Moken (มอเกน, มอแกน)
Thai. Name of
an ethnic minority group of
about 7,000 people dwelling in the Mergui Archipelago, i.e. a group
of approximately 800 islands claimed by both
Myanmar
and
Thailand.
In Thailand, these Austronesian people are distributed over the
provinces of
Phang Nga,
Ranong,
Satun,
Trang,
Phuket
and
Krabi,
but there are also pockets living in southern Myanmar. In Thailand,
they are known as Thai Mai (ไทยใหม่), i.e.
‘New Thais’, after they were given Thai citizenship, though they
were previously they referred to as
Chao Le,
i.e.
Sea Gypsies,
as they in the past lived
semi-nomadic, i.e. with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle heavily based on
the sea. Besides Thai, the Moken have their own language, which is
also called Moken and which belongs to the Western Malayo-Polynesian
group of languages. Also
transliterated Mawken.
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