A short drive away from Mahiyangana town one comes across Dambana. Home to the indigenous Vedda (aborigines) people of Sri Lanka, as a first time visitor would have expected, it is in fact not difficult to locate as sign boards point the way. This is perhaps the first warning sign that times have changed, even for the Vedda people.
As one arrives in the village passing the quite noticeable electric fences put up to keep elephants out, it gives the feel of a tourist attraction rather than a village. A few stalls dotted a clearing where a lone Vedda sat selling a few knick knacks. A handmade sign board welcomed visitors to the village. What can be called the village circle was crowded with Vedda people who had arrived from various asreas of the island such as Dambana, Henanigala, Rathugala, Wakare and Pollebadda to take part in the annual Varighasabawa, a meeting of the different Vedda clans spread across the island.
Observing the group it was in fact difficult to identify some Veddas from the majority Sinhalese. While a small number of Vedda men wore traditional garb and carried bows or axes, others wore denims and sarongs with shirts while women were dressed in skirts and t-shirts. Even lungis and blouses had found their way into Vedda land. The stillness of the forest was at times disturbed by Vedda men rushing around on motorbikes in preparation for the Varighasabawa (meeting) while the Vedda children sprawled on the floor of a house played games on mobile phones and chattered in Sinhala calling each other by Sinhalese names. And perhaps shockingly the majority of them are vegetarians despite popular tales of their liking of game meat.
After spending a few hours among them the image of the Veddas held by many is shattered. Clearly, just like the Aborigines or the Native Americans, modernization had found the Vedda people and their lives have changed rapidly. To an outsider it would appear that the Vedda community had in fact embraced modern life.
However this could not be far from the truth. Speaking to them one realizes modernization has been forced upon them rather than accepted willingly.For centuries the Vedda people have lived eco friendly lives, living off the land, but never destroying the forest that fed and sheltered them. Living nomadic lives they traveled within the forest thereby giving the forest time to replenish its used resources thereby using the forest sustainably.
Perhaps due to this fear, the community has now established a museum. “We use natural things in our day to day lives and they all go back to nature,” he said adding that therefore hardly anything has been left from the history to showcase at the museum. “But we have tried to show our culture and our people through pictures to the future generation lest someday we become extinct,” he said.
Thus questioning if they are fighting a losing battle, the Vedda people still attempt to preserve their culture. Never letting go of their traditional religion they still pray to their traditional gods such as God Kalu Bandara and believe in ancestral spirits. They continue the annual honey offering to the temple of the tooth while also taking part in the Mahiyangana Perhara ( pageant) annually in remembrance of the Buddha’s visit to Sri Lanka.
Veddas have always been simple folk. Their lifestyle, traditions and culture were interwoven and connected to the forest. Having been banished from their ancestral lands today they are fighting a losing battle to keep the community alive. Their rights seem to have been neglected and their people have been forgotten. “Every community should have their rights,” Uruvarige Vannila Aththo said adding that just like a painting with many colors a country will only be beautiful if every community is happy and able to live peacefully.
“Our youngsters do not know how to survive from the forest as we did not get an opportunity to teach them and will resort to selling the trees,” he said perhaps knowing that even if the forest is given back today it is an answer that might have come too late for them.
Perhaps due to this fear, the community has now established a museum. “We use natural things in our day to day lives and they all go back to nature,” he said adding that therefore hardly anything has been left from the history to showcase at the museum. “But we have tried to show our culture and our people through pictures to the future generation lest someday we become extinct,” he said.
Thus questioning if they are fighting a losing battle, the Vedda people still attempt to preserve their culture. Never letting go of their traditional religion they still pray to their traditional gods such as God Kalu Bandara and believe in ancestral spirits. They continue the annual honey offering to the temple of the tooth while also taking part in the Mahiyangana Perhara ( pageant) annually in remembrance of the Buddha’s visit to Sri Lanka.
Veddas have always been simple folk. Their lifestyle, traditions and culture were interwoven and connected to the forest. Having been banished from their ancestral lands today they are fighting a losing battle to keep the community alive. Their rights seem to have been neglected and their people have been forgotten. “Every community should have their rights,” Uruvarige Vannila Aththo said adding that just like a painting with many colors a country will only be beautiful if every community is happy and able to live peacefully.
