HOME



picture info

Vedda
The Vedda ( ; (''Vēḍar'')), or Wanniyalaeto, are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. The Vedda minority in Sri Lanka may become completely assimilated. Most speak Sinhala instead of their indigenous languages, which are nearing extinction. It has been hypothesized that the Vedda were probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since before the arrival of other groups from the Indian mainland. A 2024 genetics study using high-resolution autosomal and Mitochondrial DNA found that the Veddas were genetically closer to the Santhal, Juang, Irula and Paniya tribes (as well as the Pallar caste) of India, than to the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils. The study concluded that the Veddas were "a genetically drifted group with limited gene flow from neighbouring Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil population ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Vedda Man And Child, Sri Lanka
The Vedda ( ; (''Vēḍar'')), or Wanniyalaeto, are a minority Indigenous peoples, indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. The Vedda minority in Sri Lanka may become completely assimilated. Most speak Sinhala language, Sinhala instead of their indigenous languages, which are nearing extinction. It has been hypothesized that the Vedda were probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since before the arrival of other groups from the Indian mainland. A 2024 genetics study using high-resolution Autosome, autosomal and Mitochondrial DNA found that the Veddas were genetically closer to the Santhal people, Santhal, Juang people, Juang, Irula people, Irula and Paniya people, Paniya tribes (as well as the Pallar caste) of India, than to the Sinhalese people, Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils. The study concluded that the Veddas w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Vedda Language
Vedda is an endangered language that is used by the indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka. Additionally, communities such as Coast Veddas and Anuradhapura Veddas who do not strictly identify as Veddas also use words from the Vedda language in part for communication during hunting and/or for religious chants, throughout the island. When a systematic field study was conducted in 1959, the language was confined to the older generation of Veddas from Dambana. In the 1990s, self-identifying Veddas knew few words and phrases in Vedda, but there were individuals who knew the language comprehensively. Initially there was considerable debate amongst linguists as to whether Vedda is a dialect of Sinhalese or an independent language. Later studies indicate that the language spoken by today's Veddas is a creole which evolved from ancient times, when the Veddas came into contact with the early Sinhalese, from whom they increasingly borrowed words and synthetic features, yielding the cumu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Coast Veddas
The Coast Veddas (, ), by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar (Tamil for "hunter") neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past. They speak a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spiri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sinhala Language
Sinhala ( ; Sinhala: , , ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. It is also the first language of about 2 million other Sri Lankans, as of 2001. It is written in the Sinhalese script, a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. The language has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a notable example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia. Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka. Along with Pali, it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhalese language are attested to as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi, a regional associate of the Middle-Indian Prakrits that had been ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sri Lankan Tamils
Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. #Society, 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Modern Sri Lankan Tamils descend from residents of the Jaffna kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of Sri Lanka and Vanni chieftaincies from the east. According to the anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long History of Sri Lanka, history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century Common Era, BCE. The Sri Lankan Tamils are mostly Hindus with a significant Christian population. Sri Lankan Tamil literature on topics including religion and the sciences flourishe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Anuradhapura Veddas
Anuradhapura Veddas (, ) are people of North Central Province of Sri Lanka who are descendants of indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka who have adopted the culture, religion and language of the dominant Sinhalese residents of the province. By far they are the largest segment amongst the various groups of people who claim Vedda ancestry. They are also ethnically related to Tamil speaking Coast Veddas who live in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominant Eastern Province of Sri Lanka who have adopted Tamil and Hindu cultural norms of their neighbors. Settlements of Anuradhapura Veddas also spread into the neighboring Polonnaruwa District and a few villages in the interior of the Trincomalee District Trincomalee District ( ; ) is one of the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka, districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a Government Agent (Sri Lanka), D .... References {{Reflist Vedda ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. It shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the southwest and India in the northwest. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, while the largest city, Colombo, is the administrative and judicial capital which is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Kandy is the second-largest urban area and also the capital of the last native kingdom of Sri Lanka. The most spoken language Sinhala language, Sinhala, is spoken by the majority of the population (approximately 17 million). Tamil language, Tamil is also spoken by approximately five million people, making it the second most-spoken language in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a population of appr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sri Lankans
