The newly opened Wild Glamping Gal Oya, where visitors can stay in luxury tents in the forests around Rathgula, is already doing that: 13 staffers, including the hotel’s chef, are Vedda people from Rathugala, while the hotel’s onsite organic farm employs several others. “Some of these young people used to move away for jobs, but they are working here now,” said Gunabandilaaththo, who also guides hotel guests on hiking tours and sometimes takes visitors to Danigala, their original home. “People come from Colombo – and they are excited to know about our culture and hike our mountains with us.”.
The Vedda staff members, who are mostly in their 20s, conduct cooking sessions for guests, preparing dishes stemming from their culinary traditions like smoked meat, wood-fired cassava roots and finger millet roti. That’s because while many young Veddas know little of their heritage and traditions, a love for their cuisine remains strong. Many still go foraging in the jungle for days at a time, sleep in the caves, and fish and hunt wild animals to cook over fire. They bring back wild meat, honey and wild tubers.
“I still cook our food for my children and grandchildren,” said Dayawathi, whose mother is Vedda and father is Sinhalese. She cooks curry for breakfast made of corn, wing beans, spine gourd and black-eyed peas, very different to the creamy vegetable curries made with coconut milk found in most island homes. While most Sri Lankan dishes are spice-laden, Dayawathi said she doesn’t add spices. “Instead, we mash green chillies and make a paste and eat it with helapa, which is a soft, steamed traditional finger millet dough wrapped in leaves.”
“For lunch, we sometimes add a piece of smoked meat to the same curry,” Gunabandilaaththo added, explaining that they also preserve smoked wild meat in honey poured into a gourd. “I mostly eat steamed jackfruit and wild meat, and I’ve never been to the doctor,” he said.
However, as the second chieftain of the Rathugala Veddas, Gunabandilaaththo understands that they need recognition and support. Not only does Sri Lanka not have specific laws to protect its indigenous people, but government acts continue to prevent them from accessing their traditional hunting grounds – and a 2017 UN Human Rights review highlighted that Veddas are economically and politically marginalised.
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