For anyone who's considering coming to Sri Lanka now it's totally safe. There's fuel. The only minor inconvenience would be daily power shortages that might last an hour or two. You as a visitor can have a great time for a very affordable price( due to currency's worth plummeting, which is bad for the locals. But won't effect you as a tourist who has dollars).
I would add that even during the height of the crisis, Sri Lanka was a great place to visit! The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming and I felt safe the entire time, even when the economy was falling apart
What a legend you're. This is so inspiring. Imagine doing this much research on a foreign country, capturing the best shots possible and producing a superb video. Man if you're going to form a team, I would totally join!
Love these videos! As an overseas Sri Lankan, I find it so hard to connect with my culture, but these videos really help me to learn more about Sri Lanka!
Ditto! I only connected with a Sri Lankan relative a few days ago due to my being adopted. Visited near the end of the civil war. Fascinated to learn all I can about my father's country of birth.
In Future Sri Lankan history that should be written Alex Rothman's discovery of Sri Lankan History. It's that much more valuable and informative. Love this series man. Appreciate your effort, Good Luck!❤️👑🇱🇰 PS: I Just wanted to search for some footage of ethnic conflicts. Here I got a full bundle of Sri Lankan history.
There were no "ethnic" conflicts. What there was were the power stuggles by the rulers to rein kingdoms. In 1980s there was implanted terrorist activism by a tamil minority blown out to the world ( and the locals) as an ethnic conflict. Corrupt politicians had an agenda to create conflict, not the masses to live in conflict . But after govt ended terrorism there's lots of hatred spread through planned propaganda.
surreal talent in making documentaries and i loved the comment on the backyards of the houses when you go on the train and the witty way in which it was told. the intro in this series is lit.
Man!! These videos are golden!! This research is next level and the extremes you’ve been to documenting this video is just remarkable and priceless! Amongst all the chaos that the country went through and the hardships you had to face through the crisis, you my friend had done a great job to demonstrate the horrible times of Sri Lanka last year! Respect 🫡
Dear Alex! Wasn't to commend you warmly! You've done an excellent job on the history of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)! I'm nearly 80 and did Ceylon history for my A Levels in 1962 in Zahira College, Colombo. Your 24-minute summary was brilliant!🎉🎉🎉
You so tastefully blend geopolitical history with your own travel experiences. I absolutely love this style of content covering both at the same time. Big fan of the channel since I found it the other day. Please keep making videos!!
Caste system was minimal in classical history of SL. But, during Kandyan kindom when Buddhism started to decline and hindu practces and indian customs started to spread, caste system became strong
hindus had the varna system, not the caste system. the word "caste" is a word of Portuguese origin. the rigid caste system in india did not exist until the british came around.
I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching your video. It provided a clear and concise perspective on the matter at hand, which I found to be highly informative and enlightening. Grateful for the time and effort you put into creating such a well-crafted piece of content ✨️
Hey, I'm a Buddhist and that (3:02) never happened, the Portuguese didn't get their hands on the Tooth Relic. The relic's duties were entrusted with the Sinhalese king therefore it was almost impossible for the Protugese to steal the relic
Woah a properly articulate and informative video on the history of our own country better than our history books narrate. Thank you for compiling this masterpiece🙏🏼
Hi, I’m a Sri Lankan mum living in Melbourne.My kids asked me about foreign invasions.This is the best video I found.you are amazing.and one more thing I was born and raised in Galle.Keep up your amazing work.Good Luck
Wow! I finally stumbled on a channel that covers interesting geographic places you dont normally hear about.nrhank you. I'm hooked. Love the vids . Keep up the good work.
Once again, you nailed nit man. Love the content. You are much better than a Sri Lankan making these content. So much of knowledge Keep up the good work.
03:00 Don't know where you found this story from. As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic was never captured by Portuguese. Edit: Thanks Dilmith. With your input I guess my last sentence should be revised to: “As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic in Kandy is the original one.
@@freecommentor The story goes like this: The tooth relic was captured by the Portuguese and was sent to Goan governor. The king of Burma paid money to get the tooth relic from Portuguese. Archbishop of Goa knew this soon. He instructed the Portuguese governor of Goa to not to give it to Burma. The archbishop got the custody of the Tooth relic, then he crushed the tooth relic in a mortar infront of a huge crowd saying it's Pagan. However it is said that it was a replica of the real tooth relic and the actual tooth relic is the one that's still in Kandy.
The story of the Tooth Relic being pounded to dust is very interesting. This was never taught to us in history class, in fact we still have the relic and parade it around Kandy once a year. At least we think we do. The relic is kept in a gold encasement that the public doesn't get to see inside. It's possible that either the Portugese or the Kandians lied about it at the time. But if the Kandians lied, then that means they've kept up the charade for over 500 years now.
5:09 in ceylon caste system was not strict as in india. It was similar but not strict the ceylon caste system was designed in a way that it protect the cultural, social etc. aspects without being mutated. PS: keep up the great work ❤ love it
wow..impressed bro..❤ thankyou ❤🔥 . P.s That caste system illustration is quite misleading . That shows a method of punisment, kings law enforcer eforcing on a person who didnt pay his debts . Officer would continue load stones to the back of the man until he pay the amount.or else he has to work for the creditor till he pay the debt off.
