the tsunami of december 26

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The tsunami in Southeast Asia : and the Moken ? And the Archipelago ? --version française--

Results of the first mission of evaluation of the Moken situation in Myanmar

The MAP-RAID, in collaboration with the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Man and Nature, realized several evaluation missions concerning the Moken situation in Myanmar.

Maxime Boutry, a Ph. D. candidate in ethnology went to Victoria Point (Kaw Thaung) on the 4th of January in order to make preliminary constatations (cf. Geo magazine February 2005).

The sea walls that had fortunately been constructed a short time before were only partially destroyed and gave protection to most of the boats and the houses of the city and port. However many boats in the surrounding area were destroyed.
The situation for the Burmese fishermen and the Moken out at sea, in spite of reassuring news that Maxime was able to collect, does not give a faithul image of reality.
Those responsible for the project included ethnologists, a member of Médecins du Monde (Patrick Baguet) and a photographer. They travelled for about ten days among the Moken islands (from Kaw Thaung to the Sisters Islands). Their first constatation was that there were not any deaths among the nomads. The Moken of Thailand, at least those of Ko Surin (cf. Geo magazine, February 2005) had foreseen the event, at least they had been able to adapt in such a way that they survived. Of course, the boats were destroyed (10 to 20%) and the material damage was very important. The real problem remains how to replanish supplies since exchanges were no longer possible, because few seamen go out to sea. The Moken need an exchange circuit to exchange the products they collect for their daily needs, especially rice and gasoline. This is why, thanks to the help we recieved from Médecins du Monde, we were able to bring several tons of rice and some gasoline which were very welcome. Health care was important for this small society whose mortality rate was already very high in normal times.
Nonetheless the Moken society was able to resist and even very well able to resist, why ? This is the real question. If the ancestral knowledge of this nomad sea faring population plays an important role in this phenomenon one must also add to this the fact that the waves in Myanmar were less violent and their hypothetic memory of the same sort of cataclysm made it possiible to « foresee ».
This is truer of the Moken of Thailand than for the Moken of Myanmar because the ancestors of Thailand were able to transmit a mythical literature that hardly exists in Myanmar. And even if the young people of the Moken society in Ko Surin do not believe their elders who told them to hide in the forest, they nonetheless listen to them. The transmission of knowledge was therefore reinforced, even in Myanmar where young people were able to witness the power of the religious knowledge of their elders who were able to protect them from the cataclysm by integrating it in a cultural continuum.

However in Myanmar, even if there are less oral texts known, the Moken are very well aware of the etiological myth that created the first ancestors who were made pregnant by the wind. They also are aware of the close relationship that exists between them and the mammals and the sea reptiles (turtles and dugongs). They themselves consider that the danger was a possible return to the origins, a return to mythical indifferenciation. Since no one wants to return to the sea and find himself transformed into a turtle or a dugong and be harpooned, the Moken of Myanmar refuse for the moment to go back into the sea either to dive or to swim. The collective memory of their myths teach them to distrust primeval chaotic forces. Thus the myth teaches them that a wave never comes alone by itself ; this has saved a great number of lives, as the second wave was more destructive than the first one that played the role of a warning signal.

