SRI LANKA, March 28, 2022 (BBC): The Veddas were traditionally forest dwellers, who foraged, hunted and lived in close-knit groups in caves in the dense jungles of Sri Lanka, relocating from one cave to another when someone from the group died. Gunabandilaaththo belongs to the Vedda community, the earliest known aboriginal people of Sri Lanka. Today, the Vedda live scattered in tiny settlements in the Hunnasgiriya hills in central Sri Lanka up to the coastal lowlands in the island’s east. However, long before the dominant Sinhalese-Buddhist people came to Sri Lanka from India around 543 BCE, the Vedda lived all around the island.
Despite being Sri Lanka’s earliest inhabitants, many people know little to nothing about them. For many centuries, Veddas were stigmatized and oppressed by the Sinhalese rule, and limited only to tourist interest. Today Veddas are thought to account for less than 1% of the national population. But now, things are slowly changing, with the Vedda community reclaiming their heritage along with renewed interest in these first people of Sri Lanka. The department of archaeology and the ministry of heritage built the Veddas Heritage Center in Rathugala just before the pandemic, where Gunabandilaatho will be leading tours for visitors, starting in April.
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https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220327-sri-lankas-last-indigenous-people