 Moken girl wearingthanaka on her face | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Thailand Myanmar | |
| Languages | |
| Moken,Malay,Thai,Burmese, others | |
| Religion | |
| Ancestor worship,Buddhism,Islam[citation needed] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Malay,Orang Laut,Bajau |
TheMoken (alsoMawken orMorgan;Burmese:ဆလုံ လူမျိုး;Thai:ชาวเล,romanized: chao le,lit. 'sea people') are anAustronesian people of theMergui Archipelago, a group of approximately 800 islands claimed by both Myanmar and Thailand, and theSurin Islands. Most of the Moken live a semi-nomadichunter-gatherer lifestyle heavily based on the sea, though this lifestyle is increasingly under threat.
The Moken identify in a common culture and some speak theMoken language, a distinctAustronesian language. Attempts by both Myanmar and Thailand toassimilate the Moken into the wider regional culture have met with very limited success.[2] However, the Moken face an uncertain future as their population decreases and their nomadic lifestyle and unsettled legal status leave them marginalized by modern property and immigration laws, maritime conservation and development programs, and tightening border policies.[3][4][5][6]
The people refer to themselves as Moken. The name is used for all of the Austronesian speaking tribes who inhabit the coast and islands in theAndaman Sea on the west coast ofThailand, the provinces ofSatun,Trang,Krabi,Phuket,Phang Nga, andRanong, up through theMergui Archipelago of Myanmar. The group includes the Moken proper, the Moklen (Moklem), the Orang Sireh (Betel-leaf People), and the Orang Lanta. The last, the Orang Lanta, are a hybridized group formed when the Malay people settled theLanta Islands where the proto-Malay Orang Sireh had been living. The Moken are considered to be mostly sedentary with more permanent villages in the provinces of Phang-nga, Phuket, Krabi, and Satun. These individuals also have closer ties to the countries in which they reside as they accept both the nationality and citizenship. Their children are also educated through local schools and are exposed to more mainstream cultural ideas. The Moken residing on theSurin Islands retain their more traditional methods and lifestyle.[7]
TheBurmese call the MokenSalone.[8] InThailand they are calledchao le, which can mean people who "live by the sea and pursue a marine livelihood" or those who speak the Austronesian language.[7] Another term that can be used ischao nam ("people of the water"), although these terms are also used loosely to include theUrak Lawoi and even theOrang Laut. In Thailand, acculturated Moken are calledThai mai ("new Thais").
Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Moken are also called "sea gypsies" (unrelated to theRomani people),[9][10] a generic term that applies to a number of peoples inSoutheast Asia (seeSea Gypsies (disambiguation)). TheUrak Lawoi are sometimes classified with the Moken, but they are linguistically and ethnologically distinct, being much more closely related to the Malay people.[11][12]
Their knowledge of the sea enables them to live off itsfauna andflora by using simple tools such as nets and spears to forage for food, which allows them to impact the environment more minimally than other more intensive forms of subsistence. Furthermore, their frequent movement in kin groups of between two and ten families also allows the land to rest and prevents overuse. Moken are considered hunter-gatherers due to their nomadic lifestyle and lack of material good accumulation. They also believe strongly in the idea that natural resources cannot be owned individually but are rather something that the entire community has access to without restrictions. Their egalitarian society follows into their ancestral worship as they regularly present supernatural beings with food offerings. Aside fromancestor worship, the Moken have no religion.[13]
More recently, they have reached out and begun trading some food (sea cucumbers andedible bird's nests) as well as marine products like pearls for other necessities at local markets. Trading and epidemics (cholera andsmallpox) also lead to their nomadic lifestyles in order to collect a variety of products to trade and to avoid the spread of deadly diseases. If an epidemic begins to spread, the infected members will remain at the location with a small amount of provisions, while healthy members will depart to a new location. The hope is that the provisions will allow the sick enough time to recuperate while not endangering the rest of the kin group with their sickness. The nomadic lifestyle can also reduce group conflict as affected parties may leave one kin group and enter another to give some distance and allow the feud to die down. After some time has passed and the arguing parties see each other once more, the intensity of the argument will have decreased leading to more amicable relationships.[7] The Moken use 83 plant species for food, 33 for medicinal purposes, 53 for construction of huts, boats and tools, and 54 species for other purposes.[7]
During the dry north-eastmonsoon season (when the sea is relatively calm), the Moken used to live on their boats calledkabang, which served not just as transportation, but also as a kitchen, bedroom, and living area.[14][15] The lastkabang of theSurin Islands was built in 2006 and an initiative to revive the tradition started in 2018.[16] Previously the Moken used akabang koman, "a dug-out boat equipped with asalacca gunwale [where] Salacca is a light wood with a long stem".[7] To construct the boat, the different pieces are fitted into each other with the natural resources the Moken can find on land. The boat's usage was discontinued more than 40 years ago as the salt water eroded the wood within three to sixth months, therefore new techniques were devised to create more robust boats. Thekabang lasts longer and one anthropologist, Jacques Ivanoff, suggests that the boat with its bifurcated bow and stern represent the human body.[7][2] In monsoon season, which falls between the months of May and October, they set temporary camps on the mainland. During themonsoon season, they build additional boats and forage for food in the forest.
