Sri Lanka, which is struggling with its worst economic crisis in memory and mounting anti-government protests, announced on Tuesday a default on its $51 billion foreign debt.
Here are five things to know about the South Asian island nation, which emerged from a brutal civil war in 2009.
- Mostly Buddhist -
The teardrop-shaped island off the southern tip of India is separated from the Indian sub-continent by a shallow strip of sea that is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) wide at its narrowest point.
The island has a population of 21.9 million, according to the World Bank in 2020.
Seventy percent are Buddhist, mostly ethnic Sinhalese. Around 12 percent are Hindus, mostly Tamils, who mainly live in the north and northeast of the island.
Muslims make up 10 percent of the population and Christians about seven percent.
- Formerly Ceylon -
A strategic point on early maritime trade routes, the Indian Ocean island was controlled by Portugal (1505-1656) then the Netherlands (1656-1796) before becoming a British colony called Ceylon in 1815.
The last Sinhalese king reigned from 1798 to 1815.
After more than 130 years of British rule, the island gained independence in 1948.
In 1972, it became a republic and adopted the name Sri Lanka.
- Tamil Tigers -
In 1972, Tamil rebels launched an armed struggle for a separate homeland that triggered a 37-year civil war estimated to have claimed up to 100,000 lives.
Suicide bombers from the main insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killed former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.
After a ceasefire failed, the government crushed the Tigers in an all-out military offensive in 2009, killing their founder and leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The operation was criticised for its brutality, with troops accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians.
Today's president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the top defence official when the rebels were defeated under his brother -- former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is now prime minister.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has demanded an independent investigation into possible war crimes, which Sri Lanka's government denies.
- Jihadist attacks -
Sri Lanka was about to mark a decade since the end of the conflict when its capital was struck by new terror attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019.
A series of suicide bombings on three packed churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019 killed 279 people, including at least 45 foreigners, and injured more than 500 people.
The jihadist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which reinforced resentment against the Muslim minority on the island.
- Debt default -
The Easter bombings battered the paradise island's crucial tourism industry and the Covid-19 pandemic made things worse, drying up remittances from abroad.
The government imposed drastic currency restrictions and banned numerous imports to try to conserve its dwindling foreign currency reserves and use them to service its debt.
But the resulting food and fuel shortages, combined with long electricity blackouts, sent demonstrators into the streets calling for the government to resign.
On Tuesday, the finance ministry announced it was suspending payments on its $51 billion external debt as a "last resort" ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout.