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Veddahs of Ceylon
Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876-1895) and Skeen & Co. (British, active 1860-1920)c. 1880s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
The Veddahs or Veddas are an indigenous minority in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) that may have been the island’s earliest inhabitants. These men are dressed in typical scant Vedda male garb for the 19th century—loincloths tied with a rope at the waist.
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Details
- Title: Veddahs of Ceylon
- Creator: Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876-1895), Skeen & Co. (British, active 1860-1920)
- Date Created: c. 1880s
- Physical Dimensions: Image: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.); Paper: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.)
- Provenance: Bruno Tartarin, Photovintagefrance, Lorraine, France, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Photograph
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.222
- Medium: albumen print
- Inscriptions: Written in pencil on verso: “Veddahs”, Unidentified watermark on the upper edge of the photograph
- Fun Fact: The Veddahs were originally animists who believed that plants and inanimate objects had souls.
- Department: Photography
- Culture: India, 19th century
- Credit Line: Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust
- Collection: PH - British 19th Century
- Accession Number: 2018.222
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