Orang laut

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Urak Lawoi. (Discuss) Proposed since February 2010.

House barges of the Orang Laut off the coast of Jambi and Riau, Dutch East Indies. 1914-1921

The Orang Laut, or Bajau Laut, are a group of Malay people living in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. It also may refer to any Malay origin people living on coastal islands, including those of Andaman Sea islands in Thailand and Burma, commonly known as Moken.

Etymology

The Malay term orang laut literally means the sea people. The Orang laut live and travel in their boats on the sea.^[1] Other Malay terms for the orang laut were Lanun, Celates or Orang Selat (literally Straits People).

Distribution

Villages of Orang Laut in Riau Islands.

Broadly speaking, the term encompasses the numerous tribes and groups inhabiting the islands and estuaries in the Riau-Lingga Archipelagos, the Pulau Tujuh Islands, the Batam Archipelago, and the coasts and offshore islands of eastern Sumatra and southern Malay Peninsula.^[2]

History

Historically, the orang laut were principally pirates but they also played important roles in Srivijaya, the Sultanate of Malacca, and the Sultanate of Johor. They patrolled the adjacent sea areas, repelling real pirates, directing traders to their employers' ports and maintaining those ports' dominance in the area.^[3]

Eda Green wrote in 1909, "The Lanuns, supposed to have come from the Philippines, are Mohammedans and are dying out; they were one of the most aggressive tribes in their wild piracy, raiding not only the coasts, but stealing away the children of the Dusuns and Ida'an."^[4]

Popular Culture

In the story "The Disturber of Traffic" by Rudyard Kipling, a character called Fenwick misrenders the Orang laut as "Orange-Lord" and the narrator character corrects him that they are the "Orang-Laut".

See also

• Piracy in the Strait of Malacca
• Orang Laut in Singapore

References

1. ^ Adriaan J. Barnouw (February 1946). "Cross Currents of Culture in Indonesia". The Far Eastern Quarterly (The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 2) 5 (2): 143–151. doi:10.2307/2049739. JSTOR 2049739. 
2. ^ "The Malay Peninsula and Archipelago 1511–1722" The Encyclopedia of World History 2001;
3. ^ Mary Somers Heidhues. Southeast Asia: A Concise History. London: Hudson and Thames, 2000. Page 27
4. ^ Eda Green (1909). "Borneo: The Land of River and Palm". Project Canterbury. http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/sarawak/green/01.html. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 

External links

• Pirates of the East
• Where the spirits roam
• Riau in Transition