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Myanmar: The Mergui archipelago has been called the "Lost World",

2014/03/24

The Mergui archipelago has been called the "Lost World", but outsiders have found it -- initial fishermen, poachers and loggers, and presently developers and high-end tourists. The people losing this world are the Moken, who have lived off the land and the sea for centuries.

Here hornbills break a primaeval silence as they flutter through soaring jungle canopy. Pythons slumber on the gnarled roots of eerie mangrove forests. Only rarely will you spot the people who live here: the Moken, shy, peaceful nomads of the sea.

The islands are thought to harbour some of the world's most significant marine biodiversity, and are a lodestone for those eager to experience one of Asia's last tourism frontiers before, as a lot of fear, it succumbs to the ravages that have befallen a lot of once-pristine seascapes.

As the world closes in, the long-exploited Moken are rapidly diminishing in numbers and losing the occupations that sustained them for generations. Though they are known as "sea gypsies", very few still live the nomadic life, and only some aging men can fashion the kabang, houseboats on which the Moken once spent much of each year.

Their island settlements are awash with trash and blank liquor bottles, signs of the alcoholism that has consumed a lot of Moken lives. They from presently on may share the same fate as some of their cousins in neighboring Thailand who have become exotic photo opportunities near highly developed tourist areas.

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