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Theravada Buddhism is the official religion of Sri Lanka, with about 70.2% of the country's population as followers. Arahath Mahinda, son of Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka, led the mission to Sri Lanka in 246 BCE when he converted the Sri Lankan king, Devanampiya Tissa, to Buddhism.
Theravada Buddhism is the largest and official religion of Sri Lanka, practiced by 70.2% of the population as of 2012. [2] Practitioners of Sri Lankan Buddhism can be found amongst the majority Sinhalese population as well as among the minority ethnic groups.
TheravÄda is the official religion of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Cambodia, and the main dominant Buddhist variant found in Laos and Thailand. It is practiced by minorities in India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, North Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Hinduism is the dominant religion in India and Nepal and is the second-largest religion in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. Indo-Aryan migrations brought the Indo-Aryans to South Asia, where they compiled and composed the Vedic corpus during the Vedic period (ca. 1500-500 BCE) across present-day Northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Buddhism is the majority religion in Cambodia, Japan, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, and Mongolia. It is also the most followed religion in certain nations or territories without any majority religion, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, [4] Macau, [5] [2] Singapore, [6] Taiwan, Vietnam, [7] and Kalmykia in Russia.
Islam is the third largest religion in Sri Lanka, with about 9.7 percent of the total population following the religion. [3] [a] About 1.9 million Sri Lankans adhere to Islam as per the Sri Lanka census of 2012. [4] [3] The majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the Eastern Province of the island.
[17] [18] Islam is the dominant religion in half of the South Asian countries (Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). It is the second largest religion in India and third largest in Sri Lanka and Nepal. On the Indian subcontinent, Islam first appeared in the southwestern tip of the peninsula, in today's Kerala state.
The first king of Sri Lanka, Vijaya, was the son of Sinhabahu, the ruler of Sinhapura. Some versions suggest Vijaya was the grandson of Sinhabahu. [31] [32] According to the Mahavamsa and other historical sources, King Vijaya arrived on the island of Tambapanni (Sri Lanka) and gave rise to the Sinhalese.