Sinhalese people
ethnic group of Sri Lanka
The Sinhalese people (Sinhala: සිංහල ජනතාව, romanised: Sinhala Janathāva), also known as the Sinhalese or Sinhala people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They are the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, constituting about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number more than 15.2 million.
The Sinhalese people speak Sinhala, an insular Indo-Aryan language. Sinhalese people are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, although a significant minority of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity and other religions. Since 1815, Sinhalese people were broadly divided into two subgroups: the up-country Sinhalese of the central mountainous regions, and the low-country Sinhalese of the coastal regions. Although both groups speak the same language, they are distinguished as they observe different cultural customs.
According to the Mahavamsa, a Pali chronicle compiled by Buddhist monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese descend from settlers who immigrated to the island circa 543 BCE, from the legendary kingdom of Sinhapura led by Prince Vijaya, who mixed with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom. Genetic analyses have found genetic affinity between the Sinhalese and South Indian populations, as well as links to other Indian populations such as the Maratha.
Etymology
There are a couple of explanations for the word Sinhala. Sinhala may be considered a combination of sinha (සිංහ), literally "lion", and la (ල), for "slayer" or "taker", hence Sinhala may mean "lion-slayer".
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q932244. The Library of Congress control number is sh85122872. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1815.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sinhalese people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.