Your content is so well-made; you deserve more subs than this! It's great to work perfectly through the flow of our history; I have learned a lot from your videos, so thank you. For the following video of this series, I literally cannot wait. Please touch these, if possible, or keep them in mind. Feel free to ignore this comment if I am asking too much of you. It's regarding ignorance. Usually done systematically in the education system. If possible, may I give a suggestion for your next video regarding the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka...Please try to address the fact that schools in Sri Lanka do not even touch it; though "winning the war" celebrations have mostly died out with the hatred for those once war heroes like Gotabaya, the fact that it existed at all is disappointing. The education system for Sinhalese students fails to give correct information, if any information regarding all of the conflicts in an unbiased manner, and even in history textbooks of Sinhala medium kind, they will often refer to Sri Lankans as the Sinhalese, which changes the way we observe our history. Lots of history is plainly either colonisers or random kings who built tanks, both are great to learn about, but modern history is scarce. There's a lot of deep-rooted nationalism in our systems that keep most Sinhalese of the country's future citizens in the dark about everything. The conversation about the LTTE is controversial; I don't think the word controversial is strong enough to describe it, but that conversation has to be had. It is one filled with generations of trauma and generations of misguidance. Sinhalese tend to ignore crimes of the government, and Tamils tend to ignore crimes of LTTE, but this is a rough generalisation. It would also be valuable if you could provide insight into how people we now consider Sinhalese and Tamil worked together in the pre-colonial times, certainly not without their own conflicts. Still, it was never about religion or based on their identity; it was regarding the territory. Post-colonisation, with the emergence of universal suffrage, everything changed. The Sinhalese government discriminated against Sinhala-speaking Sinhalese, which led to the JVP? Anyways, I think the starting point of legislative discrimination against minorities begins with the Official language act of 1956 by SWRD, which changes the sole official language of Sri Lanka from English to Sinhala, ignoring the Tamil language. Especially for university entrance, which I think affected education access. The series of policies based on nationalism to gain votes from Sinhalese led to consequent discrimination against Tamils. This was still a war; there were crimes on all sides. Suppose textbooks were more accurate and tried to portray history instead of the glorification of the majority Sinhalese ethnic identity (which is entirely bullshit as ethnicity isn't actual). In that case, I think we could easier go into acceptance about what happened in the war. Everyone is so busy thinking about which side was right and which was not, but this exact mindset will always keep us at arm's length from understanding each other when we co-existed for so long. Acceptance can lead to so many things. Of course, I am still a student preparing for O/Ls, which is why I still do that godforsaken subject called history; I can't stand it. Watching your content along with studying is far more intriguing. I sincerely hope this is legible. You don't have to do anything. I wanted to put it out there as it is a severe issue of purposeful ignorance, and you are bringing so much awareness about our country; it would be great to see you touch this if you can. Thank you so much for your hard work; I hope this is not rude or offensive.
Mate, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! A lot of the things you touched on will be in the next videos, hopefully I can cover the things you want in enough depth. Travelling through Sri Lanka, I talked to a lot of people about this stuff. I know in these next videos I'm going to be covering some stuff that a LOT of people are going to object to but I think as an outsider I can be a bit more neutral, and I formed my opinions by talking to a lot of people on both sides. It's really reassuring to hear from a Sri Lankan that appreciates the neutrality I'm trying to achieve. But yes, videos on the origins of the war, on the LTTE, on the JVP uprisings and then current Sri Lankan politics are all coming...
Made it Shit Lanka for the most part and left when it wasn't profitable anymore. The British Crown admittedly did do Lanka less dirty than it's neighbors but still did it dirty nonetheless.
First of all, I LOVE your vedios, and THANK YOU for taking about Sri Lanka!!! While the colonial rule of course was not the ideal, I believe the post-independence era was much worse. I am eagerly waiting to see the next video!!!
Hi Alex, regarding your claim about the tooth relic at 3:00, it doesn't align with the history I learned as a Sri Lankan. Could you please provide the sources where you found that information? (for study purpose) the video was great, well done!❤
Mouryan king Great Ashoka son Mahindra and Daughter Sanghamitra has been spreading Buddhism in sharilanka since 259BC.Even Shrilankan king Devanam Tissa has come to Gaya city and got boddhi tree this tree still rooted in Shrilanka its oldest tree of world its real fact.
I stopped my busy schedule for a while and watched the full video. it's unfolded well researched great content through out the video with background soothing voice. All together we should save Sri Lanka with the support of foreigners like you. We should preserve the Sri Lanka as a world heritage.
I live in the US now and I love your work a lot. Keep up the good work. Your work is more unbiased; usually, videos like this have a Sinhalese perspective and are biased.
I think it was a great effort, but still missing a lot because it still doesn't explain well enough "What the Europeans did to Sri Lanka". I understand the issue because I am struggling to create something about Vietnam and go into colonialism and tie it back to the present. Therefore, limiting the scope or reworking the title to create more of a realistic expectation of the video would have been a good strategy. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and I really liked the music you chose. e
Interesting recollection of the era of european colonisation of Sri lanka. However, please dont ever say it the British who unified the country. There were many kings in the past who ruled over many centuries as a unified country. written history suggests first king to do so being Pandukabhaya around BC 400 and the last being Parakramabahu the 6th around AD 1400. However, the folktales about Ravana suggests, it had being ruled as a unified country way before.
The quality of your videos far exceeds the "history" we are taught, mostly in school books written about kings of the past and by word of mouth, never before have I seen a proper recounting of recent events, only your content has done any justice to the matter.
