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87-451: Banguingui , also known as Sama Banguingui. "The word " SAMA" it is a dialect of Bangungui tribe and Samal tribe is different from Sama Banguingui and they are not belong to Sama Banguingui tribe they are Luwaan or Pala'o or Bajau peoples. (alternative spellings include Bangingi’ , Bangingi , Banguingui , Balanguingui , and Balangingi ) is a distinct ethnolinguistic group native to Balanguingui Island but also dispersed throughout

174-625: A 1974 Memorandum of Understanding, "Indonesian traditional fishermen" are allowed to fish within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Australia, which includes traditional fishing grounds of Sama-Bajau fishermen. However, illegal fishing encroachment of Corporate Sea Trawlers in these areas has led to concern about overfishing , and the destruction of Sama-Bajau vessels. In 2014, Indonesian authorities destroyed six Filipino Sama-Bajau boats caught fishing in Indonesian waters. This

261-685: A common culture; there are 1500 men and 1500 women who speak the Moken language , a distinct Austronesian language . Attempts by both Myanmar and Thailand to assimilate the Moken into the wider regional culture have met with very limited success. However, the Moken face an uncertain future as their population decreases and their nomadic lifestyle and unsettled legal status leave them marginalized by modern property and immigration laws, maritime conservation and development programs, and tightening border policies. The people refer to themselves as Moken. The name

348-633: A hybridized group formed when the Malay people settled the Lanta Islands where the proto-Malay Orang Sireh had been living. The Moken are considered to be mostly sedentary with more permanent villages in the provinces of Phang-nga, Phuket, Krabi, and Satun. These individuals also have closer ties to the countries in which they reside as they accept both the nationality and citizenship. Their children are also educated through local schools and are exposed to more mainstream cultural ideas. The Moken residing on

435-427: A light wood with a long stem". To construct the boat, the different pieces are fitted into each other with the natural resources the Moken can find on land. The boat's usage was discontinued more than 40 years ago as the salt water eroded the wood within three to sixth months, therefore new techniques were devised to create more robust boats. The kabang lasts longer and one anthropologist, Jacques Ivanoff, suggests that

522-478: A nomadic lifestyle on the water due to rising sea levels. For most of the human population, unaided vision underwater is very poor because the eye's cornea fails to focus light onto the retina . In the air, the cornea accomplishes two thirds of the focussing of light; this is missing when underwater, yielding blur . Moken children, however, are able to see underwater while freediving to collect clams, sea cucumbers, and more. Anna Gislén and colleagues showed that

609-572: A seaborne lifestyle and use small wooden sailing vessels such as the perahu ( layag in Maranao ), djenging ( balutu ), lepa , and vinta ( pilang ). Some Sama-Bajau groups native to Sabah are also known for their traditional horse culture . The Sama-Bajau are the dominant ethnic group of the islands of Tawi-Tawi . They are also found in other islands of the Sulu Archipelago , coastal areas of Mindanao and other islands in

696-482: A separate branch altogether from all other Philippine languages. For example, Sinama pronunciation is quite distinct from other nearby Central Philippine languages like Tausūg and Tagalog . Instead of the primary stress being usually on the final syllable; the primary stress occurs on the second-to-the-last syllable of the word in Sinama. This placement of the primary stress is similar to Manobo and other languages of

783-569: A significant number are also illiterate, uneducated, and impoverished, due to their nomadic lifestyle. The number of modern Sama-Bajau who are born and live primarily at sea is diminishing. Cultural assimilation and modernisation are regarded as the main causes. Particularly blamed is the dissolution of the Sultanate of Sulu , the traditional patron of the Sama-Bajau for bartering fish for farm goods. The money-based fish markets which replaced

870-610: A three-part self-description, such as "Bajau Suluk Dusun ". The following are the major subgroups usually recognised as distinct: The following are subgroups that do not self-identify as Sama, although they are culturally related to the Sama people and speak a Sama-Bajaw language : The Sama–Bajau peoples speak some ten languages of the Sama–Bajau subgroup of the Western Malayo-Polynesian language family . Sinama

957-463: A unique genetic signal among the Sama-Bajau of the Philippines and Indonesia. This genetic signal (called the "Sama ancestry" by the authors) identifies them as descendants of an ancient migration of Austroasiatic -affiliated hunter-gatherer groups from mainland Southeast Asia via the now sunken land bridges of Sundaland around 15,000 to 12,000 years ago. These populations admixed with both

