In some of the mountain regions of the center and the east of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), amid dense forests that make life difficult, lives a very ancient people who have found shelter in this wild region and continued their old way of life: the Veddas.

The way of life of the Veddas is thousands of years old. Little is known about their origin, but there is a verse chronicle written by Buddhist monks that tells part of the story. The chronicle is called the Mahavamsa (‘Great History’). It relates that the first king of Sri Lanka was called Vijaya. The origins of this king are buried in legend but his existence is more or less certain. One story says he was the child of a princess and a lion. Vijaya’s first wife ran away with the children to the mountains, and the Veddas were the descendants of those refugees.

This legend may be pure fantasy, but one theory is that the Veddas are a people who fled from the Aryans who invaded northern India in about 2000 B.C. and took refuge in the territory where they now live.

Today the Veddas have been largely absorbed into the population of Sri Lanka and have adopted its language. In 1911 they were reported to number about 5,300, but in 1964 the government of Sri Lanka listed their population at about 800. Since then, the Veddas have virtually died out.