What do the Moken people do?

Moken women and children collect crustaceans and shells during low tide on beaches. When trading goods with land-based communities, the Moken usually work through middlemen operating in port towns along the Andaman.

How many Moken tribes are there?

The group of people referred to as “Moken” are actually three distinct tribes living along the Andaman Coast of Burma and Thailand – the Moken of the Mergui archipelago, the Moklen of Phang Nga province, and the Urak Lawoi living from Phuket southward to Satun.

What is the language of the Moken people?

The Moken Language The people refer to themselves as Mawken or Moken, and they are called Selung or Salon by the Burmese. The language has approximately 7,000 speakers, and six dialects: Dung, Jait, Lebi, Niawi, Jadiak and Moklen. The written form of Moken is found in Karen, Latin and Thai scripts.

What is the meaning of Moken?

sea people
Moken is a Thai word meaning sea people, people of water, sea nomads or sea gypsies. The Moken are a group of Austronesian people of an archipelago claimed by both Myanmar and Thailand. Their way of life is under pressure by assimilation, subversion, suppression, climate change, and corporate greed.

Where do the Moken people originate from?

‘ The extraordinary lives of the Moken, or Sea Gypsies, of south-east Asia. The Moken are a semi-nomadic Austronesian people, who live in the Mergui Archipelago, a group of approximately 800 islands in the Andaman Sea that is claimed both by Burma and Thailand.

How do you pronounce Moken?

  1. Phonetic spelling of Moken. Mo-ken. moh-ken. mo-ken.
  2. Meanings for Moken. Moken refers to the Austronesian people of the Mergui Archipelago, Myanmar.
  3. Examples of in a sentence. Feelfree Moken 14 Kayak. Feelfree Moken 12.5 Kayak. The Moken Eco Village.
  4. Translations of Moken. Chinese : 莫肯 Arabic : وموكلن Russian : Мокен

How do sea gypsies survive?

They’re nomads, constantly moving from island to island, living more than six months a year on their boats. At low tide, they collect sea cucumbers, and catch eels. At high tide, they dive for shellfish. They’ve been living this way for so many generations that they’ve become virtually amphibious.

What is a Moken called in Thailand?

In Thailand, acculturated Moken are called “Thai mai” (“new Thais”). Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Moken are also called “sea gypsies” (unrelated to the Romani people ), a generic term that applies to a number of peoples in Southeast Asia (see Sea Gypsies (disambiguation) ).

What race is the Moken?

The Moken. The Moken (also spelled Mawken or Morgan ), are an Austronesian ethnic group with about 2,000 members (declining) who maintain a nomadic, sea-based culture. The name is used for all of the Austronesian speaking tribes who inhabit the coast and islands in the Andaman Sea on the west coast of Thailand,…

Is the Moken tribe under threat?

Unfortunately, for many of them, their traditional way of life is now under threat and they are gradually disappearing. The Moken (also spelled Mawken or Morgan ), are an Austronesian ethnic group with about 2,000 members (declining) who maintain a nomadic, sea-based culture.

Are the Moken people like dolphins?

But not like I had seen before. They were more underwater than above water, they had their eyes wide open – they were like little dolphins.” Deep in the island archipelagos on the Andaman Sea, and along the west coast of Thailand live small tribes called the Moken people, also known as sea-nomads.