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1044-538: A variety of products to trade and to avoid the spread of deadly diseases. If an epidemic begins to spread, the infected members will remain at the location with a small amount of provisions, while healthy members will depart to a new location. The hope is that the provisions will allow the sick enough time to recuperate while not endangering the rest of the kin group with their sickness. The nomadic lifestyle can also reduce group conflict as affected parties may leave one kin group and enter another to give some distance and allow

1131-781: A very low status in the caste-based Tausūg Sultanate of Sulu. This survived into the modern Philippines where the Sama-Bajau are still subjected to strong cultural prejudice from the Tausūg. The Sama-Bajau have also been frequent victims of theft, extortion, kidnapping, and violence from the predominantly Tausūg Abu Sayyaf insurgents as well as pirates. This discrimination and the continuing violence in Muslim Mindanao have driven many Sama-Bajau to emigrate. They usually resettle in Malaysia and Indonesia, where they have more employment opportunities. But even in Malaysia, their presence

1218-563: Is built on the premise of life as outsiders, is under threat. There is much speculation as to the historical origins of the Moken people. It is thought that, due to their Austronesian language, they originated in Southern China as agriculturalists 5000–6000 years ago. From there, the Austronesian peoples dispersed and settled various South Asian Islands. It is theorized that the Moken were forced off of these coastal islands into

1305-470: Is first celebrated under a sacred dangkan tree ( strangler figs , known elsewhere in the Philippines as balete ) symbolising the male spirit Umboh Tuhan and afterwards in the centre of a grove of kama'toolang trees ( pandan trees ) symbolising the female spirit Dayang Dayang Mangilai . The trance dancing is called mag-igal and involves female and male and igal jinn , called the jinn denda and jinn lella respectively. The jinn denda perform

1392-503: Is in Jawi script and is fast becoming a dying tradition. Oral traditions are handed down by the kamattoahan (elders) to the kaanakan or anak baha-u (new generations). The Banguingui built kuta (forts) throughout the Sulu Archipelago . Like their other Sama cousins, they sailed various ships like the vinta , salisipan , or bangka-bangka throughout the Sulu - Sulawesi region. At

1479-405: Is not, however, regarded as a spirit possession , since the igal jinn never lose control of their bodies. Instead, the igal jinn are believed to have acquired their familiar spirit ( jinn ) after surviving a serious or near-fatal illness. For the rest of their lives, the igal jinn is believed to share their bodies with the particular jinn who saved them. One important religious event among

1566-852: Is particularly serious for the Sama-Bajau, whose boats are also oftentimes their homes. Sama-Bajau fishermen are often associated with illegal and destructive practices, like blast fishing , cyanide fishing , coral mining , and cutting down mangrove trees . It is believed that the Sama-Bajau resort to these activities mainly due to sedentarisation brought about by the restrictions imposed on their nomadic culture by modern nation-states . With their now limited territories, they have little alternative means of competing with better-equipped land-based and commercial fishermen and earn enough to feed their families. The Indonesian government and certain non-governmental organisations have launched several programs for providing alternative sustainable livelihood projects for Sama-Bajau to discourage these practices (such as

1653-463: Is relatively calm), the Moken used to live on their boats called kabang , which served not just as transportation, but also as a kitchen, bedroom, and living area. The last kabang of the Surin Islands was built in 2006 and an initiative to revive the tradition started in 2018. Previously the Moken used a kabang koman , "a dug-out boat equipped with a salacca gunwale [where] Salacca is

1740-508: Is retained wholly or partially in some Sama-Bajau groups. The supreme deities in Sama-Bajau mythology are Umboh Tuhan (also known as Umboh Dilaut , the "Lord of the Sea") and his consort, Dayang Dayang Mangilai ("Lady of the Forest"). Umboh Tuhan is regarded as the creator deity who made humans equal to animals and plants. Like other animistic religions, they fundamentally divide the world into

1827-547: Is set aside for making sweet rice cakes ( durul ). Additional prayers ( zikir ), which includes calling the names of ancestors out loud, are offered to the Umboh after the rice meals have been prepared. Pag-umboh is a solemn and formal affair. Another annual religious ceremony among the boat-dwelling Sama Dilaut is the pagkanduli (literally "festive gathering"). It involves ritual dancing to Umboh Tuhan , Dayang Dayang Mangilai , and ancestral ghosts called bansa . The ritual

