The Historical Evolution of Recreation Activities in Sri Lanka

Definition of Recreation and Recreation Activities

21st century every human being is busy running their own rat race 24x7 round the clock and hardly find time to take a break and look around. In such cases recreation activities are needed to give the human brain a well-deserved break to rejuvenate energy for better functioning. Therefore, let us see what does it mean by recreation?

Definition of Recreation:

Recreation covers broadly any pursuit taken up during leisure time other than those to which people have a high commitment (overtime, second job, home study and various maintenance jobs around the house). Tribe (2005) In simple recreation means the activities that take place during a free or leisure time as a hobby or even in commercial aspect. Recreation is time based as its done during a leisure time, meaning a free time where one doesn’t have any other activity to be carried out. Recreational Activities include home-based activities such as reading and watching television, and those outside the home including sports, theatre, cinema and tourism. Recreation activities are widely spread across the world and are accessible to all age groups from toddlers to elders which each individual liking, capacity to withstand challenge and mainly the purpose of engaging in such activity what they want to achieve end of the day.

Geographical Importance for Recreation Activities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean, which lies off the south-eastern tip of the Indian Subcontinent. Colombo is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, and is situated on the western coast of the island being the largest. Sri Lanka spans 435 km’s north to the south and 224 km’s east to the west, covering a total area of 65,610 sq.km’s.
Sri Lanka has a strategical advantage over sea and air space intersection due to its unique placing in the Indian Ocean. This also has led to gain advantage among the Far east countries (China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia) and continent of Europe and making sri lanka an international giant in logistic supply.

Recreational Activities in Ancient Sri Lanka

With the immigration of the aryan’s to sri lanka towns and cities were constructed, later became kingdoms. Hence sri lanka is known for its eminent specialized knowledge on construction of cities. It is evident in buildings such as Sigiriya and yapahuwa. These kingdoms were shifted from one place to another considering the threats by other invaders to sri lanka. The mesmerized fact in ancient sri lanka Is that all cities and towns were planned competently and constructed for beautification of the city and for recreational purposes.

Many urban landscapes used flora and water for its recreation purposes. Garden sports, Water sports(Boat racing, spear fishing, swimming) and Blood sports( Mainly Animal Hunting, Wrestling also known as Angampora) were mainly considered to be the out door active recreation activities during ancient sri lanka, making use of open water ponds, gardens, pavilions and island gradens. The only recreational city constructed in ancient Ceylon with town beautification, leisure and amusement is the Rock Fortress of “Sigiriya” which is considered as a world heritage. While constructing ancient citadels, the other most important fact they had considered is Recreational activities.