Food Habits of Sri Lankan Indigenous Tibal Groups - Dambana

Objectives :
 To investigate various food habits of Sri Lankan indigenous tribal groups
(vedda’s)
 To study how their indigenous knowledge in food processing can apply
for modern food processing technology.
 To compare and contrast how they have developed their methods with
the time.
 To study tools and equipment used then and now.
Introduction :
Dambana wedi gammanaya is located in Uva province of Sri Lanka 20 minutes
away from Mahiyanganaya town and 300km apart from Colombo. This place is
very important because there is a special group of indigenous people living in
there. These tribal groups have their own life style which is totally different
from ours. According to the evidences, their history begins around 5 th century
B.C. Also they depend on hunting without much change in their life style from
stone age to modern times. The language used by them is an ancient dialect of
Sinhala. Vedda’s are allowed to hunt legally for their dietary needs within
certain areas, and also they are good in fishing. They collect bee honey and
exchange it with the locals for axe blades and cloth.
Content :
Comparison on past and present food habits
In past only chilli and salt were added. Even though it didn’t give much taste,
the nutritious value is high due to minimum use of chemicals. They had used
crop varieties that naturally exist in the environment. Their main aim of
consuming food is to fulfill nutritional requirements and to get rid of hunger.
Present, they tend to use oil, coconut milk with the intention of enhancing the
taste. Also now they have turned towards crop cultivation/chena cultivation
without totally depending on crops that exists naturally. Before cultivating they
have consumed fruits, leaves, flowers, fish and flesh of animals. They haven’t
used much food preservative method in past because they had enough food
for their consumption throughout the year.

Flowers:
Methods of preparing various types of flowers for consumption:
1. Washed by water.
2. Boil from hot water.
3. Cooking by adding salt, chilli and other spices.
Eg: pathirinda flowers, katuwala flowers, karawella flowers

Karawella flowers
Mushrooms:
Mushroom is a seasonal food item that can be seen in a certain period of the
year. Normally immature mushrooms are consumed. But there are some kinds
which are poisonous. There should be a special ability to identify those. Mainly
mushrooms which grow on ant-hills and decaying trunks of trees are
consumed. (in milla and atamba)
Eg: dunumalla, badawella
Method of preparation:
 Cut in to pieces and washed by cold water.
 Consume by mixing with certain types of leaves.
 Also can prepare as a gravy for thalapa.

Yams:
 Katu ala
 Innala
 Lulala
 Gonala
Katu ala: Itching occur when peel of the katu ala contact with human body. So
to remove the itchiness yams are boil in hot water.
Kahata gedi: Astringency in these fruits are very high. To remove that quality
fruits are boiled. Then cooked by adding salt, chilli, and other spices.

Katu ala

Leaves:
In most of the occasions leafy curries (mallum) are prepared by mixing few
types of edible leaves together. This curry is consumed with rice or pittu.

Eg: pitihuda leaves, kara leaves, anuga leaves, saarana leaves, thampala
leaves, gedabo leaves, buuta (badal) immature leaves, themberiya leaves,
immature leaves of beans, karalhebo leaves, gon kekiri leaves (fresh fruits also
consumed), vishnukranthi leaves (used as a substituent for tea)
 Anuga Buuta immature leaves

Kara leaves Getabo immature leaves

 1 – Polpala
2 – Vishnukranthi
3 – Thampala
4 – Karalhebo
5 - Karapincha
6 – Gon kekiri
7 – Immature leaves of beans

Grains:
Kollu: fried in a heated pan and make flour from it. Then consumed as a gravy
with thalapa or rice.
Habala pethi: rice is boil in water and grinded on a flat rock then allow for sun
drying. Can consumed as porridge or as aggala by adding sugar and coconut
scraps.

1 – Green gram
2 – Cowpea
3 – Kollu

1 – Green chillies
2 – maize
3 – thana haal
4 – Sesame
5 – Habala pethi
Fire: A prick is made by iron which is known as gal katuwa. Chip is taken from
kirona or kahanda stone. Then ash from burned cotton wool is used to
produce fire.

Smoking of meat and fish:

Meat:
After hunting an animal, they smoked meat to extend the shelf life. When
preparing for smoking, meat is cut in to tiny row shaped parts. After that
trestle like thing is made using wood (welan wood) which is known as
thuntheri messa. Lihiniya, damunu and kiri wel are used to tie up the wood
sticks. These wood types are tolerant to heat.

Thuntheri messa

Then meat was put on to that and under the trestle, a bonfire is made. But this
thuntheri messa is not appropriate for meat of larger animals. For that they are
making a separate trestle like thing larger than thuntheri messa. Also this is a
common structure present in homes / caves of veddas. Reason for it is they
hunt even a very small animal in a day. When constructing a tuntheri messa
they are so concerned about the height of it because if the flame of the fire
gets contact with meat it would burn. But their intention is to smoke the meat.
By using this method meat can be preserve about a month. After a month
fungal growth occur on meat.
When they hunt a pig they never used milla wood to burn the flesh. Instead
they have used kirimaduwel wood and mora wood because it enhances the
taste. Also flame of seru wood also used because it has a special ability of
removing poison in food.

Fish:
Scab of fish is removed and then apart them. After that unnecessary parts are
removed and allow for smoking.
Habaka:
This is a way of hunting and trapping animals.
Eg: uru habaka – for hunting pigs.
Weti habaka – for hunting squirrels
Rila habaka - for hunting monkeys.

Immersing meat in bee honey to extend shelf life:

Meat is cut in to small parts and put in a clay pot. Then pure bee honey is
poured in to it. After that opening of the pot is closed by a habarala leaf and
seal using clay.
Discussion:
Sri Lankan veddah community is usually described as indigenous as they
maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated in the
country. When considering their simple food pattern, it is clear that their diet is
rich in nutrition. Mostly they add fresh food to their meal. Even they have no
knowledge in chemistry, they were really concerned about the fire wood which
should use in meat smoking. But the method that they used to preserve meat
seems to be unsafe since they seal the meat immersed container using clay.
Possibility of taking place of microbial contamination is high in this method.

References:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/08/30/tc/161092/indigenous-diet
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1756497-d4923149-
r311737085-Mahiyangana_Temple-Mahiyanganaya_Uva_Province.html
https://bestoflanka.com/visit-vaddas-sri-lanka.php?lId=01