The high-pitched wail of a shaman, accompanied by the steady beat of drums, echoes across the still waters of the Andaman Sea as Thailand's Moken sea gypsies call to their ancestral spirits. A potent mix of home-brewed alcohol and supernatural beliefs adds to the eeriness of the full-moon lobong ceremony, which marks the ethnic minority's annual worshipping of their male and female ancestors on Surin Island, north of Phuket.
The celebration is a happy reunion for the Moken. It's also a chance to reflect on events of the past and to talk about what lies ahead for this unique and slowly dwindling tribe of indigenous people, who are struggling to retain their rights and Thai citizenship.
The ocean-faring gypsies have been navigating the Andaman Sea for centuries, having most likely migrated from Indonesia to live along Thailand's southwest coast. By diving for aquatic life and fishing with nets and spears, Moken families live on the high seas aboard traditional houseboats called kabangs for months at a time, surviving on a diet of sea urchins, shellfish, lobster and other ocean inhabitants. When not at sea, they live in a beachfront village on the main island in the Surin archipelago. It is here they have lived since the events of December 26 devastated their fleet.
The Moken, who number about 3,000, were thrust into the spotlight after their miraculous escape from the tsunami, when village elders recognised the strange retreat of the sea and warned their people to avoid the subsequent killer waves. 'I had been told by my grandparents years ago that if the water went back quickly into the sea, then the laboon [a wave that eats people] was coming soon,' says Jebae Klatalay, an elderly villager who was carried to higher ground when the tsunami struck. Thanks to the Moken's instinct for self-preservation, the village lost only one person in the tragedy.
For Narumon Arunothai, of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, the preservation of Moken culture is an ongoing concern. The social scientist has studied the nomads for the past decade. 'People were saved from the tsunami because these elders know the sea. We should encourage the young to have pride in their [traditional] wisdom, which is bound to be forgotten one day,' he says. 'They have this wealth of knowledge from the sea and the forest. This knowledge is not recognised, probably by the Moken themselves, as being valuable. [But] we have to recognise this asset that could help keep the Surin islands as a protected area.'
The Thai government declared the islands a national park in 1981, but with the official title came restrictions on where the Moken could fish and gather shells. Menial jobs, such as working as park staff, were offered as consolation and a fund was set up to employ the adult Moken for about 80 baht ($16) a day. Thailand's fisheries conservation unit also established Suraswadee, a one-room school, in 1996 to help Moken children obtain a basic education about the importance of marine conservation.