The Last Sri Lankan Princess in Quanzhou (A Study of Sri Lankan Royal Family Tombs in Quanzhou, South China)

The relationship between Sri Lanka and China goes back to as early as the first century AD, and has been continued up to the present. Due to the location of Sri Lanka in the maritime trade route of Indian Ocean (the Silk Road of the Sea in the Indian Ocean), the country was subjected to receive various kinds of foreign influences in the ancient time. Especially political influences were received by the way of maritime trade and missions of the Ming Dynasty of China and those long distance missions were led by Admiral Zheng He. On the way of the Indian Ocean, he has touched to the ports of Sri Lanka in several times and made relationship with the king of the island. As the result of the dispute, the king and the royal family of Kotte was captured and brought to the court of Beijing as the prisoners by Zheng He. However, the court had treated them as the royal family and sent back to Sri Lanka. Although some of them returned to Sri Lanka, one of the royal family was adapted to Chinese society in Quanzhou of Fujian province of South China. "Xu Yin'e" (sic) is representing as the last princess of the missing royal family. However, the origin of the Sri Lankan royal family is still not clear. According to the archaeological research, there were unearthed tombs and a temple of the Sri Lankan royal family in Quanzhou. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the new evidences of Sri Lankan royal family of Quanzhou the ancient city of China.