11:48 i don't thats a good comparison because those sri lankans aren't living in the uk as apart of colonial administrative system 11:32 i know you say "who you ask" but Kingdom of Kotte was able to control of the whole country with the support of Ming China. Even jaffna kingdom was just paying tributes i think u should've mentioned it
Before portuguese came , those Costal places were filled with sinhalese villages it was a part of kingdom of kandy, 90% of socalled sri lankan tamil was Brought here by portuguese , dutch , british to costal aria to work as slave workers time to time from india, for various slave purposes (before they were lower cast tamils in india , Sakkiliyar, roddi,.. etc , who later became suicide attackers and were forced to do so by upper cast tamils ) after the massacred of those costal living sinhalese by colonizers then immediately sinhalese villages became tamil villages , after ponnambalam ramathan (also migrated from south india and who didn' t even knew much about ceylon people or culture and british gave him higher possession in government than sinhalese becouse sinhalese were always fighting for freedom against the british ) became registar general changed those indian tamils Identity as a ceylon tamils and nowadays they says they are oldest here , my advice you to read old ceylon gazettes and what was did by Ponnambalam ramathan and arunachalem🧐 and read old portuguese , dutch colonial records 26 years of civil war was created by Tamil Cast system and British , dutch and portuguese 500 years of colonialism and their slave labours outnumbered native people and disenfranchised the identity of vanni and north-eastern coastal living sinhalese.
Such great videos, Alex. Appreciate your information, travel and insights. You could definitely be your own Vox channel! Keep creating more content and keep traveling -- Emma
Great video as usual. Looking forward for your next video and I know this is nigh impossible but I hope you will be able to portray the civil war and insurrection without enraging either party lol
Stupid Portuguese took a replica of the tooth relics made with elephant tusks. Sinhalese at that time were clever in creating ornaments from elephant tusks. They made this kind of replica once even for a Burmese king who demanded to hand over the tooth relic.
That's not True. And the Portuguese were the most Brave, Corageous and Intelegent people of the 15th to the 18th century. They might been many things,but Stupidity wasn't one of them.
Vijayan was not only the first Kallathoni of the island of Sri Lanka, but also the invader who invaded the island of Sri Lanka by doing bad ethnic mingling. When Vijayan arrived in Sri Lanka, Vijayan was neither a Sinhalese nor a Buddhist. The Sinhalese race did not expand in Vijayan's way. Even taking the Mahavamsa data as sources of logic, it must be assumed that Vijayan's descent stops within the Mahiyangana. It is through Gweni.Vijayan Sri Lanka is the chosen island (Chosen Land) by Lord Buddha in 2500 BC to maintain and develop Buddhist dharma and the theory of "Dhammadeepa" is built according to this. This concept is similar to the Jewish doctrine of the Promised Land.The Mahavamsa says that Vijaya and his companions set foot in Sri Lanka on the day of Visakhapurnami, when the Buddha was attaining parinirvana, and the Mahavamsa said that Gautama Buddha, who was attaining nirvana, said that Vijaya and his descendants would protect Buddhism. According to Mahavamsa he established the Buddhist Sinhalese polity. Vijayan kills and crushes the director race in Sri Lanka by using the leader of the director race, Queni. Together with Gweni, two children are born. But when he came to power, he chased away Gweni and her children and along with his comrades brought the women of the Pandya royal clan to Madurai for marriage. But no children were born to Vijayan and the Pandya princess.That is, the Sinhalese race did not prosper because of Vijaya. The banished Gweni-born returned to live in the forests and remained as nomads!!!!විජයන් යනු ශ්රී ලංකා දිවයිනේ පළමු කල්ලතෝනි පමණක් නොව, නරක වාර්ගික මිශ්රවීම් කරමින් ශ්රී ලංකා දූපත ආක්රමණය කළ ආක්රමණිකයා ද විය. විජයන් ලංකාවට එන විට විජයන් සිංහලයකු හෝ බෞද්ධයකු නොවීය. සිංහල ජාතිය ප්රසාරණය වූයේ විජයන්ගේ මාර්ගයෙන් නොවේ. මහාවංස දත්ත තාර්කික මූලාශ්ර ලෙස ගත්තද විජයන්ගේ පහළ වීම නතර වන්නේ මහියංගනය තුළ බව උපකල්පනය කළ යුතුය. ඒ Gweni.Vijayan හරහා ක්රිස්තු පූර්ව 2500 දී බුදු රජාණන් වහන්සේ විසින් බෞද්ධ ධර්මය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට සහ දියුණු කිරීමට තෝරාගත් දිවයින (තෝරාගත් දේශය) ශ්රී ලංකාව වන අතර "ධම්මදීප" න්යාය ගොඩනැගෙන්නේ ඒ අනුවය. මෙම සංකල්පය යුදෙව්වන්ගේ පොරොන්දු දේශයේ මූලධර්මයට සමානය. බුදුන් වහන්සේ පරිනිර්වාණයට පත් වූ විශාඛාපූර්නමි දිනයේදී විජය සහ ඔහුගේ සගයන් ලංකාවට පා තැබූ බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වන අතර ගෞතම බුදුන් වහන්සේ ලබන බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වේ. නිර්වාණ, විජය සහ ඔහුගේ පරම්පරාව බුදුදහම ආරක්ෂා කරන බව පැවසීය. මහාවංශයට අනුව ඔහු බෞද්ධ සිංහල රාජ්යය පිහිටුවීය. විජයන් ලංකාවේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතිය මරා දමා කුඩු කරන්නේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතියේ නායකයා වන ක්වේනි යොදාගෙනය. ග්වේනි සමඟ දරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු උපත ලබයි. නමුත් ඔහු බලයට පත් වූ පසු ග්වේනි සහ ඇගේ දරුවන් එළවා දැමූ අතර ඔහුගේ සගයන් සමඟ පාණ්ඩ්ය රාජකීය වංශයේ කාන්තාවන් විවාහ කර ගැනීම සඳහා මදුරෙයි වෙත ගෙන්වා ගත්තේය. නමුත් විජයන්ට සහ පාණ්ඩ්ය කුමරියට දරුවන් ඉපදුනේ නැත.එනම් විජය නිසා සිංහල ජාතිය දියුණු නොවීය. පිටුවහල් කරන ලද Gweni-උපත නැවත වනාන්තරවල වාසය කිරීමට පැමිණ නාමිකයින් ලෙස රැඳී සිටියේය!!!!!
