Thailand's Moken tribe a small community of fishermen whose elders ordered a hilltop evacuation jus...

1. Sea Gypsies' Tsunami Rebuild Curse
Thailand's Moken tribe a small community of fishermen whose elders ordered a hilltop evacuation
just before the tsunami hit is rebuilding on a nearby beach. The Moken believe their old home is
cursed because they mistakenly left behind a handicapped boy.
The boy was the only tribe member to die in the waves, which killed more than 157,000 across
southern Asia and 5,300 in Thailand.
Whereas the soaring death toll has touched off calls in the high-tech capitals of the world for a
global tsunami warning system, here on this small island it has strengthened an ancient people's
faith in skills passed down from generation to generation.
Younger Moken seem impressed by the way several elders detected unusual movements in the Bay
of Bengal on Dec. 26 and warned villagers to seek safety on a hilltop before the tallest of three
waves hit the island following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean.
The tsunami swallowed the Moken's beachside village of several dozen wooden houses on stilts and
destroyed many of their precious boats. A new village is already being built as close to the shore as
before but not on the same beach.
"We will build a new village in Bon Yai beach because there is a person who died in Bon Lek beach,"
said Moken headman Salama Klatalee, referring to the boy left behind.
Likewise, the death of several Moken from cholera several years ago prompted a similar move, that
village also having become taboo, said Pantjaporn Panklin, an official of the Care International
Foundation, which is helping the Moken rebuild.
There are some 200 Moken living on South Surin Island, one of several groups of so-called sea
gypsies in Thailand and Myanmar. They are darker than most Thais, with curly hair and bushy
eyebrows.

2. For centuries, the Moken spent several months of
the year the monsoon season plying the Andaman
Sea, fishing with nets and spears. They lived in long
wooden boats that were big enough for whole
families and partially covered by canvas roofs.
Occasionally, they stopped on islands to sell their
catch, buy food and get water. The rest of the year
they lived in their elevated homes along the shore,
still surrounded by water at high tide.
The Moken are animist a belief in the existence of individual spirits and worship the sea. Every year
during the full moon of the fifth lunar month, they stop working for three days and nights to feast,
dance, sing and put themselves into a trance.
Today, like other sea gypsy ethnic minorities in and around Thailand, the Moken are being absorbed
by mainstream Thai culture. They still have their own language, but many Moken youths on South
Surin Island are also fluent in Thai.
The island, one of five in a chain 40 miles off the Thai coast, has no roads or cars, and everyone
travels by foot or by boat. Some Moken work in the national park that makes up half the island.
Others are employed as garbage collectors, housekeepers and hiking or snorkeling guides for
tourists. They often learn far less about sailing, navigation and the sea than their elders.
Few of the sea gypsies, even the older ones, now fish for months at a time in the Andaman Sea. Most
only fish during the day, returning home at night.
Narumon Arunothai, a social scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok who has long studied
the Moken, hopes the younger generation will be inspired by their elders' survival skills.
"People are safe from tsunami because these elders know the sea. We should encourage the young
to have pride in their wisdom, which is bound to be forgotten one day," she said.
By Rungrawee C. Pinyorat
2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
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