Sinhala Script

One of Sri Lanka's official scripts, used by ~16 million Sinhalese. Introduced from the Brahmic tradition with Buddhism in the 3rd century BC. The script's official history is part of the background to the Tamil-Sinhalese linguistic conflict — one cause of Sri Lanka's civil war (1983–2009). One of the world's most rounded scripts, the circular forms resulted from avoiding straight lines when writing on palm leaves.