This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the population, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean, also called Ceylon and many other names. It is about the size of Ireland. It is about 28 kilometres (18 mi.) off the south-eastern coast of India with a population of about 22 million. Density is highest in the south west where Colombo, the country's main port and industrial center, is located. The net population growth is about 0.7%. Sri Lanka is ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse. Overview According to the 2012 census the population of Sri Lanka was 20,359,439, giving a population density of 325/km2. The population had grown by 5,512,689 (37.1%) since the 1981 census (the last full census), equivalent to an annual growth rate of 1.1%. 3,704,470 (18.2%) lived in urban sectors - areas governed by muni ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Badulla District
Badulla District ( ''badūlla distrikkaya''; ''Patuḷai māvaṭṭam'') is a Districts of Sri Lanka, district in Uva Province, Sri Lanka. The entire land area of the Badulla district is and has a total population of 871763 as of 2024. The district is bounded by the Kandy district to the North and by Nuwara Eliya and Matale districts to the West. The South-Eastern border creates with the districts of Rathnapura,Monaragala & Ampara. Mainly the economy of the district is based on Agriculture, agricultural farming and livestock. Badulla District is an agricultural district where tea and various vegetables are cultivated. The district is divided into an upper region and a lower region which differ in climatic and geographic characteristics. The upper region of the district is known for tea plantations and vegetable cultivation while the lower region focuses more on Paddy field, paddy farming. Education Universities * Uva Wellassa University Schools Bandarawela * Bandarawela C ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Indigenous Peoples
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model. Estimates of the population of Indigenous peoples range from 250 million to 600 million. There are some 5,000 distinct Indigenous peoples spread across every inhabited climate zone and inhabited continent of the world. Most Indigenous peoples are in a minority in the state or traditional territory they inhabit and have experienced domination by other groups, especially non-Indigenous peoples. Although many Indigenous peoples have experienced colonization by settlers from European nations, Indigenous identity is not determined by Western colonization. The rights of Indigenous peoples are outlined in national legislation, treaties and international law ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sri Lankan Tamil Dialects
The Sri Lankan Tamil dialects or Ceylon Tamil or commonly in Tamil language Eelam Tamil () are a group of Tamil dialects used in Sri Lanka by its native Tamil speakers that are distinct from the Tamil dialects spoken in Tamil Nadu. These dialects are more conservative than the dialects spoken in India, and preserve features of Old and Medieval Tamil which have been lost in their Indian counterparts. In spite of this, both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil dialects retain a degree of mutual intelligibility. Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are broadly categorized into three sub groups: Jaffna Tamil, Batticaloa Tamil, and Negombo Tamil dialects. But there are a number of sub dialects within these broad regional dialects as well. These dialects are also used by ethnic groups other than Tamils and Muslims such as Sinhalese people, Portuguese Burghers and the indigenous Coastal Vedda people. Characteristics As Tamil is a diglossic language, the differences between the standard written lan ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sinhalese People
The Sinhalese people (), also known as the Sinhalese or Sinhala people, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They are the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, constituting about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number more than 15.2 million. The Sinhalese people speak Sinhala language, Sinhala, an insular Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language. Sinhalese people are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, although a significant minority of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity in Sri Lanka, Christianity and Religion in Sri Lanka, other religions. Since 1815, Sinhalese people were broadly divided into two subgroups: the up-country Sinhalese of the Central province, Sri Lanka, central mountainous regions, and the low-country Sinhalese of the coastal regions. Although both groups speak the same language, they are distinguished as they observe different cultural customs. According to the ''Mahavamsa'', a Pali chronicle ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]