The Moken are a mysterious and elusive tribe in the way of extinction. Only 3000 of them are left.They live 11 months per year on small boats in the Mergui Archipelago – 450 islands spread on 800 km. They are born, cook and die on their boats. During the worst of the monsoon they land on a small island. They do not swim. They walk at the bottom of the sea to gather sea slugs and fish. From 5 y.o they develop a rare ability to constrict their pupils to see far underwater. Very little has been written and published on them except a 1920 report by a French anthropologist. The Thai fishermen practise dynamite fishing that destroys their livelihood. They are also persecuted by the unity obsessed Myanmar Army because they are animist – not buddhist – and refuse the settle on land.
