Vedda community
The Vedda, Sri Lanka's original forest dwellers
The Vedda are among the oldest indigenous communities in Asia, living in Sri Lanka's forests for thousands of years and passing their knowledge down by word of mouth rather than in writing.
Clad in traditional attire and often carrying a ceremonial axe, they still practise ancestral skills like archery and harvesting honey from wild hives, skills that have sustained the community for millennia.
Meeting them is not a show put on for visitors. It is a rare look at a relationship with the land that most of the modern world has forgotten.
