How did we get here?
Sri Lanka’s story, 1505–2024
අද තත්ත්වයට අප පැමිණියේ කෙසේද?இன்றைய நிலைக்கு நாம் எப்படி வந்தோம்?
Slide through the years and watch the island change, trace any event back to its causes, or open the people, parties and places at the centre of the story. Every event lists its sources.
Watch the island change
Drag the slider or press play. Pins drop where things happened, and coloured areas show who was where.
Striped areas are a simplified picture of where the LTTE held most territory, shown by district; real front lines moved often, and LTTE areas in the east are not shown.
Explore more
Each tool looks at the same history from a different angle.
Follow the string back to the causes
Pick a question or any event. Each card shows what led to it, and you can keep pulling the string further back.
The string runs from the oldest cause to the event you picked.
Who, what and where
Open any person, party or armed group, law or agreement, key term or place to see a profile, its sources and every event connected to it. Names and terms inside the event text open the same profiles.
Who allied with, fought or talked to whom
Drag the year to see which relationships were active. Tap anyone to highlight their links and show their names, tap again to open their profile, and tap an empty space or Reset to start over. On a phone, swipe sideways to see the whole map.
Tap a name to see its links.
Corrections and changes
History is contested, and we will get things wrong. Soon you’ll be able to tell us about mistakes with “Suggest a correction” on any event or profile. Every correction we make is listed here.
Where the facts come from
Every source used for the events on this site. Each event also lists its own sources underneath it.
How sure are we?
Every event carries one of five labels. Tap a label anywhere on the site to see why it was given.