And in China,India,Japan,all Africa,South and North America,Middle East,South East Asia....all over the World. That's why Portugal was the First Real and True Global Empire in History of Mankind. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Africa, India,South East Asia,China,Japan,and a lot of African colonies 600 hundreds years ago and the last European country to leave. Astonishing feat by any standards. That's why Portugal it's one of the very few countries that can claim that changed History and the World as we know today.
Small error: It was not the Kandyan's who invited Portugese, it was Kotte kingdom. Then Kotte became a protectorate and the last king handed it to Portugese after his death. The Portuguese managed to take over all the other kingdoms one by one but the the Kandians could overthrew them within a very brief period.
Kandian kindom had not given tribute to portugese. Infact even before the kandian era portugese were defeated several times by the seethawaka king(one of which was the worset defeat portugese received at that time en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mulleriyawa) and during kandian era was the same. The problem kings at that time had was not having a navy, (therefore king could not drive away the portugese from lower lands)
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
For anyone who's considering coming to Sri Lanka now it's totally safe. There's fuel. The only minor inconvenience would be daily power shortages that might last an hour or two. You as a visitor can have a great time for a very affordable price( due to currency's worth plummeting, which is bad for the locals. But won't effect you as a tourist who has dollars).
I would add that even during the height of the crisis, Sri Lanka was a great place to visit! The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming and I felt safe the entire time, even when the economy was falling apart
No
yes@@maxenpaxen
This video is giving chills to all Sri Lankans who watch it.! The detail is amazing, I never knew such facts about Sri Lanka!
I know right.
What a legend you're. This is so inspiring. Imagine doing this much research on a foreign country, capturing the best shots possible and producing a superb video.
Man if you're going to form a team, I would totally join!
Wow, thanks man! I've been blown away by the reception to some of these videos and you'll be getting more of them soon
You better know some history of the country you live to avoid unnecessary Wow...
Love these videos! As an overseas Sri Lankan, I find it so hard to connect with my culture, but these videos really help me to learn more about Sri Lanka!
Thanks for the comment! That really is validating to hear. More to come very soon
Read 1805 The History of Ceylon by Captain Robert Parcival you can read PDF its fantastic things about the country itself !!
Ditto! I only connected with a Sri Lankan relative a few days ago due to my being adopted. Visited near the end of the civil war. Fascinated to learn all I can about my father's country of birth.
The significance of the tooth of Buddha is it mostly functions like the Excalibur. Who ever has the tooth is the ruler
Great analogy!
It is for real!even the british had to posses the Holy Relic to become legitanate.
when did the British possess the tooth ?
tooth is not real it was distroyed
@@duleepchanmugam4421 source ?
I just discovered your channel this morning and I’ve binged about 6 episodes already. Good work!
In Future Sri Lankan history that should be written Alex Rothman's discovery of Sri Lankan History. It's that much more valuable and informative. Love this series man. Appreciate your effort, Good Luck!❤️👑🇱🇰
PS: I Just wanted to search for some footage of ethnic conflicts. Here I got a full bundle of Sri Lankan history.
There were no "ethnic" conflicts. What there was were the power stuggles by the rulers to rein kingdoms.
In 1980s there was implanted terrorist activism by a tamil minority blown out to the world ( and the locals) as an ethnic conflict. Corrupt politicians had an agenda to create conflict, not the masses to live in conflict .
But after govt ended terrorism there's lots of hatred spread through planned propaganda.
I've been eagerly waiting for your video. Well done
Thanks for watching
surreal talent in making documentaries and i loved the comment on the backyards of the houses when you go on the train and the witty way in which it was told. the intro in this series is lit.
Dude what a video! You got it all man, I can't watch another clickbait video or "top things to do" - this is my new standard for travel videos🤩🤩
Man!! These videos are golden!! This research is next level and the extremes you’ve been to documenting this video is just remarkable and priceless! Amongst all the chaos that the country went through and the hardships you had to face through the crisis, you my friend had done a great job to demonstrate the horrible times of Sri Lanka last year! Respect 🫡
Great video. All the problems including the economic ones still not addressed
Dear Alex! Wasn't to commend you warmly! You've done an excellent job on the history of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)! I'm nearly 80 and did Ceylon history for my A Levels in 1962 in Zahira College, Colombo. Your 24-minute summary was brilliant!🎉🎉🎉
Wow these videos are really well done! It's hard to find videos delving into the history of Sri Lanka. Thanks and much appreciated!
