Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Vedda People or Wanniyala- Aetto

Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedda_people
The Veddha's are an indigenous people of Sri Lanka, an island located in the Indian Ocean.  According to their genesis myth of the Sinhala race, the Veddas are descended from Prince Vijaya, founder of the Sinhalese nation, through a woman from the Yakkha clan named Kuveni. Vijaya rejected Kuveni and took his two children to Adam's Peak in the Ratnapura district, and they multiplied giving rise to the Veddhas. The Veddas speak the original language, also called the Vedda language. Other communities use their language during hunting and for religious chants, though they don't associate themselves with the Veddas. There was much contention when linguists attempted to trace Veddas origins and found that in the 10th century the Vedda language diverged and became a creole language.

The Vedda people practice animism with a mixture of Buddhism. They often worship their dead ancestors, which are named "nae yaku". They have invoked a deity called "Ne Yakku" for game and yams. The island's Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities regard the temple located at Kataragama, which shows the assimilation and syncretism of these communities for centuries. The Veddas marriage ritual is quite simple and interesting. The bride ties a barking rope that she twists herself around the Bridesmen. In  Veddha society, women are men's equals and is entitled to the same inheritance as her male counterpart. Veddha's practice monogamy and if a women's husband dies, typically she would marry his brother.

The Veddas clothing is scanty and consists of merely a loincloth from the a string at the waist and for women, it is a piece of cloth that goes from the navel to the knees. There are many Vedda cave drawings that have been found and they are believed to be painted by the women when they were waiting for the men while they hunted. Veddas were originally hunter-gatherers and often used slash and burn agricultural practices for their farming techniques. They are renowned for their rich meat diet which include venision, rabbit flesh, turtle, tortoise, wild boar, and a common brown monkey. They only kill
these animals for their meat and do not harm pregnant and do not harm their young. The early part of the year (January-February) and mid-year(June-July) is that of the fruit of honey. There livelihoods are heavily reliant on agriculture and there food supply is acquired from hunter-gatherer.File:Veddas 1890.jpg

3 comments:

  1. Is there any way to visit one of these groups and learn from them?

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  2. Interesting article... Sharing an article about the Singing Dong Tribe in http://stenote.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-singing-dong-tribe.html
    Watch the video in youtube https://youtu.be/2GWQc1Aq3WE

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Sinhalese government has thrown them off their land.

    ReplyDelete