Meet the traditional fishing Vadda community in Mankerny. Discover the Veddah community in the east, often referred to as ‘Muhudu Veddah’ or ‘Veddahs of the sea’, who reside mainly in the Districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

Despite being intrinsically connected to the ‘original inhabitants of the land’, this community bears very little resemblance to the original Veddahs. The word Veddah is often associated with a bare-chested man, carrying a weapon on his shoulder with his hair tied behind his head. This generalized description does not fit the present-day Veddahs of the east. They seldom bear resemblance to the prototype of the indigenous Lankan.

The remake of the Veddah in the eastern part of the island can be attributed to the socio-political reinvigoration that has swept across the country. Many of the Veddahs have married into native Tamil families and thereon have evolved into the normal way of life of the community.

The only recognition of the eastern Veddah, as being distinctly indigenous, is a purely theoretical one. The United Nations definition on what an indigenous population is, was first formulated in 1972 and was subject to amendments. The original definition reads ‘Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country.’