The indigenous tribes of these islands are distinguished in two groups: The Onge, Sentinelese, Jarawa and Andamanese of Negroid descent living on the Andaman Islands and The Shompen and Nicobarese of Mongoloid descent living in the Nicobar Islands.

Most of the tribes are on the verge of extinction. Outsiders attempting to make contact with them are driven away with bows and arrows. They continue to maintain a unique lifestyle living in harmony with nature. Andaman and Nicobar Islands have a unique culture, where is a blended harmony of different religions, languages and ethnic groups. The island is known as Mini India. The capital of the country, Port Blair has a cosmopolitan character. All important festivals are celebrated with equal enthusiasm by all religious groups.

Island Tourism Festival: This festival is celebrated every year from December to January. It is a fortnight long festival. People staying all over the islands attend the exhibition organized during the festival. Cultural troupes and artistes of national and international fame are invited to perform during the festival apart from performances by the talents of these islands including tribals. Water sports as the Nicobari Hodi race are organized. Other attractions are Magic show, Puppet show, Floating restaurant, Baby show, and Dog show.

The Dress Patterns: Till recently the aboriginal tribes of these islands did not wear clothes. The Sentinelese tribes go naked even now. The Jarawas use only decorative items as necklaces made of shell and barks of trees, arm bands, waste bands etc. The Shompens use clothes only below their waist. The people of the Car Nicobar islanders now wear modern clothes and abandoned their traditional dresses like coconut leaf petticoats and the like. The Onges remained naked for centuries but now wear have adapted themselves to the dress code of the mainland.

There are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs in the Island. Inter-religion and inter-regional marriages are common. First Church was opened at Katchalwas on 8th January 1962. Now there are many big beautiful churches as well as Hindu temples present on the island. However, influences of Christianity have affected indigenous traditions, worship systems and belief.


Andamanese Language
The number of speakers of the languagehas been steadily decreasing. Anadamanese dialects are usually classified into northern, central and southern groups. Of these the southern dialects are usually classified into northern, central and southern groups. Of these thr southern are the most archaic. The dialect of little Andaman Island is the southernmost of the Andamanese grammer is the use of affixes to specify the functions of the words of a sentence. The language has no number system, the two number words in the language mean "one" and "more than one".