Children of the Sea March 2013
The picture below shows one of the Moken people also known
as "Chao Le" (people of the sea) or "Sea Gypsies" is pictured below. There are
more names and spellings for these people whose origin is not fully determined.
By their accounts they came from former Malay colonies fleeing Burma from the
Muslim invasion, others see themselves as descendants of Indian Vedas.
The Thai government created several settlements to
assimilate nomadic seafaring minorities.
One I visited is located on the Surin Islands in the Mu Ko Surin National
Park 55 km offshore the Thai mainland. In this location of extreme isolation on
a small island in the borderland to Burma about 60 families are relatively
undisturbed.
Another government settlement of the Moken people in the
Andaman Sea that I visited is on the island of Phuket. Located close to a big
city and tourist destination, this settlement shows less of the original
lifestyle of the Moken. This lifestyle is documented in the large modern visitor
center at the entrance of the village.
