An Amazon tribesman who lived in total isolation for about 26 years and described as the “loneliest man in the world” has died in Brazil, officials say.
According to the guard, the mystery man was the last remaining member of an uncontacted indigenous group in Brazil. He was known as the “Man of the Hole” because he spent much of his existence hiding or taking shelter in pits he dug in the ground.
The Brazilian Agency for Indigenous Affairs (Funai), which remotely monitored the man’s well-being, said the man’s body was found on August 23 in a hammock outside his straw hut. There were no signs of violence, officials said. They also added that because he had brightly colored feathers placed around his body, it is believed that the man was preparing for his death.
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It is estimated that the man was about 60 years old. The BBC reported that he was the last of an indigenous group living in the Tanaru indigenous area of Rondonia state, which borders Bolivia.
The Brazilian federal police will now perform an autopsy on the man’s body and prepare a report on the findings.
Officials believe the “Man of the Hole” was the sole inhabitant of Tanaru territory, which is considered one of the most violent regions in Brazil. According to the nonprofit Survival International, the rest of the tribe had been massacred in a series of attacks reportedly perpetrated by land-hungry ranchers since the 1970s, wiping out the last members in 1995.
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However, very little is known about this indigenous community as the only survivors of the massacre had withstood any attempt at contact. “He died without revealing what ethnicity he belonged to, nor the motivation of the holes he dug in his house,” wrote the Human Rights Observatory of Isolated and Recent Contact Indigenous Peoples (OPI) upon learning of the death of the man.
“The Man of the Hole” was last filmed by a government team in 2018 when he was seen using a sharpened tool that resembled an ax to chop into a tree.