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1914-598: Is still controversial as most of them are illegal immigrants . Most illegal Sama-Bajau immigrants enter Malaysia through offshore islands. From there, they enter mainland Sabah to find work as manual labourers. Others migrate to the northern islands of the Philippines, particularly to the Visayas , Palawan , the northern coast of Mindanao, and even as far as southern Luzon . Though these are relatively safer regions, they are also more economically disadvantaged and socially excluded, leading to Filipinos sometimes stereotyping

2001-420: Is the highly offensive Luwaan , meaning "spat out" or "outcast" based on a folk tale justifying their subservience supposedly out of their trickery and ingratefulness towards God. They were also marginalised by other Moro peoples because they still practised animist folk religions either exclusively or alongside Islam , and thus were viewed as "uncivilised pagans". Boat-dwelling and shoreline Sama-Bajau had

2088-594: Is the most common name for these languages, but they are also called Bajau , especially in Malaysia. Most Sama-Bajau can speak multiple languages. The Sama-Bajau languages were once classified under the Central Philippine languages of the Malayo-Polynesian geographic group of the Austronesian language family. But due to marked differences with neighbouring languages, they were moved to

2175-680: Is the oldest account of the Sama-Bajau. It further corroborates the fact that they predate the arrival of the Tausūg settlers and are indigenous to the Sulu archipelago and parts of Mindanao. Sama-Bajau were first recorded by European explorers in 1521 by Antonio Pigafetta of the Magellan-Elcano expedition in what is now the Zamboanga Peninsula . Pigafetta writes that the "people of that island make their dwellings in boats and do not live otherwise". They have also been present in

2262-717: Is used for all of the Austronesian speaking tribes who inhabit the coast and islands in the Andaman Sea on the west coast of Thailand , the provinces of Satun , Trang , Krabi , Phuket , Phang Nga , and Ranong , up through the Mergui Archipelago of Myanmar. The group includes the Moken proper, the Moklen (Moklem), the Orang Sireh ( Betel -leaf People), and the Orang Lanta. The last, the Orang Lanta, are

2349-561: The lanong of the Iranun. Sama-Bajau peoples The Sama-Bajau include several Austronesian ethnic groups of Maritime Southeast Asia . The name collectively refers to related people who usually call themselves the Sama or Samah (formally A'a Sama , "Sama people"); or are known by the exonym Bajau ( / ˈ b ɑː dʒ aʊ , ˈ b æ -/ , also spelled Badjao , Bajaw , Badjau , Badjaw , Bajo or Bayao ). They usually live

2436-594: The Austronesian peoples . This would also explain why even boat-dwelling Sama-Bajau still practice agricultural rituals, despite being exclusively fishermen. Linguistic evidence further points to Borneo as the ultimate origin of the proto-Sama-Bajau people. A genetic study of three groups—the Derawan of Northeast Borneo, the Kotabaru of Southeast Borneo, and the Kendari of Southeast Sulawesi—suggested that their origin

2523-692: The Banguingui ) were involved, along with non-Sama-Bajau groups like the Iranun . The scope of their pirate activities was extensive, commonly sailing from Sulu to as far as the Moluccas and back again. Aside from early European colonial records, they may have also been the pirates described by Chinese and Arabian sources in the Straits of Singapore in the 12th and 13th centuries. Sama-Bajau usually served as low-ranking crewmembers of war boats, directly under

2610-720: The Greater Sulu Archipelago and southern and western coastal regions of the Zamboanga Peninsula in Mindanao , Philippines. Note: Sama Banguingui is not Bajau peoples. The content of this context pertains to the Bajau tribe, not the Banguingui tribes. The Banguingui are not officially recognized by law either in the Philippines or in the neighboring Malaysian state of Sabah . The Banguingui language has both written and oral traditions. Its written language

2697-406: The Jawi alphabet . Religion can vary among the Sama-Bajau subgroups; from strict adherence to Sunni Islam , forms of folk Islam (itself influenced by Sufi traditions of early Muslim missionaries), to animistic beliefs in spirits and ancestor worship. There is a small minority of Catholics and Protestants in the Bajau diaspora, particularly from Davao del Sur in the Philippines. Among

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2784-462: The Surin Islands retain their more traditional methods and lifestyle. The Burmese call the Moken Salone . In Thailand they are called chao le , which can mean people who "live by the sea and pursue a marine livelihood" or those who speak the Austronesian language. Another term that can be used is chao nam ("people of the water"), although these terms are also used loosely to include