Some of the Burmese Moken are still nomadic people who roam the sea most of their lives; however, much of their traditional life, which is built on the premise of life as outsiders, is under threat.[17]
There is much speculation as to the historical origins of the Moken people.[18] It is thought that, due to their Austronesian language, they originated in Southern China as agriculturalists 5000–6000 years ago. From there, the Austronesian peoples dispersed and settled various South Asian Islands. It is theorized that the Moken were forced off of these coastal islands into a nomadic lifestyle on the water due to rising sea levels.
For most of the human population, unaided vision underwater is very poor because the eye'scornea fails to focus light onto theretina. In the air, the cornea accomplishes two thirds of the focussing of light; this is missing when underwater, yieldingblur.[19] Moken children, however, are able to see underwater whilefreediving to collect clams, sea cucumbers, and more. Anna Gislén and colleagues showed that the children see betterunderwater than European children: their "spatial resolution ... [is] more than twice as good".[20]
The researchers showed that the Moken children have the ability toconstrict theirpupils when underwater and the ability toincrease the power of their eyes' lenses to the maximum when underwater. Decreasing the size of the pupil improves the eye'sdepth of field, reducing blur; increasing the power of the eyes' lenses also reduces blur.[19][21]
The researchers ruled out other possible explanations for the Moken children's underwater abilities: They had not, at some state of their evolutionary history, traded off focussing power from the corneas to their eyes' lenses. Their eyes are notshortsighted. Their ability to alter the power of their lenses is not superior.[19] Later, Gislén and others trained European children to see better underwater, for example by crossing their eyes, which increases the power of their lenses and reduces the diameter of their pupils. They found that the European children could then see as well underwater as the Moken children.[20]
TheBurmese andThai governments have made attempts at assimilating the people into their own culture, but these efforts have met with limited success. Thai Moken have been permanently settled in villages located in theSurin Islands (Mu Ko Surin National Park),[22][23] inPhuket Province, on the northwestern coast of Phuket Island, and on the nearbyPhi Phi Islands ofKrabi Province.[24]
TheAndaman Sea off theTenasserim coast was the subject of keen scrutiny from Myanmar's regime during the 1990s due to offshorepetroleum discoveries bymultinational corporations includingUnocal,Petronas and others. Reports from the late-1990s told of forced relocation by Myanmar'smilitary regime of the sea nomads to mainland sites. It was claimed most of the Moken peoples had been relocated by 1997, which is consistent with a pervasive pattern offorced relocation of suspect ethnic, economic and political groups, conducted throughout Myanmar during the 1990s.
In Thailand, the Moken have been the target ofland grabs by developers contesting their ownership of ancestral lands. Although nomadic peoples have resided in Thailand's Andaman coastal provinces for several centuries, they have historically neglected to register official ownership of the land due to their lack of knowledge and involvement in legal protocol.[13]
The islands the Moken inhabit received much attention during the recovery from the2004 tsunami. As they are keenly attuned to the ocean, the Moken in theSurin Islands knew the tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004 was coming and managed to preserve many lives.[25] However, in the coastal villages ofPhang Nga Province, likeTap Tawan, the Moken suffered severe devastation to housing and fishing boats in common with other Moken communities.[26]
Their boat-dwelling descendants live on as the Moken, Orang Suku Laut and Bajau Laut. Today they are marginalised, subjected to ever-tightening pressure by the state to respect borders and come ashore.
