish - is excellent, and meat is cheap. Rice forms the basis of many Sri Lankan sweet dishes, palm treacle being used as the main traditional sweetener. This is also served on yoghurt as a delicious dessert. The experience of living with a Sri Lankan family in a homestay provides gap year volunteers the opportunity to experience traditional and home cooked Sri Lankan delicacies.
As food that is common in Europe is less readily available generally of much lower quality in Sri Lanka, eg: breakfast cereals, bread, cheese and chocolates, a gap year in Sri Lanka is an ideal opportunity experience the local cusines.
Sri Lankan festivals are the best way to experience all that this country has to offer. The most popular one being Kany Esala Perahera which is held in July/August. It is a spectacular pageant with 10 days of torch bearers, whip crackers, dancers, drummers and elephants. It ends in a grand procession honoring the sacred Tooth Relic of Kandy.
While you volunteer, travel, on your gap year in Sri Lanka, you will meet local people, the one phrase that you will hear commonly is "Ayubowan" meaning "May you be blessed with a long life" or "May all beings on earth have long life".