Dude I’m about to travel and Vlog there on 3rd august your videos are super useful thanks 🙏🏻
This is excellent. It's everything I need and that I have never found in another travel video.
You so tastefully blend geopolitical history with your own travel experiences. I absolutely love this style of content covering both at the same time. Big fan of the channel since I found it the other day. Please keep making videos!!
# visitsrilanka ❤ from 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka......😮 stay in Sri Lanka ...Live like Sri Lankan...Keep Explore 👍
Caste system was minimal in classical history of SL. But, during Kandyan kindom when Buddhism started to decline and hindu practces and indian customs started to spread, caste system became strong
and how did that "spread of Indian customs" happen?
@@devapala879 cuz the king had south indian origins.
@@devapala879 when chola & vijayanagara influence increased
hindus had the varna system, not the caste system. the word "caste" is a word of Portuguese origin. the rigid caste system in india did not exist until the british came around.
@ravanadevadas3770 then explain why people/ groups practiced untouchability and segregation grom other groups before British arrival?
I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching your video.
It provided a clear and concise perspective on the matter at hand, which I found to be highly informative and enlightening. Grateful for the time and effort you put into creating such a well-crafted piece of content ✨️
Thanks for watching!
You have done a good and accurate research on Srilanka...Kudos mate !
Wow, excellent video. You deserve more views
Glad you think so!
I was waiting for this video for the past month. Amazing story and perfectly filmed, Mr Alex you never disappoint)))
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey, I'm a Buddhist and that (3:02) never happened, the Portuguese didn't get their hands on the Tooth Relic. The relic's duties were entrusted with the Sinhalese king therefore it was almost impossible for the Protugese to steal the relic
Exactly
I'm just going based on the history I've read, much of it written by Sri Lankan historians. But thanks for watching and engaging with the video!
The Portuguese destroyed a duplicate.
The king that rule Kandy at that time was Tamil/Telugu descendent, his name Sri Vikrama Rajashingan and then Singhalized as Rajasinhe
@@nero8837 so? The still supported Buddhism and learnt Sinhale as they were king of Sinhale. They did not impose their culture here on the citizens.
your awesome man, love these johnny Harris style videos, i wish sri lankans took such an interest in our culture and history
Woah a properly articulate and informative video on the history of our own country better than our history books narrate. Thank you for compiling this masterpiece🙏🏼
Very thoughtful perspective.
Hi,
I’m a Sri Lankan mum living in Melbourne.My kids asked me about foreign invasions.This is the best video I found.you are amazing.and one more thing I was born and raised in Galle.Keep up your amazing work.Good Luck
Alex you are a great traveller..not a tourist..your videos have great research and depth..
Thanks so much for watching!
Wow! I finally stumbled on a channel that covers interesting geographic places you dont normally hear about.nrhank you. I'm hooked. Love the vids . Keep up the good work.
This is amazing, interesting and very important , 100% accurate
Once again, you nailed nit man. Love the content. You are much better than a Sri Lankan making these content. So much of knowledge Keep up the good work.
So kind of you to say, more videos coming soon!
Superb research and video footage 👏🏼
very informative and entertainment, thank you for the great piece
03:00 Don't know where you found this story from. As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic was never captured by Portuguese.
Edit: Thanks Dilmith. With your input I guess my last sentence should be revised to: “As a 🇱🇰🇱🇰 Buddhist I can confirm there is enough archeological evidence that the tooth relic in Kandy is the original one.
I believe I got that from venerable Sri Lankan historian Kingsley de Silva
I was waiting for this comment
@@Lost_in_Context Hope to give an answer after studying more. Thanks for the fact, which I never heard of.
Well... still I couldn't study further. But watched the video again.
Presidential under pants
Presidential booze... 😂😂
@@freecommentor The story goes like this:
The tooth relic was captured by the Portuguese and was sent to Goan governor.
The king of Burma paid money to get the tooth relic from Portuguese. Archbishop of Goa knew this soon. He instructed the Portuguese governor of Goa to not to give it to Burma. The archbishop got the custody of the Tooth relic, then he crushed the tooth relic in a mortar infront of a huge crowd saying it's Pagan.
However it is said that it was a replica of the real tooth relic and the actual tooth relic is the one that's still in Kandy.
The story of the Tooth Relic being pounded to dust is very interesting. This was never taught to us in history class, in fact we still have the relic and parade it around Kandy once a year. At least we think we do. The relic is kept in a gold encasement that the public doesn't get to see inside. It's possible that either the Portugese or the Kandians lied about it at the time. But if the Kandians lied, then that means they've kept up the charade for over 500 years now.
5:09 in ceylon caste system was not strict as in india. It was similar but not strict the ceylon caste system was designed in a way that it protect the cultural, social etc. aspects without being mutated.
PS: keep up the great work ❤ love it
As if u know abt Indian caste system very much... India is not a island men, it's too diverse than srilanka and so does it's caste system..
Apologists for caste in India similar things
wow..impressed bro..❤ thankyou ❤🔥
.
P.s That caste system illustration is quite misleading . That shows a method of punisment, kings law enforcer eforcing on a person who didnt pay his debts . Officer would continue load stones to the back of the man until he pay the amount.or else he has to work for the creditor till he pay the debt off.
The Portuguese suffered their biggest defeat in the battle with Prince Tikiri, so they retreated to Fort Colombo.
