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Community empowerment through cultural development
Following the colourfully complex lives and livelihoods of Sri Lanka’s nomadic Telengu community through Dilmah Conservation’s Culture and Indigenous Communities Programme.
Many South Asian countries have clans or tribes that specialise in ‘snake charming’. In Sri Lanka, they are known as ‘Ahikuntaka’ or ‘Kuthadi’ who engage in snake charming as a traditional means of livelihood. These clans possess the skill to charm a number of snakes including cobras and vipers. It is a part of their cultural inheritance.
As a minority community with distinctive cultural and social practices, the Ahikuntaka continue to enrich Sri Lanka’s diverse cultural landscape.
Nomadic lifestyles, colourful attire and a hint of mystery surround the Sri Lankan Telengu or Ahikuntaka people who are said to descend from an ancient group of nomads from Andra Pradesh in India. As a minority community with distinctive cultural and social practices, which include snake charming, palm reading and entertaining the public using monkeys and other animals, the Ahikuntaka continue to enrich Sri Lanka’s diverse cultural landscape.
In recent times, changes in attitudes and economic considerations have affected the continuity of the community’s wandering lifestyle and livelihoods. Many have been forced to abandon traditional ways of living and seek employment, often menial jobs that offer no job security or dignity, to support themselves and their families.
Our efforts to support this community include the upliftment of their current social standing by empowering them through the Culture and Indigenous Communities Programme. The Sri Lanka Nomad Cultural Centre and People’s Theatre in Thambuttegama in NorthCentral Sri Lanka was designed and built as part of this initiative and was presented to the Sri Lankan Telengu community by Dilmah Founder Merrill J. Fernando in November 2013. Additionally, Dilmah Conservation facilitated a comprehensive socioeconomic study of the Ahikuntaka community in collaboration with the University of Colombo. The findings of this research are included in the publication Traditional Communities in Sri Lanka: The Ahikuntaka.
Indigenous people enrich and enhance the cultural diversity of the society we live in. I believe it is our duty to help them live their lives with honour and integrity.
- Founder of Dilmah, Merrill J. Fernando
The Sri Lanka Nomad Cultural Centre and People’s Theatre was declared open by Dilmah Founder Merrill J. Fernando amidst a gathering of the community and representatives from the Thambuttegama Divisional Secretariat.
“With pride we mention that, even though we are a minority community, our contribution towards nourishing Sri Lankan cultural diversity is significant. Our cultural identity plays a major role in that context. For a slight elaboration, we make note of the snake charming and monkey performing, fortune telling and gypsy lifestyle which distinguishes the Ahikuntaka community from others.”
- This is an excerpt from the Kudagama Charter which was ratified on the banks of the Rajangana Tank, in Kudagama, Thambuttegama during the Dilmah Conservation sponsored Ahikuntaka Varigasabha held on 28 January 2011. The Charter was signed by five leaders of the community, Nadarajah of Kudagama, Egatannage Masanna of Andarabedda, Anawattu Masanna of Kalawewa, M. Rasakumar of Aligambe and Karupan Silva of Sirivallipuram who represented different clans within the Ahikuntaka community. The Ahikuntaka community in Sri Lanka was able to hold this tribal meeting for the first time in six decades.
