Dambana and Sri Lanka’s Aborigines ( Vedda community)

Dambana located 19km north east of Mahiyangana bordering the Maduru Oya Sanctuary is home to the indigenous “Vedda” community numbering close to 1000 individuals. Sri Lanka’s Aborigines’, or the Veddha’s meaning “people of the forest” of Sri Lanka has a history much older than prince Vijaya’s landing in 5th century BC and the origins of the Sinhala race. The natural habitat of these people, whose livelihood once depended solely on hunting, was confined to the forest. They are essentially hunter gatherer forest dwellers without much change in their life style from Stone Age to modern times. Veddha’s also collect bee’s honey and exchange it with the locals for axe hanging from their shoulders and a bow slung behind them.

The total extinction of their traditions of hunting for food, cooking in open fire with a group, collecting Bees Honey, their songs and dances has now become a rare possibility. Today, the Veddha’s are more modernized as far as at least the cloths are concerned and perfect way to observe Veddha is to organise a camp close to or within a reservation However during the recent decades, they have been shifting in a slow transformation into Chena dry land for cultivation.

A ideal place to observe Veddha is their last remaining village of Dambana. Veddha’s will be more than happy to show you their ways of life, with an axe hanging from their shoulders and a bow slung behind them, gives you the feeling nothing much has changed since the dawn of time for these proud warriors of the jungle.