Ancient legends and traditions of the sea, passed on from generation to generation saved an entire village of Moken Sea Gypsies from the Tsunami waves that hit Thailand on 26 December 2004.
When the first Tsunami wave hit the shores of Southern Thailand the entire population of a Moken fishing village had already fled into the hills behind their village on South Surin Island, some 40 kilometer of the shores of Thailand's mainland.
When the sea suddenly sucked all the water from the beach, Sarmao Klathalay the chief of the Moken Sea-Gypsy village, recognized this sign as it was told in the ancient tales handed down by his ancestors.
Those ancient legends says that when suddenly the sea-water withdraws fast and far, those same waters will soon reappear in the form of a huge man-eating wave, destroying everything in its path. When Chief Sarmao saw the strange behavior of the sea on the morning of 26 December 2004, he started shouting "Man Eating Wave", while at the same time running very fast towards the nearby hills.
It is believed that those ancient Sea-Gypsy legends find their roots in the Krakatoa volcano eruption of the year 1883, which caused a tsunami in the area of Sumatra's southwest coast, a region which was often frequented by the Thai Sea Gypsies ancestors, while they roamed the seas between Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia.
While in in many other places in Thailand, locals started collecting the plenty fish left on the sands after the water was suddenly sucked out to sea, the Moken Sea Gypsies where already heading for higher grounds into the hills behind their village.
Traditionally Moken Sea Gypsies spend seven to eight months a year wandering the Andaman sea on their large wooden boats with thatched roofs that can hold a complete family. They live from fishing and diving for pearls, sporadically stopping on the islands to trade their bounty for fuel, water and food. The rest of the year they settle in elevated houses on stilts between the level of high and low tide along the shores of remote islands in Thailand.
No one in Thailand has a closer relationship with the sea than those Moken Sea Gypsies who even worship the sea in their animist belief.
The exact origins of the Moken Sea gypsies or Chao Lay in Thai language is uncertain, but they were the first inhabitants of the Andaman coastal region around Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia. It is believed that the Moken Sea Gypsies, also knownn as Saleeter, Salon, Salone or Morgan, are the last survivors of the original inhabitants of Southeast Asia who survived the Ice-Age some 10,000 years ago by taking to the sea on primitive boats made from hollowing out large trees.
The Moken Sea Gypsies are the masters of the Andaman sea, living many months a year at sea while wandering from island to island in their wooden boats holding a complete family of up to three generations. Legends and songs of the Moken evoke how they became pearl divers at the time when the Chinese began sailing through the region. The Sea Gypsies learned to dive deep into submerged caves to harvest sea cucumbers and pearls to trade with the Chinese sailors.
During the monsoon season, from June to October, the Moken Sea Gypsies live ashore on remote beaches where they build temporary huts on bamboo poles.
Moken can dive without scuba gear to depths of 25 meters and have overtime developed a incredible underwater vision, twice as sharp as normal people. Studies of the Lund University have shown that they are able to change the shape of their eye's lenses underwater, in line to increase the light refraction to improve underwater vision.
Many of Thailand's Moken have nowadays settled into permanent villages along the shores, only in the Mergui archipelago, between Thailand and Myanmar do we still find Moken Sea Gypsies that live their traditional life on boats at sea. The many islands of the Mergui archipelago are home to a few thousand traditional Moken Sea Gypsies.
