When the sea went out from all the islands in the area the elders of these island tribes told the people to get into their boats and to go out to sea. They tried to tell people more educated and sophisticated? about how they all were going to die in what was coming but no one listened to them and 250,000 people died in 2004 mostly in Indonesia and Thailand and other nearby places. So, the people of these tribes got into their boats and went far out to sea where they could ride out "The Wave that Eats People" and survive (and they did).
begin quotes:
Several
indigenous peoples in the Indian Ocean region survived the 2004 tsunami
due to oral traditions and stories passed down through generations
. The most prominent examples are the Moken, the Onge, and the people of Simeulue Island. Moken people
Known
as "sea gypsies," the Moken are an Austronesian people who live a
nomadic, sea-based life along the coast of Myanmar and Thailand.
- The legend of Laboon: The Moken have an ancient legend about the Laboon, or "the wave that eats people". According to the tale, angry ancestral spirits can cause the ocean to recede before a devastating wave arrives.
- Reading the signs: When the sea receded far from shore on December 26, 2004, Moken elders recognized the warning sign from their folklore. They immediately ordered their people and nearby tourists to higher ground, saving almost everyone in their communities.
Onge people
The Onge are an ancient, semi-nomadic tribe of hunter-gatherers on the Andaman Islands of India.
- Foreboding folklore: The Onge have an oral tradition about the ground shaking, followed by a giant wall of water that destroys the land.
- Heeding the warning: When the earthquake hit, the Onge knew what the receding sea meant. They fled to the highlands deep inside their forests, and all 96 members of the tribe survived the disaster.
People of Simeulue Island
Simeulue is an Indonesian island off the coast of Sumatra, near the epicenter of the 2004 earthquake.
- The Smong tradition: The people of Simeulue have a century-old oral tradition known as smong, which originated after a tsunami in 1907. The tradition teaches that if a strong earthquake is followed by a sudden receding sea, a powerful wave is coming and everyone must flee to higher ground.
- Cultural memory: The smong tradition was so deeply ingrained that in 2004, the island's 70,000 residents recognized the signs and evacuated in time, resulting in fewer than 10 deaths despite the island's proximity to the tsunami's source.
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