“Our youngsters do not know how to survive from the forest as we did not get an opportunity to teach them and will resort to selling the trees,” he said perhaps knowing that even if the forest is given back today it is an answer that might have come too late for them.
However in the 1950s their land was opened up for Sinhalese settlers, and the tribe’s forests and hunting grounds were bulldozed to make way for villages. In 1983 their last remaining forest refuge of the Veddas of Dambana was turned into the Maduru Oya National Park and was declared out of bounds for the Vedda people claiming it was an effort at conservation. Today Veddas need a permit to enter the forest with many restrictions. The lives they live today are much different to those led by their ancestors with some of them describing it as one of a caged bird.
According to Uruvarige Wimalarathna who handles radio programs on Dambana Radio, a radio channel dedicated to uplifting and preserving their community one of the main topics of discussion at the Varighasabawa (meeting) is issues relating to preserving their identity and lifestyle. “There has been much damage to both with the loss of our ancestral lands,” he said sadly adding that even today they keep losing what is left of it to new settlers to the area.
For the Vedda people of yesteryears the forest is where they went to learn. It was their school where they practically learnt how to survive as well as co-exist with the animals of the forest. “Today our chieftain Uruvarige Vannila Aththo advises the youngsters to go to school in order to educate themselves as the forest is now lost to us and we don’t have any other means of survival but he also advises them not to forget their roots and traditions,” said Wimalarathna.
Remembering the times he followed his father Uruvarige Tisahami into the forest Vedda chieftain Uruvarige Vannila Aththo says the forest meant everything to him. “It was my university, my hospital, my livelihood,” he said emotionally, “But today we can claim no ownership to our own ancestral lands”. According to him while various governments have attempted to provide solutions to their problems, no leader has looked into their problems genuinely. “The loss of the forest is our biggest problem, but no one has given us a solution for this,” he said adding that today the youngsters have no knowledge of the forest.
According to Wimalarathna once a picture of Vedda children playing football was debated about and questioned. “They point fingers at us and say we are not adhering to our traditions, but what do they expect” he said exasperated, “Unlike those days the children cannot go to the forest, so they have now turned to modern things to pass their time,” he explained.
The Vedda children are now more influenced by the Sinhalese majority with some even feeling ashamed of their heritage and trying to distance themselves from it, said Wimalarathna. “We are trying to change this and make them understand there is no shame in being a Vedda,” he affirmed.
Today most Vedda people have been forced into Chena cultivation in order to survive. However this has brought along with it, its own problems. While repeated cultivation has caused the land to lose its fertility according to Wimalarathna some have now taken to using pesticides and fertilizer. “There are a high number of reported cases with kidney disease among the Vedda community now,” said Wimalarathna. According to him the common belief is that it has been caused by the use of pesticides and fertilizer. “There is also the issue of lack of rain,” he said adding that most families now resort to having one meal per day. Sadly some have been forced to work in the tourist industry in order to survive by selling small items or singing songs to entertain, while others have become manual laborers.
Uruvarige Vannila Aththo spoke with some sadness at the fate of his community. “I have tried my best to preserve our ways just as my father once did, but the forces of destruction are stronger and I feel I’m fighting a losing battle,” he said sadly, adding that he felt sorry about the rapid decline of his people who have been in existence for centuries. According to Uruvarige Vannila Aththo he will fight in order to gain access to their ancestral lands to maintain their identity. “But I’m not sure what will happen when I am no more,” he warned.
Despite their various problems, repeatedly they both return to the talk of the forest and clearly it is there that their hearts lie.
At the beginning of the Varighasabawa ( meeting) the clans ask for forgiveness from the forest and its animals for having disturbed them in order to have their meeting. Their level of respect for nature is inspiring. So how could a group of people who love the forest destroy it as claimed by government officials? They used the land sustainably while hunting and gathering only to survive. Even though they had never harmed the forest today they are barred from entering it and as a result they have lost their lifestyle. As Wimalarathna questions where does one go nowadays with an axe or bow and arrow?
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