Life of veddas in Sri Lanka : a literature review

Abstract

The ‘Vedda’ is a well-known tribal community in Sri Lanka. Veddas live in various regions in the country with their own and unique cultural heritage. As an indigenous community, Veddas follow their traditions and customs in different places in Sri Lanka namely; Mahiyangana (Dammbana), Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ratnapura and Anuradhapura. Many studies have been undertaken by numerous researchers to explore and address the lifestyle, issues and challenges faced by the Vedda community in Sri Lanka. However, these studies have focused onunderstanding different issues and matters of Vedda's life through several perspectives. Thus, this study aimed to review previous literatures and amalgamate the different ideas on the life of Veddas in Sri Lanka. This study designed a qualitative method to review the literature systematically. The journal article, reports, books and other relevant literature have been used for this systematic review. Throughout the review, this article revealed the lifestyle, livelihood, group setting, socio-cultural background, development, challenges threatening their daily life and lifestyle changes occurred in different segments among Veddas. This review has been documented as a source of information about Veddas and their life-experience, social change, issues and challenges faced by the popular tribal community in Sri Lanka. This review providesinformation and helps researchers to explore and address further issues experienced by the Vedda community comprehensively