2871-736: The Tausūg who are more closely related to the northern Philippine ethnic groups like the Visayans . In 1965, the anthropologist David E. Sopher claimed that the Sama-Bajau, along with the Orang laut , descended from ancient " Veddoid " (Australoid) hunter-gatherers from the Riau Archipelago who intermarried with Austronesians . They retained their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, though they became more maritime-oriented as Southeast Asia became more populated by later Austronesian settlers. In 1968,

2958-718: The Urak Lawoi and even the Orang Laut . In Thailand, acculturated Moken are called Thai mai ("new Thais"). Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Moken are also called "sea gypsies" (unrelated to the Romani people ), a generic term that applies to a number of peoples in Southeast Asia (see Sea Gypsies (disambiguation) ). The Urak Lawoi are sometimes classified with the Moken, but they are linguistically and ethnologically distinct, being much more closely related to

3045-530: The exonym Bajau is unclear. Some authors have proposed that it is derived from a corruption of the Malay word berjauh ('getting further apart' or 'the state of being away') or in Indonesian word it means boat dwelling. Other possible origins include the Brunei Malay word bajaul , which means "to fish". The term Bajau has pejorative connotations in the Philippines, indicating poverty in comparison to

3132-435: The jinn ( familiar spirits ); some literature refers to all of them as umboh . These include Umboh Baliyu (the spirits of wind and storms), and Umboh Payi or Umboh Gandum (the spirits of the first rice harvest). They include totemic spirits of animals and plants, including Umboh Summut (totem of ants ) and Umboh Kamun (totem of mantis shrimp ). The construction and launch of sailing vessels are ritualised, and

3219-489: The kalamat . The kalamat are known in Muslim Sama-Bajau as the wali jinn (literally "custodian of jinn ") and may adhere to taboos concerning the treatment of the sea and other cultural aspects. The kalamat presides over Sama-Bajau community events along with mediums known as igal jinn . The kalamat and the igal jinn are said to be "spirit-bearers" and are believed to be hosts of familiar spirits . It

3306-733: The "Badjao Girl"), went viral in the Philippines. One Tausug Muslim who was interviewed insulted the Bajau people, who are also Muslim but he declared the Bajau as non-Muslim and compared killing a Bajau to killing a monkey, saying it was not worth the effort for a juramentado to attack Bajau. There are Tausug in Sulu who takfir the Bajau and declared them as non-Muslims despite them following Islam and discriminate against them due to their lifestyle. In Indonesia many discriminate against them with false stereotypes, accusing them of using love potions on women and were untrustworthy. The Sama-Bajau are fragmented into highly diverse subgroups. They have never been politically united and are usually subject to

3393-408: The "Bajau" subgroup which guarantees easy access to the special sociopolitical privileges also granted to Malaysian Malays ; to a point of them identifying as "Malay" for political reasons. This is especially true for recent Moro Filipino migrants . The indigenous Sama-Bajau in Malaysia have also started labelling themselves as their ancestors called themselves, such as Simunul. In the 17th-century,

3480-491: The 16th century. They also engaged in extensive trade with China for "luxury" sea products like trepang , pearls , and shark fin . From Zamboanga, some members of these people adopted an exclusively seaborne culture and spread outwards in the 10th century towards Basilan, Sulu, Borneo, and Sulawesi. They arrived in Borneo in the 11th century. This hypothesis is currently the most widely accepted among specialists studying

3567-543: The Malay people. Their knowledge of the sea enables them to live off its fauna and flora by using simple tools such as nets and spears to forage for food, which allows them to impact the environment more minimally than other more intensive forms of subsistence. Furthermore, their frequent movement in kin groups of between two and ten families also allows the land to rest and prevents overuse. Moken are considered hunter-gatherers due to their nomadic lifestyle and lack of material good accumulation. They also believe strongly in

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3654-539: The Philippines to rehabilitate Sama-Bajau refugees and teach them livelihood skills. In 2016, the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources started a project for distributing fishing boats, gear, and other livelihood materials among Sama-Bajau communities in Luzon . This was largely the result of raised awareness and an outpouring of support after a photo of a Sama-Bajau beggar, Rita Gaviola (dubbed

3741-585: The Philippines, the Sama-Bajau can be divided into three general groups based on where they settle: Other minor Sama-Bajau groups named after islands of origin include the Sama Bannaran, Sama Davao, Sama Zamboanga Sikubung, Sama Tuaran, Sama Semporna, Sama Sulawesi, Sama Simunul, Sama Tabawan, Sama Tandubas (or Sama Tando' Bas), and Sama Ungus Matata. Mixed-heritage Sama-Bajau and Tausūg communities are sometimes known as "Bajau Suluk" in Malaysia. People of multiple ethnic parentage may further identify with

