Ancient Moken Wisdom

Ancient Moken Wisdom. Many of the most ancient peoples and to so called civilized peoples, primitives, are some of the ones who will best help those who will eventually survive the Global Weather changes and tsunamis and earthquakes, droughts, deluges and the like that will come now and in the future.

I was eating breakfast at a restaurant with my family and a friend this morning. My friend had heard about Mokens whose tribe was the only group that was hit by the big Tsunami that did not lose any members at all. The Tsunami was and is called among other things, The Indian Ocean Earthquake, the Indonesian Tsunami or the Day after Christmas Tsunami of 2004 (December 26th 2004).

It turned out that the only group that was hit by the tsunami at full strength that did not lose any members was one tribe of Mokens who live on the Andaman Islands of Thailand. They are sea nomadic peoples and don't have a written language and are sometimes called Sea Gypsies. In their language there is no word for worry, when, or want because the whole tribe shares with each other. When is not important because there is only now. Worry is not important because they always have each other. Want is not important because they all share whatever they have with each other.

When the day of the tsunami arrived a tribal elder noticed the ancient signs. A so called civilized person might not notice but someone who lives close to the earth and sea must notice everything to survive. An elder of the Moken tribe noticed first that all the birds moved to higher ground on the island. Then he noticed all wild animals were moving away to higher ground too. He talked to his daughter about this and she said, "Old man, you must be drunk." However, as he got everyone in the tribe to notice that all the birds and animals had left for higher ground they realized he was right as this was the ancient tribal sign for a tsunami recorded for thousands of years within their verbal histories passed down through the elders of the tribe. So everyone either went to higher ground or they got in their boats and sailed and paddled out to sea. On their way they met other sailors not of their tribe and told them of the coming tsunami. These sailors didn't believe them and they all died because their boats were in very shallow waters fishing. But all the Mokens were far out to sea or on high ground so every Moken in that tribe lived who had been warned of the signs.

There is another thing if one lives near any ocean to be aware of. If the ocean suddenly goes out hundreds or thousands of feet from the normal shore of where you are and this isn't a normal thing that happens every day. Don't run out and gather the fish and crabs and all. Run for higher ground instead. If there is no higher ground then climb a tree or a coconut palm and tie yourself in because a tsunami is coming and you might not survive otherwise.