After visiting the Mahiyanganaya temple (featured last week), we drove down on the Padiyathalawa highway to visit Kotabakiniya, Dambana where traditional Adivasi settlements are located in a scanty forest patch, and among them is the dwelling place of Adivasi Chief Uruwarige Wanniyala-Aetto.

Adivasi souvenirs for sale
By the time we reached Kotabakiniya, the sun had just risen above the trees, and we were greeted by a group of Adivasi men chatting under a cool corner behind a cluster of trees. On inquiring about the Adivasi Chieftain, we were told that we would first have to talk to the chieftain, the leader of the community. After a few pleasantries at the chieftain’s house, we sat with him and had a conversation with him as there were no visitors at the time.
Ancient race
The quiet dignity and intelligence of Adivasi Chief Uruwarige Wanniyala-Aetto befit a leader of an ancient race. He does not rage against the filtering influences of the ‘modern’ world. This, he considers, to be inevitable. What he desires is that the newer generations maintain the knowledge and identity handed down by one generation to the other over the centuries.

‘Kirikoraha’ ritual dance is performed in Dambana
He abhors the forced changes they have been compelled to accept in the name of development of the area. This is development perceived and designed by dominant communities. The lack of sensitivity to the needs of the indigenous people in development plans is obvious. “I wanted others to recognise us as a distinct people and allow us to live in the land we have been living for over 30,000 years,” Uruwarige Wanniyala-Aetto said.
“All successive Governments would have introduced development schemes probably with good intentions. But effects of all those were disastrous to us. They came to discuss with us only after the important decisions were taken and the projects implemented. By that time, the damage was already done,” Wanniyala-Aetto said.
The Mahaweli Ganga, the longest river in Sri Lanka, cradled many ancient cultures, including that of Wanniyala-Aetto’s. The United National Party Government of 1977, planned dams at seven spots for power and irrigation. Wanniyala-Aetto’s Dambana village was in a catchment area. The Government declared part of their hunting ground, a wildlife reserve and enticed many to relocate.
It was in 1983 that the last of the indigenous forest territory was legally transformed into the Maduru Oya National Park, and the community who had lived there for thousands of years was driven out to flat rice-fields, namely System C under the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Project. The hunter-gatherer community then began to be considered as poachers and their traditional livelihood was made a criminal offence with the creation of the national park.
Hennanigala, a village in the Mahaweli Scheme, is 60 kilometres away from Dambana, and now hosts some of these dispossessed people. According to Chief Wanniyala-Aetto, 227 families have been resettled in Hennanigala. They were provided with money to build homes, wells, roads and sanitary facilities.
Dwindling tradition
Some Adivasis raise cattle and farming and others have found various other means of living, which are far removed from their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. These first-generation members of resettlements speak with a deep sense of wrongful deprivation of a way of life. Those of the second generation, born and bred in the new land, shy away from discussing their origins and do not appear to have even the thinnest thread of connection to their distinct past.
Today, Dambana, an ancestral village of the Adivasi clan is a hustle and bustle spot during holidays. Hundreds of local and foreign tourists throng this wooded place to see Adivasi people and their lifestyle. In the village is a cluster of wattle and daub buildings, an Indigenous Heritage Museum which houses proud historical monuments of the Adivasi people. It contains rare photographs of the ancient Adivasi people and the ornaments they used.

A traditional Adivasi home at Kotabakiniya
The late Adivasi Chieftain Tissahamy’s life-size statue has been built adjoining the museum. A radio station for Adivasis is also operated in the village. Some Adivasi men and women make souvenirs for their livelihoods. They are displayed in the village for sale. Adivasi people have their own unique culture, including religious beliefs, music, and clothing. They still worship tree gods and perform esoteric rituals.
‘Kalubandara Deviyo’ is a revered benevolent ancestral spirit of the Adivasi people. Traditionally, the Adivasis have practised a form of animism, which attributes a spirit to non-human entities, such as animals, plants, nature, and inanimate objects.
Dances, such as the kirikoraha (the hunting dance) which is performed by young Adivasis and widely popular among the visitors to Dambana, and the arrow dance, chanting, instrumental music, and building temporary shrines are part of many Adivasi ceremonies. Singing is also a popular pastime for the Adivasi people.
A well-researched and thoughtful policy with a supportive legal framework is required for a meaningful restoration of what the Wanniyala-Aetto community has lost in today’s context.