Other Names
Other names include the Tamil İlanare, the Arabic Tenerism ("isle of delight"), and the Chinese Pa-Outchow ("isle of gems"). The island has also earned at least two nicknames. First, it came to be known as the "Island of Teaching" due to the large number of Greeks and Chinese who travelled to the island to learn of Buddhism. Second, due to its shape and location in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of India, some also refer to the island as "India's teardrop" It is also known as the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean.'
Read more about this topic: Names Of Sri Lanka
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“I do not see why, since America and her autumn woods have been discovered, our leaves should not compete with the precious stones in giving names to colors; and, indeed, I believe that in course of time the names of some of our trees and shrubs, as well as flowers, will get into our popular chromatic nomenclature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All nationalisms are at heart deeply concerned with names: with the most immaterial and original human invention. Those who dismiss names as a detail have never been displaced; but the peoples on the peripheries are always being displaced. That is why they insist upon their continuity—their links with their dead and the unborn.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)