Despite all temptations, Sri Lanka has never been very good at merely waiting for the end of the world. But why is that, and what does it have to do with barbarians and a Hollywood monk?

No other thing, except perhaps Buddhism itself, water technology or Sri Lanka’s island status, has had so marked an impact on the country as cinnamon. But what did Michael Ondaatje have to say about it that will set you free?

The destruction of the 1500-year-old Anuradhapura kingdom fell due – but was it destroyed by problems of its own making – or by a force so overwhelming that no power could ever hope to withstand it?

The Lambakanna king, Sena II, pulled victory from disaster. Sri Lanka became one of the dominant powers in the Indian Ocean. So how did it get from there to the doors of desolation in barely 125 years?

How was it that, even as life seemed at its easiest, the plush and kind middle years of later Lambakanna rule almost came to an abrupt halt - courtesy of an Indian invasion?

King Manavanna was to restore the fortunes of the returning Lankbranaka dynasty, and his succeeding sons were to rule as if the kingdom merited nothing but the best. But was the Anuradhapura kingdom really that safe?

As the Lambakanna kings retook their throne for a second innings, how was it that rice, that most ordinary of all crops, was to power the last glorious golden age of the one-island state?

Lord Buddha is famous for his many-faceted hand gestures - or mudras. But which were the main ones, and what do they actually mean?

Under its Moriyan kings, Sri Lanka soared to unequalled heights of artistic excellence. New ideas and philosophies had flourished. So why was it that – overall – their rule had been, in the last analysis, disastrous?

Few other countries are currently producing as much world-class literature as Sri Lanka. So which novels should you read?