3828-485: The Philippines, the term Sama referred to the more land-oriented and settled Sama–Bajau groups, while Bajau referred only to more sea-oriented, boat-dwelling, nomadic groups. Even these distinctions are fading as the majority of Sama-Bajau have long since abandoned boat living, most for Sama-style piling houses in the coastal shallows. Sama is believed to have originated from the Austronesian root word sama meaning "together", "same", or "kin". The exact origin of

3915-556: The Philippines. Instead, they call themselves with the names of their tribes, usually the place they live or place of origin. For example, the sea-going Sama-Bajau prefer to call themselves the Sama Dilaut or Sama Mandilaut (literally 'sea Sama' or 'ocean Sama') in the Philippines; in Malaysia, they identify as Bajau Laut. Sea-going Bajau are given the pejorative name Pala'au or Palauh by other Bajau groups, which has been adopted by Malaysian mainstream media. Historically in

4002-441: The Sama-Bajau from older inhabited areas seems to have been associated with the development of sea trade in sea cucumber ( trepang ). Sama-Bajau is a collective term, referring to several closely related indigenous people who consider themselves a single distinct bangsa ("ethnic group" or "nation"). It is generally accepted that these groups of people can be termed Sama or Bajau , though they never call themselves Bajau in

4089-411: The Sama-Bajau have a common theme which claims that they were originally a land-dwelling people who were the subjects of a king who had a daughter. After she is lost by either being swept away to the sea (by a storm or a flood) or being taken captive by a neighbouring kingdom, they were then supposedly ordered to find her. After failing to do so they decided to remain nomadic for fear of facing the wrath of

4176-467: The Sama-Bajau have been a nomadic , seafaring people, living off the sea by trading and subsistence fishing. The boat-dwelling Sama-Bajau see themselves as non-aggressive people. They kept close to the shore by erecting houses on stilts and travelled using lepa , handmade boats which many lived in. A 2021 genetic study shows that some Sama-Bajau have Austroasiatic ancestry. Most of the various oral traditions and tarsila (royal genealogies ) among

4263-532: The Sama-Bajau is the annual feast known as pag-umboh or magpaay-bahaw , an offering of thanks to Umboh Tuhan . In this ceremony, newly harvested rice ( paay-bahaw ) are dehusked ( magtaparahu ) while Islamic prayers ( duaa ) are recited. They are dried ( magpatanak ) and are then laid out in small conical piles symbolic of mountains ( bud ) on the living room floor (a process known as the "sleeping of rice"). After two or three nights, two-thirds are set aside for making sweet rice meals ( panyalam ), while one-third

4350-638: The Spanish priest Francisco Combés calls the Sama-Bajau as the Lutao ("[people who] float on water") in his Historia de las Islas de Mindanao, Iolo, y sus adyacentes (1667), and describes them as building houses on the sea because they "hate land". They were described as being the subjects of the Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao , and they were esteemed for their shipbuilding skills and were commonly hired as crews of warships. For most of their history,

4437-568: The ancestors of the Indonesian Sama-Bajau. However, there are other versions that are more mythological and do not mention a princess. Among the Philippine Sama-Bajau, for example, there is a myth that claims that the Sama-Bajau were accidentally towed into what is now Zamboanga by a giant stingray. Incidentally, the native pre-Hispanic name of Zamboanga City is "Samboangan" (literally "mooring place"), which

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4524-536: The anthropologist Harry Arlo Nimmo, on the other hand, believed that the Sama-Bajau are indigenous to the Sulu Archipelago, Sulawesi, and/or Borneo, and do not share a common origin with the Orang laut. Nimmo proposed that the boat-dwelling lifestyle developed among the ancestors of the Sama-Bajau independently from the Orang laut. A more recent study in 1985 by the anthropologist Alfred Kemp Pallasen compares

4611-475: The boat with its bifurcated bow and stern represent the human body. In monsoon season, which falls between the months of May and October, they set temporary camps on the mainland. During the monsoon season, they build additional boats and forage for food in the forest. Some of the Burmese Moken are still nomadic people who roam the sea most of their lives; however, much of their traditional life, which