This is excellent video. It is pearl of the Indian ocean. ♥
You have done a beautiful job, Alex Rothman. The video is full of historical drawings and photos make it impressive. Thank you.
Great content. Keep up the good work
Thanks, will do!
These videos deserve more than 50m views.
Simply illuminating!!! mate.
1:47 Love that blur you do to represent that 'purposeful fog to cineamon production'
Your content is so well-made; you deserve more subs than this! It's great to work perfectly through the flow of our history; I have learned a lot from your videos, so thank you.
For the following video of this series, I literally cannot wait. Please touch these, if possible, or keep them in mind. Feel free to ignore this comment if I am asking too much of you. It's regarding ignorance. Usually done systematically in the education system.
If possible, may I give a suggestion for your next video regarding the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka...Please try to address the fact that schools in Sri Lanka do not even touch it; though "winning the war" celebrations have mostly died out with the hatred for those once war heroes like Gotabaya, the fact that it existed at all is disappointing. The education system for Sinhalese students fails to give correct information, if any information regarding all of the conflicts in an unbiased manner, and even in history textbooks of Sinhala medium kind, they will often refer to Sri Lankans as the Sinhalese, which changes the way we observe our history. Lots of history is plainly either colonisers or random kings who built tanks, both are great to learn about, but modern history is scarce.
There's a lot of deep-rooted nationalism in our systems that keep most Sinhalese of the country's future citizens in the dark about everything. The conversation about the LTTE is controversial; I don't think the word controversial is strong enough to describe it, but that conversation has to be had. It is one filled with generations of trauma and generations of misguidance. Sinhalese tend to ignore crimes of the government, and Tamils tend to ignore crimes of LTTE, but this is a rough generalisation. It would also be valuable if you could provide insight into how people we now consider Sinhalese and Tamil worked together in the pre-colonial times, certainly not without their own conflicts. Still, it was never about religion or based on their identity; it was regarding the territory. Post-colonisation, with the emergence of universal suffrage, everything changed. The Sinhalese government discriminated against Sinhala-speaking Sinhalese, which led to the JVP? Anyways, I think the starting point of legislative discrimination against minorities begins with the Official language act of 1956 by SWRD, which changes the sole official language of Sri Lanka from English to Sinhala, ignoring the Tamil language. Especially for university entrance, which I think affected education access. The series of policies based on nationalism to gain votes from Sinhalese led to consequent discrimination against Tamils. This was still a war; there were crimes on all sides. Suppose textbooks were more accurate and tried to portray history instead of the glorification of the majority Sinhalese ethnic identity (which is entirely bullshit as ethnicity isn't actual). In that case, I think we could easier go into acceptance about what happened in the war. Everyone is so busy thinking about which side was right and which was not, but this exact mindset will always keep us at arm's length from understanding each other when we co-existed for so long. Acceptance can lead to so many things.
Of course, I am still a student preparing for O/Ls, which is why I still do that godforsaken subject called history; I can't stand it. Watching your content along with studying is far more intriguing. I sincerely hope this is legible.
You don't have to do anything. I wanted to put it out there as it is a severe issue of purposeful ignorance, and you are bringing so much awareness about our country; it would be great to see you touch this if you can. Thank you so much for your hard work; I hope this is not rude or offensive.
Mate, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! A lot of the things you touched on will be in the next videos, hopefully I can cover the things you want in enough depth. Travelling through Sri Lanka, I talked to a lot of people about this stuff.
I know in these next videos I'm going to be covering some stuff that a LOT of people are going to object to but I think as an outsider I can be a bit more neutral, and I formed my opinions by talking to a lot of people on both sides. It's really reassuring to hear from a Sri Lankan that appreciates the neutrality I'm trying to achieve.
But yes, videos on the origins of the war, on the LTTE, on the JVP uprisings and then current Sri Lankan politics are all coming...
Man took almost 30 years to realize this your only 17 wow
loved it, you're very talented
Wonderful and accurate content. Extremely well researched and nicely organized as well... eagerly waiting for the next video
Thanks for watching and commenting, working on the next one as we speak!
as a sri lankan, tysm for putting effort into this video
The most underrated creator on RUclips! I'll fight anyone who disagrees
Haha thanks my brother!
Very insightful. Thank you for your amazing research. Just a small thing, the description says 1905 to 1948, shouldn't it read 1505 to 1948?
Yes you are exactly right! Thanks a lot for pointing this out
Made it Shit Lanka for the most part and left when it wasn't profitable anymore.
The British Crown admittedly did do Lanka less dirty than it's neighbors but still did it dirty nonetheless.
This is top notch! ස්තුතියි.. ❤
Thanks for watching!
First of all, I LOVE your vedios, and THANK YOU for taking about Sri Lanka!!! While the colonial rule of course was not the ideal, I believe the post-independence era was much worse. I am eagerly waiting to see the next video!!!
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment, hopefully the next video won't be too far away
Hi Alex, regarding your claim about the tooth relic at 3:00, it doesn't align with the history I learned as a Sri Lankan. Could you please provide the sources where you found that information? (for study purpose) the video was great, well done!❤
Mouryan king Great Ashoka son Mahindra and Daughter Sanghamitra has been spreading Buddhism in sharilanka since 259BC.Even Shrilankan king Devanam Tissa has come to Gaya city and got boddhi tree this tree still rooted in Shrilanka its oldest tree of world its real fact.
I stopped my busy schedule for a while and watched the full video. it's unfolded well researched great content through out the video with background soothing voice. All together we should save Sri Lanka with the support of foreigners like you. We should preserve the Sri Lanka as a world heritage.
