Loss of Traditional Knowledge, Loss of Culture and Livelihood:
A Case of Urak Lawoi Sea Nomadic People in the Andaman Sea
Supin Wongbusarakum
Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa on coastal and marine
resource management and developmental studies, Supin Wongbusarakum is currently
Deputy Investigator on a UNESCO and NOAA co-funded project: “A Place for
Indigenous People Living in Thailand’s Andaman Sea Marine Protected Areas”. She
is also International Collaborator for Thailand in a NSF-funded project: “Factors
affecting human behavioral response to natural warning signs of tsunamis: The case
study of the December 26, 2004 Earthquake”.
The presentation focuses on the transmission of knowledge about marine life and
coastal environment among the Urak Lawoi, a formerly semi-nomadic sea people in
the Andaman Sea, Southwest Thailand. It examines the losses of knowledge and skills
due to the disruption and discontinuation of traditional practices and the advent of
new choices of livelihood associated with commercial fishery and tourism industries
Traditionally, the Urak Lawoi had permanent houses on land but were nomadic in
their food foraging practices, especially during the dry season when for several
months the entire families traveled to different places in the archipelago. Nomadic
foraging enabled them to optimize their use of different resources, adapt to the
productivity changes within their natural ecosystems, and maintain their
sustainability. Successfully fishing and foraging with simple tools requires detailed
local and situated knowledge of the weather, the sea, and the natural environment that
is best acquired by daily practice and experience. For generations, such knowledge
was transmitted from the elder to the younger by sea traveling, living, and foraging
for food together at different sites in the archipelago.
When the archipelago became part of a national marine park established in 1974, this
traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle came to be legally restricted. At the same time,
problems with enforcing park rules and regulations allowed large-scale,
technologically advanced commercial fishing and mass tourism development to
proliferate. These industries now offer means of livelihood differing radically from
the traditional subsistence way of life of the Urak Lawoi. They have also begun
altering the epistemic foundations of Urak Lawoi life.
Because the Urak Lawoi language is not a written language, traditional knowledge is
transmitted through inter-household and intra-generational interactions and practices.
Learning is first-hand and experiential. Unless this kind of learning continues and/or
knowledge transmission is facilitated by other methods, it will be difficult to maintain
the depth and breadth of indigenous knowledge
The presentation will conclude by making suggestions on ways to facilitate the
transmission of indigenous knowledge in the present context, including: the
integration of locally related subjects in the school curriculum; empowering the elders
as informal teachers; facilitating school students and younger people to become
researchers of their own culture and environment; and, where possible, help
perpetuating the indigenous knowledge by publishing it in written languages.