4698-550: The boat-dwelling Sama-Bajau as beggars and squatters . The ancestral roaming and fishing grounds of the Sama-Bajau straddled the borders of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. And they have sometimes voyaged as far as the Timor and Arafura Seas . In modern times, they have lost access to most of these sites. There have been efforts to grant Sama-Bajau some measures of rights to fish in traditional areas, but most Sama-Bajau still suffer from legal persecution. For example, under

4785-424: The children see better underwater than European children: their "spatial resolution ... [is] more than twice as good". The researchers showed that the Moken children have the ability to constrict their pupils when underwater and the ability to increase the power of their eyes' lenses to the maximum when underwater. Decreasing the size of the pupil improves the eye's depth of field , reducing blur; increasing

4872-786: The command of Iranun squadron leaders, who in turn answered to the Tausūg datu of the Sultanate of Sulu. The Bajoe harbour in Sulawesi was the site of a small settlement of Sama-Bajau under the Bugis Sultanate of Bone . They were significantly involved in the First and Second Bone Wars (1824–1825) when the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army sent a punitive expedition in retaliation for Bugis and Makassar attacks on local Dutch garrisons. After

4959-688: The fall of Bone, most Sama-Bajau resettled in other areas of Sulawesi. During the British colonial rule of Sabah , the Sama-Bajau were involved in two uprisings against the North Borneo Chartered Company : the Mat Salleh rebellion from 1894 to 1905, and the Pandasan Affair of 1915. Modern Sama-Bajau are generally regarded as peaceful, hospitable, and cheerful people, despite their humble circumstances. However,

5046-400: The feud to die down. After some time has passed and the arguing parties see each other once more, the intensity of the argument will have decreased leading to more amicable relationships. The Moken use 83 plant species for food, 33 for medicinal purposes, 53 for construction of huts, boats and tools, and 54 species for other purposes. During the dry north-east monsoon season (when the sea

5133-432: The first dance known as igal limbayan under the dangkan tree, with the eldest leading. They are performed with intricate movements of the hands, usually with metal fingernail extensions called sulingkengkeng . If the dance and music are pleasing, the bansa are believed to take possession of the dancers, whereupon the wali jinn will assist in releasing them at the end of the dance. Moken The Moken identify in

5220-621: The height of the Sulu Sultanate , the Banguingui, along with the Iranun people , formed the bulk of the Sultan's navy, leading coastal raids against settlements in the northern Philippines, as well as the coasts of neighboring Borneo , Sulawesi , and the Maluku Islands . They were also heavily involved in piracy and the slave trade during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Banguingui usually sailed garay warships, in contrast to

5307-634: The idea that natural resources cannot be owned individually but are rather something that the entire community has access to without restrictions. Their egalitarian society follows into their ancestral worship as they regularly present supernatural beings with food offerings. Aside from ancestor worship , the Moken have no religion. More recently, they have reached out and begun trading some food ( sea cucumbers and edible bird's nests ) as well as marine products like pearls for other necessities at local markets. Trading and epidemics ( cholera and smallpox ) also lead to their nomadic lifestyles in order to collect

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5394-575: The increase of influence and trading activities of the Srivijaya Empire . Genetically, the Sama-Bajau are highly diverse, indicating heavy admixture with the locals or even language and cultural adoption by coastal groups in the areas they settled. However, the study is restricted to the Indonesian Bajo subgroup, and the authors recommend additional studies from Sama-Bajau groups in neighbouring regions. A 2021 genetic study discovered

5481-460: The king. One such version widely told among the Sama-Bajau of Borneo claims that they descended from Johorean royal guards who were escorting a princess named Dayang Ayesha for marriage to a ruler in Sulu . However, the Sultan of Brunei (allegedly Muhammad Shah of Brunei ) also fell in love with the princess. On the way to Sulu, they were attacked by Bruneians in the high seas. The princess

5568-423: The land due to their lack of knowledge and involvement in legal protocol. The islands the Moken inhabit received much attention during the recovery from the 2004 tsunami . As they are keenly attuned to the ocean, the Moken in the Surin Islands knew the tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004 was coming and managed to preserve many lives. However, in the coastal villages of Phang Nga Province , like Tap Tawan ,

5655-408: The land-based political groups of the areas they settle, such as the Sultanate of Brunei and the former Sultanate of Sulu . Most subgroups of Sama-Bajau name themselves after the place they originated from (usually an island). Each subgroup speaks a distinct language or dialect that are usually mutually intelligible with their immediate neighbouring subgroup in a continuous linguistic chain. In