Thank you so much for watching and for commenting, more videos are on there way!
I live in the US now and I love your work a lot. Keep up the good work. Your work is more unbiased; usually, videos like this have a Sinhalese perspective and are biased.
Wow nice work keep it up .
A balanced video. Well done.
great video
Very good quality lecture videos!
14:21 How is Sinhalese pronounced? I hear SinHalese, SinGalese and SineGalese on this video alone. Which one is it?
Sing-ha-lees
I think it was a great effort, but still missing a lot because it still doesn't explain well enough "What the Europeans did to Sri Lanka". I understand the issue because I am struggling to create something about Vietnam and go into colonialism and tie it back to the present. Therefore, limiting the scope or reworking the title to create more of a realistic expectation of the video would have been a good strategy. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and I really liked the music you chose. e
Interesting recollection of the era of european colonisation of Sri lanka. However, please dont ever say it the British who unified the country. There were many kings in the past who ruled over many centuries as a unified country. written history suggests first king to do so being Pandukabhaya around BC 400 and the last being Parakramabahu the 6th around AD 1400. However, the folktales about Ravana suggests, it had being ruled as a unified country way before.
🤔🤔🤔
Never before heard about portuguese captured Tooth Relic
Where did you found that
very informative
When did you go to Sri Lanka? Thanks for a very informative video
Love your videos man♥
Thanks for watching!
As a south Asian, it’s important to revisit how the Europeans plundered the riches and treasures of our part of the world.
The good people of Sri Lanka deserve so much more.
Pls do a series on Siam! I’m enchanted with Siam and have been for many decades.
The quality of your videos far exceeds the "history" we are taught, mostly in school books written about kings of the past and by word of mouth, never before have I seen a proper recounting of recent events, only your content has done any justice to the matter.
Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy the rest of the videos in the series!
11:48 i don't thats a good comparison because those sri lankans aren't living in the uk as apart of colonial administrative system
11:32 i know you say "who you ask" but Kingdom of Kotte was able to control of the whole country with the support of Ming China. Even jaffna kingdom was just paying tributes i think u should've mentioned it
Before portuguese came , those Costal places were filled with sinhalese villages it was a part of kingdom of kandy, 90% of socalled sri lankan tamil was Brought here by portuguese , dutch , british to costal aria to work as slave workers time to time from india, for various slave purposes (before they were lower cast tamils in india , Sakkiliyar, roddi,.. etc , who later became suicide attackers and were forced to do so by upper cast tamils ) after the massacred of those costal living sinhalese by colonizers then immediately sinhalese villages became tamil villages , after ponnambalam ramathan (also migrated from south india and who didn' t even knew much about ceylon
people or culture and british gave him higher possession in government than sinhalese becouse sinhalese were always fighting for freedom against the british ) became registar general changed those indian tamils
Identity as a ceylon tamils and nowadays they says they are oldest here , my advice you to read old ceylon gazettes and what was did by
Ponnambalam ramathan and arunachalem🧐 and read old portuguese , dutch colonial records
26 years of civil war was created by Tamil Cast system and British , dutch and portuguese 500 years of colonialism and their slave labours outnumbered native people and disenfranchised the identity of vanni and north-eastern coastal living sinhalese.
Such great videos, Alex. Appreciate your information, travel and insights.
You could definitely be your own Vox channel!
Keep creating more content and keep traveling -- Emma
12:19 Ah, yes, here is the moment where the Brits started the mess. Most conflicts today can be traced back to the British Empire.
Great video as usual. Looking forward for your next video and I know this is nigh impossible but I hope you will be able to portray the civil war and insurrection without enraging either party lol
That's definitely impossible, but I'll be covering it in depth and from as neutral a position as I can. But I'm already anticipating the blow back...
@@Lost_in_Context Good luck man because you will need it lol.
As a Sri Lankan
Thank you sir
Stupid Portuguese took a replica of the tooth relics made with elephant tusks. Sinhalese at that time were clever in creating ornaments from elephant tusks. They made this kind of replica once even for a Burmese king who demanded to hand over the tooth relic.
Okay yeah sure buddy
That's not True.
And the Portuguese were the most Brave, Corageous and Intelegent people of the 15th to the 18th century.
They might been many things,but Stupidity wasn't one of them.
Vijayan was not only the first Kallathoni of the island of Sri Lanka, but also the invader who invaded the island of Sri Lanka by doing bad ethnic mingling.
When Vijayan arrived in Sri Lanka, Vijayan was neither a Sinhalese nor a Buddhist. The Sinhalese race did not expand in Vijayan's way. Even taking the Mahavamsa data as sources of logic, it must be assumed that Vijayan's descent stops within the Mahiyangana. It is through Gweni.Vijayan Sri Lanka is the chosen island (Chosen Land) by Lord Buddha in 2500 BC to maintain and develop Buddhist dharma and the theory of "Dhammadeepa" is built according to this. This concept is similar to the Jewish doctrine of the Promised Land.The Mahavamsa says that Vijaya and his companions set foot in Sri Lanka on the day of Visakhapurnami, when the Buddha was attaining parinirvana, and the Mahavamsa said that Gautama Buddha, who was attaining nirvana, said that Vijaya and his descendants would protect Buddhism. According to Mahavamsa he established the Buddhist Sinhalese polity. Vijayan kills and crushes the director race in Sri Lanka by using the leader of the director race, Queni. Together with Gweni, two children are born. But when he came to power, he chased away Gweni and her children and along with his comrades brought the women of the Pandya royal clan to Madurai for marriage. But no children were born to Vijayan and the Pandya princess.That is, the Sinhalese race did not prosper because of Vijaya. The banished Gweni-born returned to live in the forests and remained as nomads!!!!විජයන් යනු ශ්රී ලංකා දිවයිනේ පළමු කල්ලතෝනි පමණක් නොව, නරක වාර්ගික මිශ්රවීම් කරමින් ශ්රී ලංකා දූපත ආක්රමණය කළ ආක්රමණිකයා ද විය.
