"I was born in the forest. My ancestors come from here. We are the forest beings, and I want to live and die here. And even if I were reborn only as a fly or an ant, I would still be happy so long as I knew I would come back to live here in the forest." - Uru Warige Tissahamy Who are Veddhas? (Sri Lanka's indigenous inhabitants, the Veddas -- or Wanniya-laeto ('forest-dwellers') as they call themselves -- preserve a direct line of descent from the island's original Neolithic community dating from at least 16,000 BC and probably far earlier according to current scientific opinion.) VEDDHAS: The Unspoiled Children of Nature Sri Lanka's Indigenous Wanniya-laeto: A Case History (Report to Sri Lankas National Committee for the International Year of the Worlds Indigenous People submitted by Cultural Survival of Sri Lanka) The ways of the Veddhas (The true vedda is extinct now. Yet Handuna still bore the picture of a true vedda. There were groves of jak and mango trees in their gardens together with a few coconut palms. Inside the hut there were two deer skins which served as quilts for Handuna and his wife Mah Thuthie.) Veddas - now only a household name ( According to anthropoligists, Dr. Seligman and his wife, Brenda who researched our aborigines in 1910 the Veddas descended from the Australoid, Negrod Indian races as described in their book, 'The Veddas (1910). Prior to the coming of Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers, Lanka as it was then called was inhabited by two fierce tribes, the Nagas (cobra worshippers), Yakkas (demon worshippers). The former confined to the coastal belt while the latter to interior of the jungles.) Vedda Burials ( The traditional burials of the rock veddas (Gal-Veddas) who lived in rock caves and hunted game were to leave them dead in the cave covered with leaves and branches and this occupy a fresh cave and return to the cave where the body was abandoned after a lapse of a year or two ) The Kirikoraha Vedda Dance ( The Kiri Koraha ceremony was a bizarre dance, to appease the evil spirits of the night and day, that haunted their silent forest ) The story of the seven Vedda brothers ( Seven vedda brothers, armed with bows and arrows and short axes slung across their sinewy shoulders had set out hunting along well known game trails of the jungle fastness ) In Search of Characters of Dr. Spittel's 'Savage Sanctuary' ( Deep in the heart of a dense jungle infested with wild beasts in the Gal Oya Valley lived in complete seclusion the last son of the famous Tissahamy ) The Veddha Sanctuary ( The true story of Kombi - daughter of jungle outlaw Tissahamy of 'Savage Sanctuary' ) Idambowa the santuary of outlaw Tissahamy ( Idambowa means, 'productive land'. Dr. Spittel in his 'savage Sanctuary' describes Idambowa: ''They wandered Tissahamy and Menike, eating whatever they came by and resting under the trees ). Veddha Cave Drawings (Vedda cave drawings such as those found at Hamangala provide gr