The Urak Lawoi

| deutsche version click here |

The Urak Lawoi are the natives of the Adang Archipelago in the Andaman Sea of Thailand. Together with the better known Moken they are often called sea-nomads,
although they are a different people, with a separate origin, language and culture. In their own language, urak means human and lawoi means sea. This language, a Malayan-polinesian dialect, does not exist in written form. Where they originally came from is in dispute, but it is accepted that ethnically they are Malayans.
In Thailand, the Urak Lawoi are living mainly on the coast and islands of the Andaman Sea, e.g. Phuket, Lanta, Phi Phi, Bulon and Lipe. Their family names are: Hantalee (who not fear the sea), Pramongkit (fisherman) und Taleeluk (high sea).

Most of the Urak Lawoi in the Adang Archipelago are from Lanta island. To Kiri, their highly respected shaman, was an adventurer and trader from Indonesia. At the beginning of the 19th century, he married a woman of the Urak Lawoi on Lanta island. In 1909, the governor of the southern Thailand province Satun asked his friend To Kiri to populate the Adang Archipelago. At that time, Thailand and British Malaysia were correcting their borders. With a Thai population the governor could claim the resource-rich archipelago for Thailand. A great distance to the mainland, no natural harbor and unpredictable storms during the rainy season have until then prevented the population of the Adang archipelago.

The Life of the Urak Lawoi is strongly connected to the Sea. Traditionally, they built their houses on the beach, their boats always in view. The sea and the coast were not simply food sources, but the home and heart of their culture. They developed amazing skills in navigation, fishing and diving and were self-sustaining. As semi-nomads, they gathered seafood from the reef and plants from the islands. During the stormy monsoon season (May to November) they lived in their houses. During the dry season (December to April) they wandered through the Adang Archipelago with their whole families, building provisoric huts at protected beaches with fresh water sources. During these several month long journeys called baghad they could exploit the full bio-diversity of the Archipelago, without disrupting its ecological balance. They gathered snails and shells in the tide-zone, dived for lobsters and turtles and harpooned fish.
In the forest, they harvested roots, leaves and fruit. From rattan they built fish-traps and from bamboo traps for wild boars. They could only survive because of their knowledge of the interplay of weather, tides and the behavior of the animals they hunted and gathered. They learned in detail the topography of the Adang Archipelago both above and under water.
Left to the forces of nature, they developed a strong communal life. Food was shared and items of everyday use were property of the group. Individual property was unknown. Daily work like gathering, preparation and conservation of food and also the upbringing of the children was done equally by both sexes. Roles were not set.
The children took part in their parents daily routine and learned by example to fend for themselves. Community meant safety, therefore they spent as much time with the family as was possible.
Boats were once the most valued posessions of the Urak Lawoi. Every household had a rowing boat, about three meters long, sometimes with a sail. Until today, boats are built on Ko Lipe, usually by members of the extended familiy working together. The deep bond between the Urak Lawoi and their boats is visible during the prachak festival, celebrated twice a year at the change of the monsoon. After a ceremony at the grave of To Kiri and his wife, a show race is held with decorated longtail-boats and a model ship is made out of the soft wood of the Zalacca palm tree. Rigged with sails, the ceremonial boat is then lowered into the sea to sail away with all misfortunes.

Most Urak Lawoi on the Adang Archipelago are still animists. They worship their ancestors and believe in nature-spirits. For them, natural phenomenons and the non-material world are closely interwoven. Illnesses are consulted by the shaman first, but they are also open for new methods. Many Urak Lawoi are also buddhists. Those living on islands near to the mainland are muslims and on Ko Lipe there is a christian parish.
Expressions of their culture are rammana and rong gneng. Both are music and dance of indo-malyan origin, influenced by western europeans during colonial times.
Rammana is drumming and ceremonial chanting, rong gneng is a social dance with singing,  drums and a violin.

During the one hundred years the Urak Lawoi have been living in the Adang Archipelago, their living conditions have changed dramatically. Because of national park regulations they had to give up their settlements on the islands Adang and Rawi and their extended baghad trips were forbidden. Today the Urak Lawoi of the Adang Archipelago are living on the small island Lipe, where they are driven away from the beaches into the inner of the island by the growing tourism industry. New technologies, improved transport and the governmental schooling system are confronting them with the modern age and the effects of globalization.

Heike Waelde
Source: The Urak Lawoi of the Adang Archipelago, Supin Wongbusarakum