5742-653: The modern coastal Sama-Bajau of Malaysia, claims to religious piety and learning are an important source of individual prestige. Some of the Sama-Bajau lack mosques and must rely on the shore-based communities such as those of the more Islamised or Malay peoples . Some of the more nomadic Sama-Bajau, like the Ubian Bajau, are much less adherent to orthodox Islam. They practice a syncretic form of folk Islam, revering local sea spirits, known in Islamic terminology as Jinn . The ancient Sama-Bajau were animistic , and this

5829-425: The name "Bajau" instead of "Sama"). Among the Indonesian Sama-Bajau, on the other hand, their oral histories place more importance on the relationship of the Sama-Bajau with the Sultanate of Gowa rather than Johor. The various versions of their origin myth tell about a royal princess who was washed away by a flood. She was found and eventually married a king or a prince of Gowa. Their offspring then allegedly became

5916-478: The northwestern coast of Phuket Island, and on the nearby Phi Phi Islands of Krabi Province . The Andaman Sea off the Tenasserim coast was the subject of keen scrutiny from Myanmar's regime during the 1990s due to offshore petroleum discoveries by multinational corporations including Unocal , Petronas and others. Reports from the late-1990s told of forced relocation by Myanmar's military regime of

6003-399: The oral traditions with historical facts and linguistic evidence. He puts the date of the ethnogenesis of Sama-Bajau as 800 AD and also rejects a historical connection between the Sama-Bajau and the Orang laut. He hypothesises that the Sama-Bajau originated from a proto-Sama-Bajau people inhabiting the Zamboanga Peninsula who practised both fishing and slash-and-burn agriculture. They were

6090-424: The original inhabitants of Zamboanga and the Sulu archipelago, and were well-established in the region long before the first arrival of the Tausūg people at around the 13th century from their homelands along the northern coast of eastern Mindanao. Along with the Tausūg, they were heavily influenced by the Malay kingdoms both culturally and linguistically, becoming Indianised by the 15th century and Islamised by

6177-418: The physical and spiritual realms which coexist. In modern Muslim Sama-Bajau, Umboh Tuhan (or simply Tuhan or Tuan ) is usually equated with Allah . Other objects of reverence are spirits known as umboh ("ancestor", also variously spelled omboh , m'boh , mbo' , etc.). Traditionally, the umboh referred more specifically to ancestral spirits , different from the saitan ( nature spirits ) and

6264-510: The power of the eyes' lenses also reduces blur. The researchers ruled out other possible explanations for the Moken children's underwater abilities: They had not, at some state of their evolutionary history, traded off focussing power from the corneas to their eyes' lenses. Their eyes are not shortsighted . Their ability to alter the power of their lenses is not superior. Later, Gislén and others trained European children to see better underwater, for example by crossing their eyes, which increases

6351-648: The power of their lenses and reduces the diameter of their pupils. They found that the European children could then see as well underwater as the Moken children. The Burmese and Thai governments have made attempts at assimilating the people into their own culture, but these efforts have met with limited success. Thai Moken have been permanently settled in villages located in the Surin Islands ( Mu Ko Surin National Park ), in Phuket Province , on

6438-634: The predominantly animistic ethnic groups of Mindanao, the Lumad peoples . In 2006, the linguist Robert Blust proposed that the Sama-Bajaw languages derived from the Barito lexical region , though not from any established group. It is thus a sister group to other Barito languages like Dayak and Malagasy . It is classified under the Bornean geographic group. Sama-Bajau languages are usually written in

6525-541: The preexisting Negrito populations, and later on, the incoming migrations of the Austronesian peoples (also adopting an Austronesian language in the process). They are genetically clustered with the Lua and Mlabri peoples of mainland Southeast Asia, as well as the Manobo people of mainland Mindanao . The study also identifies minimal South Asian gene flow among Sama populations starting at around 1000 years ago. Sama ancestry

6612-614: The sea nomads to mainland sites. It was claimed most of the Moken peoples had been relocated by 1997, which is consistent with a pervasive pattern of forced relocation of suspect ethnic, economic and political groups, conducted throughout Myanmar during the 1990s. In Thailand, the Moken have been the target of land grabs by developers contesting their ownership of ancestral lands. Although nomadic peoples have resided in Thailand's Andaman coastal provinces for several centuries, they have historically neglected to register official ownership of

