Orang Laut

The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands.

The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may also refer to any Malayic-speaking people living on coastal islands, including those of Mergui Archipelago islands of Myanmar and Thailand, commonly known as Moken.

Orang Laut
اورڠ لاءوت
Orang Laut
An Orang Laut family living in a boat, circa 1914–1921.
Total population
420,000
Regions with significant populations
Malay Peninsula:
Orang Laut Malaysia
Riau Archipelago:
Orang Laut Indonesia
Orang Laut Singapore
Languages
Loncong, Orang Seletar,
Malay (Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian)
Religion
Animism, Folk religion, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Orang Kuala, Orang Seletar, Sama-Bajau, Moken, Urak Lawoi’ people, Malay people
Orang Laut
An Orang Laut woman in Solok, Jambi southern Sumatra

The population of this tribe is estimated in the 21st century to be 420,000 people.

Etymology

The Malay term orang laut literally means 'sea peoples'. The Orang Laut live and travel in their boats on the sea. They made their living from fishing and collecting sea products. Another Malay term for them, Orang Selat (literally 'Straits people'), was brought into European languages as Celates.

Distribution

Orang Laut 
Regions inhabited by peoples usually known as "Sea Nomads".
  Orang Laut
  Moken

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, southern Malaysia Peninsula and Singapore.

History

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

Historically, the Orang Laut played major 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 In return, the ruler gave Orang Laut leaders prestigious titles and gifts. The earliest description of the Orang Laut may have been by the 14th century Chinese traveler Wang Dayuan who described the inhabitants of Temasek (present day Singapore) in his work Daoyi Zhilüe.

Orang Laut 
Villages of Orang Laut in Riau Islands.

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

References

Tags:

Orang Laut EtymologyOrang Laut DistributionOrang Laut HistoryOrang Laut Popular cultureOrang LautEthnic groupIndonesiaMalayic languagesMergui ArchipelagoMokenMyanmarOrang SeletarPeninsular MalaysiaRiau IslandsSingaporeStraits of JohorThailand

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