විජයන් ලංකාවට එන විට විජයන් සිංහලයකු හෝ බෞද්ධයකු නොවීය. සිංහල ජාතිය ප්රසාරණය වූයේ විජයන්ගේ මාර්ගයෙන් නොවේ. මහාවංස දත්ත තාර්කික මූලාශ්ර ලෙස ගත්තද විජයන්ගේ පහළ වීම නතර වන්නේ මහියංගනය තුළ බව උපකල්පනය කළ යුතුය. ඒ Gweni.Vijayan හරහා ක්රිස්තු පූර්ව 2500 දී බුදු රජාණන් වහන්සේ විසින් බෞද්ධ ධර්මය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට සහ දියුණු කිරීමට තෝරාගත් දිවයින (තෝරාගත් දේශය) ශ්රී ලංකාව වන අතර "ධම්මදීප" න්යාය ගොඩනැගෙන්නේ ඒ අනුවය. මෙම සංකල්පය යුදෙව්වන්ගේ පොරොන්දු දේශයේ මූලධර්මයට සමානය. බුදුන් වහන්සේ පරිනිර්වාණයට පත් වූ විශාඛාපූර්නමි දිනයේදී විජය සහ ඔහුගේ සගයන් ලංකාවට පා තැබූ බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වන අතර ගෞතම බුදුන් වහන්සේ ලබන බව මහාවංශයේ සඳහන් වේ. නිර්වාණ, විජය සහ ඔහුගේ පරම්පරාව බුදුදහම ආරක්ෂා කරන බව පැවසීය. මහාවංශයට අනුව ඔහු බෞද්ධ සිංහල රාජ්යය පිහිටුවීය. විජයන් ලංකාවේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතිය මරා දමා කුඩු කරන්නේ අධ්යක්ෂක ජාතියේ නායකයා වන ක්වේනි යොදාගෙනය. ග්වේනි සමඟ දරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු උපත ලබයි. නමුත් ඔහු බලයට පත් වූ පසු ග්වේනි සහ ඇගේ දරුවන් එළවා දැමූ අතර ඔහුගේ සගයන් සමඟ පාණ්ඩ්ය රාජකීය වංශයේ කාන්තාවන් විවාහ කර ගැනීම සඳහා මදුරෙයි වෙත ගෙන්වා ගත්තේය. නමුත් විජයන්ට සහ පාණ්ඩ්ය කුමරියට දරුවන් ඉපදුනේ නැත.එනම් විජය නිසා සිංහල ජාතිය දියුණු නොවීය. පිටුවහල් කරන ලද Gweni-උපත නැවත වනාන්තරවල වාසය කිරීමට පැමිණ නාමිකයින් ලෙස රැඳී සිටියේය!!!!!
You Sir, are a scholar Sir!!
Now no 1 island to travel this year and for the past few years sri lanka is in top 10 position in the world to travel for leasure..
And in China,India,Japan,all Africa,South and North America,Middle East,South East Asia....all over the World.
That's why Portugal was the First Real and True Global Empire in History of Mankind.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Africa, India,South East Asia,China,Japan,and a lot of African colonies 600 hundreds years ago and the last European country to leave.
Astonishing feat by any standards.
That's why Portugal it's one of the very few countries that can claim that changed History and the World as we know today.
Thanks,
3:10 - This is myth. Tooth of Buddhah still keeps safe in Sri Lanka.
So... it turned into a smaller version of california?
Europeans did lot of atrocities also. Should ve included that part also. Anyhow great effort creating this video
I thought I had included a fair bit of negative things but I'm interested, which were the atrocities you are thinking of?
Ceylon was the name that the Portuguese gave to that beautiful and rich island.
I am a Sri Lankan, you have studied the history of our country more than the people of Sri Lanka, you are a person to be admired. Greetings bro
Amazing.
Glad you think so!
Nothing like Sri Lankan history. All backstabbing and in-fighting. Funny thing is, it still happens.
Small error: It was not the Kandyan's who invited Portugese, it was Kotte kingdom. Then Kotte became a protectorate and the last king handed it to Portugese after his death. The Portuguese managed to take over all the other kingdoms one by one but the the Kandians could overthrew them within a very brief period.
Kandian kindom had not given tribute to portugese. Infact even before the kandian era portugese were defeated several times by the seethawaka king(one of which was the worset defeat portugese received at that time en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mulleriyawa) and during kandian era was the same. The problem kings at that time had was not having a navy, (therefore king could not drive away the portugese from lower lands)
Shaped? you mean 'exploited' ?
great ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Sri Lankan cinnamon was not only highly regarded, IT IS the place of origin of the spice itself. Thought that should be mentioned!
Such an educated traveller
I'm Sri Lankan and I go to St. Joseph's
Proud from SriLanka 😊