A new photo synopsis about the Vedda people has been finished and is now offered to various national and international editorial offices. The complete synopsis – a PDF file with 28 images – can be requested here.
Hereafter 10 pictures of the synopsis, an overview and the complete introductory text:
Pictures (click to enlarge):
- Heen Bandiya on the lookout for game. Heen Bandiya hält Ausschau nach Wild. sri_ve…
- Perseverative activity for the Vedda people. From the early morning until the late ni…
- The hunt for game is protected by a man with a gun for the protection against elephan…
- KiriBandiya is proud of his hunt’s result: His dogs have hunted down two Bengal monit…
- Portrait of the 75-year-old KiriBandiya. Portrait des 75jährigen Kiri Bandiya. sri…
- The Vedda people are genetically related with the Aborigines. It is possible to read …
- The genetic relationship with the Aborigines is also visible in the evening at the ca…
- Wife, child, house, dogs and mud hut of GunaBandiya, where i am living during my stay…
- Inside his hut, Guna is preparing a meal. In seiner Hütte bereite Guna ein Essen vo…
- On the yard a kind of provisional Buddhist shrine has been established. Vedda people …
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher
Overview
Introductory text
Vedda people – or Wanniya-laeto (forest dwellers), as they call themselves – exist as a Neolithic collective since at least 16.000 BC. Genetically they are related to the Australian Aborigines, which can be clearly recognised in some Vedda faces.
Many Vedda people have assimilated with the Sinhalese people in the course of the last decades. Only a few hundred still live as hunters-gatherers in a provincial collective in natural parks, without electricity and running water and with only a few civilisation contacts.
Only since 1989 the Vedda children may attend a school, the elder clansmen are completely without education. They know only little about the things outside of their habitat, Barak Obama, George W. Bush, 0911, Gandhi, Adolf Hitler – most of the older Vedda people have never heard about. I continue asking. ”Second World War?” murmurs the 75-year-old Kir Bandiya, ”That must have been at the time of the English.” ”Internet”, says the 48-year-old Vijaiatho, ”that is in Mahiyangana” and shows with a tottering forefinger into the direction of the nearest Sri Lankan village in 15 kilometres distance.
As many other indigenous peoples the Vedda people, too, are susceptible for the allurements of the civilization. Hence we know about cases of diabetes mellitus and alcoholism.
One of the Vedda people takes out his mobile phone in the protection of the darkness to play with it. He feels a bit sheepish about it, as it means a break with tradition for him and he is frightened being objurgated by the elder. After a few seconds his treasure disappears again in the pleats of his sarong.
My personal impression of the Vedda people: A few hundred Vedda people still live as authentic original people with archaic and fragile traditions and with still minimal civilizing influences. It deeply impressed me, when I was on a visit in march 2010 and inspired me to make this synopsis.
