Years after the last of his tribesmen were exterminated by forest explorers, an indigenous tribe member who was called the “World Loneliest Man” and lived in utter isolation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest passed away. According to a Brazilian government Indigenous Agency, Funai, the deceased, who was recognised as “Man of the Hole” because of the wide holes he dug to trap animals or hide, was discovered dead in his hut on Saturday.
The tribal man, whose name and the language he spoke were unknown, lived in voluntary exile in a section of forest supervised by Funai and was constantly on the run if he detected other people approaching. He is believed to have passed away naturally at the age of 60.
According to the authorities, there were no indications of violence. Indigenous scholar Marcelo dos Santos further stated that it is thought that the man planned for his demise since he had decorated his body with vividly coloured feathers.
The man was the sole member of an indigenous community that had resided in the Tanaru indigenous area in the neighbouring state of Rondônia. He was the only survivor of his tribe’s six remaining members, who were all killed in an illegal miner attack in 1995.
The majority of his tribe is thought to have died in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of a road being constructed close by, which increased the demand for property for commercial interests. The Amazon Basin, the biggest belt of the jungle on earth, is home to at least 114 indigenous people who live alone.
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