6699-428: The seasonal trade around mooring points necessitates a more land-based lifestyle for greater market penetration. In Malaysia, some hotly debated government programs have also resettled Bajau to the mainland. The Sama-Bajau in the Sulu Archipelago were historically discriminated against by the dominant Tausūg people , who viewed boat-dwelling Sama-Bajau as 'inferior' and as outsiders—the traditional Tausūg term for them

6786-679: The second-largest ethnic group in Sabah. Sama-Bajau have sometimes been called the "Sea Gypsies" or "Sea Nomads", terms that have also been used for non-related ethnic groups with similar traditional lifestyles, such as the Moken of the Burmese-Thai Mergui Archipelago , the Orang Laut of southeastern Sumatra and the Riau Islands of Indonesia, and the Tanka people of Southern China . The modern outward spread of

6873-538: The southern Philippines ; as well as northern and eastern Borneo , Sulawesi , and throughout the eastern Indonesian islands. In the Philippines, they are grouped with the religiously similar Moro people . Within the last fifty years, many of the Filipino Sama-Bajau have migrated to neighbouring Sabah and the northern islands of the Philippines, due to the conflict in Mindanao . As of 2010, they were

6960-414: The term Sama , especially since it is used most commonly to refer to poverty-stricken Sama-Bajau who make a living through begging. British administrators in Sabah classified the Sama-Bajau as "Bajau" and labelled them as such in their birth certificates. Thus, the Sama-Bajau in Malaysia may sometimes self-identify as "Bajau". The Malaysian government recognizes the Sama-Bajau as legally Bumiputera under

7047-767: The use of fish aggregating devices instead of explosives). Medical health centres ( puskesmas ) and schools have also been built even for stilt-house Sama-Bajau communities. Similar programs have also been implemented in the Philippines. With the loss of their traditional fishing grounds, some refugee groups of Sama-Bajau in the Philippines are forced to resort to begging ( agpangamu in Sinama), particularly diving for coins thrown by inter-island ferry passengers ( angedjo ). Other traditional sources of income include selling grated cassava ( magliis ), mat-weaving ( ag-tepoh ), and jewellery-making (especially from pearls ). Recently, there have been more efforts by local governments in

7134-412: The vessels are believed to have a spirit known as Sumangâ ("guardian", literally "one who deflects attacks"). The umboh are believed to influence fishing activities, rewarding the Sama-Bajau by granting good luck favours known as padalleang and occasionally punishing by causing serious incidents called busong . Traditional Sama-Bajau communities may have shamans ( dukun ) traditionally known as

7221-665: The written records of other Europeans henceforth; including in Sulawesi by the Dutch colonies in 1675, in Sulawesi and eastern Borneo by Thomas Forrest in the 1770s, and in the west coast of Borneo by Spenser St. John in the 1850s and 1860s. Sama-Bajau were often widely mentioned in connection to sea raids ( mangahat ), piracy , and the slave trade in Southeast Asia during the European colonial period, indicating that at least some Sama-Bajau groups from northern Sulu (e.g.

7308-476: Was derived from the Sinama word for a mooring pole , sambuang or samboang . The origin myths claiming descent from Johor or Gowa have been largely rejected by modern scholars, mostly because these kingdoms were established too recently to explain the ethnic divergence. Whether the Sama-Bajau are indigenous to their current territories or settled from elsewhere is still contentious. Linguistically, they are distinct from neighbouring populations, especially from

7395-583: Was highest among the Sama Dilaut, followed by more land-based Sama. But it was also detected among other ethnic groups that do not self-identify as Sama in Palawan , Zamboanga , Basilan , Sulu , and Tawi-Tawi . The epic poem Darangen of the Maranao people record that among the ancestors of the hero Bantugan is a Maranao prince who married a Sama-Bajau princess. Estimated to have happened in AD 840, it

7482-476: Was in southern Sulawesi. Their ethnogenesis is estimated to have dated back to around the 4th century AD by an admixture event between the Bugis people and a Papuan group. The authors suggest that the Sama moved to eastern Borneo at around the 11th century AD, and then towards northern Borneo and the southern Philippines at around the 13th to 14th centuries AD. They hypothesize that they were driven to migrate during

7569-460: Was taken captive and married to the Sultan of Brunei instead. The escorts, having lost the princess, elected to settle in Borneo and Sulu rather than return to Johor. This legend is popular among Sabah Sama-Bajau as it legitimises their claim to "Malay-ness" and strengthens their ties to Islam, which puts them in a favourable position in the Bumiputera laws of Malaysia (similar to the usage of

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