by Joe Josef & Frank  Munch

The "Sea Gypsies" are a unique part of Phukets parentage.

The Island of Phuket is home to the ancient people of the Sea Gypsies. They live - as they have done for hundreds of years - on Koh Sireh, a little island divided from main Phuket by a small street of water and at Rawaii, a beach at the southernmost part of Phuket. A few hundred "Thai-mai" as they are officially called, have their homes and their heritage here.

These people are the oldest inhabitants of Phuket, yet they have no legal rights to their land.

The government is planning to erase the village on Koh Sireh in order to expand the city's fishing port.

The plans include future housing of the Sea Gypsies in modern apartment buildings and teaching them to produce handicrafts.

Authentic Phuket Culture

But so far the Sea Gypsies are making a living from fishing and fishery-related work, like they have done for ages. And from the tourists that visit their villages to experience authentic Phuket culture.
No written or other testimonies exist to verify the origin of the Sea Gypsies. Their culture is nomadic without permanent habitats and without writing tools. One theory holds that the Sea Gypsies are descendants of the Malaysian colonies that evaded the Muslim invasion of Burma.
Another theory sees them as descendants of the original Indian race, the Vedas.

Culture faces extinction
Today the Sea Gypsies are a mixed people with their own unique language and their own unique brand of animism. They have no historic records, only legends and fables about man's connection with nature. Dead bodies are deposed of on "Dead Islands" where the spirits of the dead live on.

Two of the most important animistic rites are still celebrated with gusto: The worshipping of spirits by raising two high poles as a door- or threshold-symbol and the symbolic launching of the spirit-ship.
The Sea Gypsies are nomads, who roam the sea. But the two colonies of Sea Gypsies living on Phuket are an exception from the usual nomadic life-style. But nomads do not bother to go through legal logistics to become owners of the land, they are living on. So now their culture faces extinction.

Simple tools
About 500 people are still living out there on the ocean, as they have done for hundreds of years. They are the last of their ancestry, living on "house-boats" made of hollowed tree-trunks.

Only in the monsoon season, when the weather does not permit them to dwell on open waters, do they seek shelter and raise temporarily housings on one of the many uninhabited islands in the Andaman Sea.
This is the only calendar, the Sea Gypsies have: the dry season, when they can live on their boats and the rainy season, when they have to stay on land.
One of the many fascinating traits of the Sea Gypsies is the way they hunt. Only very simple tools - like spears - are being used (and nowadays: scuba masks). Whenever enough fish, squid, oyster or whatever the Ocean provides, is being caught, the work is done and the food is being prepared. There is no need for storing, as the Andaman Sea teems with food all year round.

Sister to mankind
Once a year the Sea Gypsies hunt the sacred sea turtles and eat their meat. This is one of the annual highlights of their society.
Legend has it, that once in the past, a Sea Gypsy woman was transformed into a sea turtle. The body became animal, but the face was still human. Since then, the Sea Gypsies worship the sea turtle as a sister to mankind. Still once a year, while paying regard to the proper rites, it is permitted to hunt sea turtles and to imbibe their delicious meat.

In daily life, the Sea Gypsies are not finicky. Their menu may not seem delicious all the way by modern eyes, but it is healthy and varied. The protein-heavy seafood is being complemented by vitamins and fibers from rice, fruits and berries. On the beaches and in the rocks, the Sea Gypsies gather worms, big lice and bats.

Small money, big happiness
Only to small extends do the people of the Sea Gypsies own money. Their original trade is based on barter and exchanging of oyster- and snail-shells. But when they do earn money, they convert it to such delights as rice, eggs, candies and tobacco.

The villages of the Sea Gypsies on Koh Sireh and Rawaii beach offer the visitor an unique glimpse into an old and archaic culture.
The "real" and "free" nomads still roam out there, but the peaceful and happy residents of the two villages have found a compromise between their nomadic heritage and the thrills of modern civilization. They still hone their indigenous crafts. They still build boats, catch fish and dive to gather shells. The women work together in the free space between the houses. Everything happens in the open. The bathing place is an open well some hundred meters from the village. But they enjoy living in houses with electricity and -sometimes- running water.

Everybody is welcome
The Sea Gypsies keep to themselves, they still are an authentic source of knowledge to historians and laymen and living proof of long gone cultures for the scientists and the interested visitor. They enrich our world with their very own peaceful, inviting and colorful way of life. There is no police, there is hardly any crime. School consists of an open, little shed by the waterside.
Everybody is welcome to their residences. If you go there, you will meet lots of smiles - though shy their bearers may be - whether you come to buy some fish, to play a ball of snooker, have an ice-cream... or just take a stroll and a look around. The gentle people are still there. But probably not for long...