| Mabul
Island, Malaysia
Date:
Monday, May 23, 2005
By: Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Mabul
Island, Malaysia – Pandoy Tagayan, a
seasoned fisherman and skilled boatbuilder, walked the
shoreline of this remote beach in Southeast Asia and
pointed to the family of "Sea Gypsies" who
were crouched at the ocean’s edge.
"Without
a life on water," said Tagayan, 41, "they
would die."
Peering
out from low-lying thatched huts and rinsing salt water
from their clothes, dozens of Sea Gypsies, as they are
known, shielded their naked babies from a sweltering
sun and whispered among themselves in their small, makeshift
community.
The
present-day Sea Gypsies, or " chao leh," in
Thai, which means "people of the sea," are
the ancestors of a nomadic tribe that fled Indonesia
about three centuries ago for a life on the ocean. By
the late
1800's,
according to historians, the Sea Gypsies had established
temporary communities in Indonesia and Malaysia. Not
much of their history has been recorded and their detailed
origins remain a mystery. One theory suggests the Sea
Gypsies are descendants of the Malaysian colonies that
escaped the Muslim invasion of Burma.
Whatever
theories are offered, this much is true: they are nomadic
people of color – dark skin, black hair –
who earn their living by fishing and catching lobster.
They are temporarily of the island of Mabul, but not
part of it, preferring to stay close to the ocean while
repairing their boats in early June and waiting for
favorable weather to return to the ocean.
"They
live at sea and do everything on their boats,"
said Maxmilliian Young, who lives on Mabul, an island
of 2,000 people in the Celebes Sea.
"They
eat on their boats, have weddings on their boats, have
babies on their boats," Young explained, walking
past families of Sea Gypsies who came ashore to repair
their boats. "When they have weddings, they join
the boats together and raise a flag to symbolize the
union of the families."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See
photos of this beautiful and exotic country!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
children of Sea Gypsies are often not part of the island’s
formal school system and they stay close to their parents
who teach them to fish and navigate the sea at young
ages. They will sometimes wave to visitors, but are
reluctant to communicate. Most only know two word in
English: "Hello" and "Money."
They
are part of an extraordinary diverse, multi-cultural
population that is Malaysia, located in Southeast Asia,
about four degrees from the Equator, and divided into
two distinct parts: Peninsular Malaysia, which borders
Thailand and Singapore, and the East Malaysian provinces
of Sabah and Sarawak in North Borneo, which shares a
border with Indonesia. The regions are 400 miles apart
and separated by the South China Sea.
Peninsular
Malaysia accounts for 40 percent of the country’s
land mass and several mountain ranges stretch across
the country. Sabah and Sarawak are covered by dense
jungles and Mount Kinabalu in Sabah’s one of Southeast
Asia’s highest peaks rising to 13,450 into the
sky. Sixty percent of Malaysia is rainforest. There
are 8,000 species of flowering plants, and wild animal
life includes elephants, rhinos, tigers, leopards, sun
bears, orangutans and gibbons.
Life
on Mabul is slow-and-easy, miles from the bustling urban
centers. It takes Malaysian men two months to build
a wooden 48-foot fishing boat. A few fishermen recently
showed a visitor how to wrap squid blood in a tight
plastic ball to be used as bait for luring tuna, grouper
and bull sharks.
A
good day, one of the men explained, is when the trade
winds blow gently from south to north and they return
home with 500 kilos of tuna. Some of the tuna they eat,
but most of the fish is sold to merchants on the mainland.
On
most days, as the burnt-orange sun rises over Mabul,
the fishermen walk to shore, climb into slender wooden
boats and head out to sea. Some women and children see
them off, wave goodbye and wait, hoping the day’s
bounty from the sea yields a substantial catch for the
evening meal.
|
