Want to know more about sex in Sri Lanka?
The island nation of Sri Lanka is a diverse country comprising arid plains, rich rainforests, sandy beaches and luscious highlands. Famous for its ancient culture, the country is more economically stable and advanced than any of its South Asian neighbours. With a strong and developing GDP, Sri Lanka combines a forward thinking modernity with conservative traditionalism.
In this guide, we take a look at the laws on prostitution, pornography and same-sex activity as well as covering the social attitude towards sex in Sri Lanka.
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Sex in Sri Lanka
Formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka has a population of around 21.4 million people and is a socially conservative nation. Known for its a reputation for having high standards of morality, 70% of the population are Buddhist. It is a popular tourist destination and attracts over 2 million visitors each year.
In common with most of their neighbouring South Asian counties, sex is a taboo subject in Sri Lanka, even in families and sex education in schools is quite poor. The result is generation after generation of Sri Lankans who have had to rely on experimentation to gain knowledge, often resulting in teen pregnancies and the spread of STIs.
According to a study undertaken by the University of Sydney, the average age of young Sri Lankans losing their virginity was 13.5 years (boys) and 18.5 years (girls) with 5% having had a sexual experience before the age of 10. The same survey also revealed that of the group surveyed (aged 18-24 years):
- 86% of Sri Lankan men had had a homosexual experience compared to just 4% of Sri Lankan women.
- 35% of men had had two to five sexual partners whilst 28% had more than five.
A similar survey taken of university students (aged 18-20) found 55% of males to be sexually active and just 28% of girls. This disparity in numbers suggests that either the guys are experimenting with sex workers and/or each other or that the same girls are being promiscuous with multiple partners. This is corroborated by further evidence that:
- One in five Sri Lankan male students had experienced inter-femoral (between the thighs) homosexual intercourse.
- One in five Sri Lankan male students had experienced anal homosexual intercourse.
- 13% Sri Lankan male students had experienced oral sex with another man.
In keeping with its moralistic duty, the government has tight restrictions on prostitution and pornography (see below) which even extends to a ban on using scantily clad models in advertising. In fact, sex in general is not widely visible even though you can find it in most of the cities and tourist resorts.
Adult Industry in Sri Lanka
Pornography is banned in Sri Lanka and the possession, distribution, production and sale of all kinds of adult content is illegal. In recent years the government has committed to a series of crackdowns on prostitution and pornography with a controversial series of ‘witch hunts’ to identify the performers in amateur porn clips found online. This is in addition to the blocking of hundreds of porn sites and the arrests of around 80 Sri Lankan porn stars in 2009. Found guilty, the actors were sentenced to two years in prison, sizeable fines and community service.
As a result of these laws, there is no adult industry in Sri Lanka though some amateur films are available.
Top Sri Lankan Porn Stars
Due to the risk of punishment, most of the stars of low-grade and homemade Sri Lankan porn remain anonymous so it is difficult to identify the stars. Amateur content is often of poor quality or purposefully filmed and/or edited to obscure the face.
There are no mainstream porn stars who originate from Sri Lanka.
Prostitution Laws in Sri Lanka
Prostitution, and all activities relating to it, is illegal in Sri Lanka. This includes running a brothel, pimping, pandering, procuring and soliciting. The Sri Lankan government have been considering plans to legalise the trade but have not yet formalised any arrangement.
The prostitution market in Sri Lanka is quite small and there are an estimated 40,000 sex workers in the country. As many as 50% of these are located within the country’s capital, Colombo where street prostitutes, erotic massage parlours and bar girls. can be found. Some hotels and night clubs are well known for being hot spots for prostitution.
Most of the women you can find in Sri Lanka selling sex are locals, but Colombo does attract some eastern Asian hookers, notably from Thailand and China. However, you can also find eastern European prostitutes in Sri Lanka especially those from Russia.
Most Sri Lankan prostitutes do not use condoms and certainly don’t carry them; doing so would make them vulnerable to prosecution if they are caught by police.
Sri Lanka Porn Viewing Trends
Due to the restricted access that Sri Lankans have to porn sites, there is very little information about the porn viewing trends of Sri Lanka.
However, there are some sites that are popular despite the restrictions. It is likely that most of these are accessed using VPNs.
XHamster is the 10th most visited site in Sri Lanka. Visitors spend more an average of 11 minutes per visit with the site being more popular than Wikipedia.
Pornhub is also a popular website in Sri Lanka, ranked as the 17th most frequently visited site. Visitors spend around 8.5 minutes on the site.
Other frequently visited adult websites in Sri Lanka include:
- TXXX – ranked as the 21st most popular site in the country.
- Bonga Cams – ranked as the 26th most popular site in the country.
- XVideos – ranked as the 31st most popular site in the country.
- U Pornia – ranked as the 49th most popular site in the country.
According to data secured from Google Trends, the term ‘sex’ is most frequently used in Sri Lanka than in any other country on Earth!
Best Sri Lankan Porn Sites
There are no dedicated sites for Sri Lankan porn, but you can find amateur content from the country on many tube sites, including:
LGBTQ in Sri Lanka
Whilst the constitution of Sri Lanka bans discriminating against sexual orientation, homosexuality is illegal in the country. The government also does not recognise any form of same-sex civil union or marriage.
Despite the law, there are no records of the government ever using the Penal Code to prosecute someone, public indecency aside, on the sole grounds of their sexual orientation.
There are plans to decriminalise homosexuality soon with the Sri Lankan Deputy Solicitor General announcing the intention in November 2017.
Historically, homosexuality in Sri Lanka was only made illegal under colonialism and neither Buddhism or Hinduism (the country’s dominant religions) condemn same-sex relations.
Transgendered individuals may seek sexual reassignment surgery, but Sri Lanka has no private or public hospitals who perform this treatment. As a result, patients must seek surgical intervention abroad but the costs to do this are often prohibitively expensive meaning there are few people who can afford to have the surgery they desire. Most are only able to change their legal gender and embark on hormone therapy.
The living conditions for openly ‘out’ members of the LGBTQ community in Sri Lanka are less dangerous than in some other south Asian countries yet they do face some discrimination. Some will even suffer verbal and physical abuse but compared to India and Bangladesh where honour killings and murder can occur, these attacks are less extreme.
The capital, Colombo, has hosted a gay Pride event for the last 12 years and is well-attended with most of their demonstrations passing without violence or opposition. However, there are some radical groups that threaten to disrupt these events but so far have been neutered by highly visible law enforcement groups.
There is not a large and open gay scene in any of Sri Lanka’s cities although male escorts and beach boys are common in tourist destinations. Interestingly, these boys do not consider themselves to be gay but rather as performing a commercial sex service for foreigners.
Top Classified/Personals Sites in Sri Lanka
Online dating is not very common in Sri Lanka but is becoming more so, specifically in the under 25s who live in urban areas. Though some sites are specifically geared towards matching singles with a view to marriage, other sites offer Sri Lankans the opportunity for more casual dating.
We’ve selected those sites that are available in the English language with some being free and others offering premium rate subscription services:
- Sri Lankan Friends Date
- Lanka Friends
- Sri Lankan Lovers
- Meet Lanka
- Love Awake
- Top Face
- Badoo
- Lava Place
- Waplog
Featured image via Pixabay.