Vedda (Vanniyaletto) as folk life: Intangible cultural heritage in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper addresses potential folk life cultural heritage in Sri Lanka as a continuum in a country of magnificent UNESCO listed sites. If the Vedda (Vanniyaletto) of Sri Lanka are the heirs of an existence dating back to the Mesolithic of Southern Asia to the present, then this community represents a sphere of cultural expression that requires world attention in conserving a folk diver-sity that is rapidly disappearing. These Vanniyaletto, continue living in a land of significant ancient world heritage, are struggling for years to have a museum or community center dedicated to their existence. While some critics proclaim they don`t exist as a people, I ar-gue the Vedda are not a primitive or non-existent `tribe`; they are an important heritage community in Sri Lanka laying a foundation, in part, for a plural nation (Blundell 2008). They are a people wrapped in the ma-trix of the Sinhala and Tamil communities from earliest times, yet since the 19th century relegated as a fringe people, curiosities at best, without acknowledgement as significant contributors in today`s `national program`.