The Moken were hit very hard in the southern area of the archipelago (Bada, Loughbourouh and Swinton). The water engulfed everything in Bada but the waves surrounding the islands protect the bay where they usually stay during the first months of the dry season. According to their own words, these unleashed forces « sprung up from the earth like lava or like boiling water ». The sea receeded, far, very far and the Myanmar boats in that area were made prisoners, imobilised, since the seamen had absolutely no idea that a drama was taking place. This is why they were more strongly hit. The Moken had been unable to remove their boats that were anchored along the beach in time so that they could push them seaward because the force of the currents and « the whirlpool that were going in all directions made all movements impossible ». The men themselves were unable to put their feet in the water because of the violence of the current. The only thing for the Moken further away was to wait while the others fled into the forest. When the waves struck the bay they hit the Moken from all sides. The Moken consider that these « chaotic forces » are a message from the spirits anouncing a period of reconstruction that all Moken feel is absolutely necessary. The boats were tossed up into the air, then sank and finally flung into the forest. Then they were flung back into the sea when the sea receeded. Though there was much destruction there was no dead because the Moken consider that they are « protected since we are few in number and if one of us die we will all die ». This is how ethnic solidarity functions, this is how the spirits and the ancestors have chosen to reveal their presence and the power of what we consider to be archaic times, but which for the Moken are so close that they can at any moment fling into the chaos. The Moken of Bada then, having observed that the place where they found themselves was relatively secure, since they have been spared, translated the message of the spirits in the following way : « the forces of the earth and of the sea, the spirits and the ancestors are very angry and sent us a signal. The Moken of the myths and the Moken of today must survive and adapt themselves. Therefore, one must consider that the primeval forces awaken like an act of creation that we the Moken must accomplish. For the moment there is no question of diving or swimming in the water. We will live on our boats, we will be born and die on them but we, for the moment, will remain stationary ».

Certain Moken in the outside islands (Lord Loughborough and Great Swinton) that were hit harder, have rejoined the flotilla of Bada, so that now the group has become more important. Then the Moken of Bada learned that the Moken of Thailand were in a dangerous situation, notably those who had chosen to live near the ports, in great misery, second rate citizens (like Ko Lao not far from Ranong). They decided to go and look for them, help them, take care of all the orphans and all the children who were in distress. The flotilla of Bada has thus became an important center of identity and culture. It centralises the forces and the capacity the Moken have for survival. Because if the Moken of Thailand have been hard hit, at least those who were not in Surin, this is because the Moken feel they were no longer traditional Moken and their shaman either disappeared or had become too well adapted to the surrounding sedentary world. The Moken of Myanmar who remain more faithful to their tradition were preserved but they are in the process of adapting themselves. The ancestors send them a message to continue to do so and regain their force of identity.

In Lampi for example, more to the North, the Myanmar boats and houses were hard hit. The canal which separates Lampi from Eyles was completely dry. But there again there were no dead Moken.
In the Sisters Islands and among the group of People of Domel, there were no deaths found among the Moken. Some Myanmar boats lying on their sides when the sea receeded, crushed some fishermen. On the Sisters Islands the waves stopped in front of the Moken village but did not spare the mixed village of Burmese and Moken. Of course, the Moken village was better protected than the other villages since the nomads know very well which places will give them the best protection. But the message is clear. « Here lives a great shaman and who says great shaman says small tsunami, because he knows how to read the messages from the supernatural world and to give warning in advance ». At the moment of the catastrophy the Moken of the Sisters Islands came out of their houses and their boats to face the waves on the open strand (few kms). Unconsciousness or prescience ? One must understand that the Moken consider that if one shows ones fear one inevitably attracts bad luck. To make fun of the anger of the spirits and danse before any danger, is to affirm their confidence in their traditions and their ancestors. Thus, for them, the wave stopped at the Sisters Islands and the shaman to be was de facto confirmed in his function. It was the spirits who had elected the shaman together with the primeval forces sent by the ancestors. The Burmese respect for the Moken became greater and the Moken spirits are now considered as being respectable since events have proved this.

A second mission (together with a team of CBS news 60 mn television, cf. report aired on Sunday the 20th of March) had as an objective to observe the Moken situation and to show to the world how a population is able to survive and adapt without the outside world having to mobilise itself and create needs that have nothing to do with them. If the Moken need to be helped it would be inside programs that would assure them a development and an integration as smooth as possible. This catastrophy should make one aware of the sanitary situation and make it possible for the Moken to have the means to adapat themselves. But what is even better would be to leave them to adapt by themselves and to arrange things according to their own knowledge. This is what we learn from the tsunami. In accord with our colleague Narumon Hinshiranan, a Thai ethnologist, our desire was to use the intermediary of the 60mn (CBS news) to show the extent of the knowledge of this people of the sea and the lessons we should learn from them, one of great humility for those who know how to adapt, survive, save the lives of strangers.
A third and longer mission has taken place and will complete our informations.

The sanitary situation will be the object of a report established by Patrick Baguet.

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