‘Man of the Hole’: Last member of indigenous tribe dies in Brazil

New Delhi: An indigenous tribe member, dubbed the “loneliest man in the world” was found dead, officials said on Saturday. The tribesman after living in isolation for 26 years has died in Brazilian rainforest. His body was found on August 23 in a hammock outside his straw hut, according to Funai, the government’s indigenous agency.

According to the reports, there were no signs of violence and the officials said that because he had placed brightly coloured feathers around his body, it is believed that the man prepared for his death. It is estimated that the man was about 60 years old.

Funai officials first noticed the man in the mid-1990s. The officials also informed that Brazil’s Federal Police will now be performing an autopsy on the man’s body and produce a report on the findings.  

“He died without revealing which ethnicity he belonged to, nor the motivations of the holes he dug inside his house,” the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recent Contact Indigenous Peoples (OPI) wrote on learning of the man’s death.

According to The Guardian, the mysterious man was the last remaining member of an uncontacted indigenous group in Brazil. The name and language of the Brazilian, who voluntarily lived in isolation in a piece of forest monitored by Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Agency, Funai, were never known.

He was known as “Man of the hole” because he dug deep holes, some of which he used to trap animals while others appear to be hiding spaces.