Athikhom Saengchai

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athikhom.visura.co

Moklen Language and Culture

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Location: Bangkok

Nationality: Thai

Biography: Athikhom Saengchai is a Thai documentary photographer and writer based in Bangkok, Thailand. His works focus on endangered culture and marginalized ethnic minorities. He is committed to promoting cultural diversity and a deeper understanding of... MORE

Phi Klathale prepares for a sch...ing their language and culture.

1 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Phi Klathale prepares for a school lesson in his home, which does not have electricity yet, in Ko Phra Thong, Phang-nga. He is a member of the Moklen community, one of the three ethnic groups in Thailand collectively known as Chao Le (sea nomads). Unlike the other two groups, the Moken and Urak Lawoi, who live on isolated islands and still maintain their traditional way of life, the Moklen live mainly on the mainland and interact more with outsiders. As a result, they assimilate into Thai society to avoid discrimination.

According to Dr. Narumon Arunotai, the Moklens are the least known and the most removed from their maritime traditions, facing a higher risk of losing their language and culture.

Elder Lap Hanthale struggles to...e severely endangered language.

2 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Elder Lap Hanthale struggles to recall a Moklen word while Dr. Pittayawat Pittayaporn (left) and his research team record the sound. They are creating a database of Moklen to study further.

As the language exists only in spoken form, its survival relies on the fading memory of its frail speakers. Therefore, Dr. Pittayaporn has developed an orthography for Moklen based on the Thai alphabet and is compiling a Moklen-Thai-English dictionary to preserve the severely endangered language.

The researchers are adjusting h... database of Moklen vocabulary.

3 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

The researchers are adjusting headphones for Elder Lap Hanthale, one of the last active Moklen speakers, to record her voice for the database of Moklen vocabulary.

A group of young men brings a b...language and culture vanishing.

4 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

A group of young men brings a boat made of banana trunks, in which the Moklen place carved dolls representing each family member, as part of their biannual ritual Loi Ruea (“Boat Floating”) in Laem La community in Phuket. The miniature boat is then released into the sea, symbolizing the floating away of bad luck. This ritual shows their ties to animism and maritime tradition.

Laem La is the only Moklen community still practicing this ritual. All other Moklen communities have abandoned it for decades, signifying their shift from sea to land, which has led to their language and culture vanishing.

Ancestor worship is of utmost i...oss of Moklen in the community.

5 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Ancestor worship is of utmost importance in Moklen culture. Moklens believe that ancestral spirits protect them from illness and misfortunes and fulfill their wishes. Each community has a shaman who performs shamanic rituals and prayers to connect with the spirits. The annual festival Idun Awdah (“Sleep on the Beach”) in the photo is a significant event where Moklens gather to pay homage to their ancestors by eating and sleeping on a beach for three days near the shrine of Aebap Hin Luk Diao, one of the Moklen ancestors in their oral history.

Dr. Pittayaporn's team has been studying the language used by the Moklen to communicate with their ancestral spirits. They have observed a shift from Moklen to Thai, even among the older generations. This change reflects the dominance of Thai in their daily lives and the gradual loss of Moklen in the community.

A group of Moklen children prep...ld and young community members.

6 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

A group of Moklen children prepares for a dance performance at the Idun Awdah festival. While the Moklen community strives to preserve traditional performance arts, dances to modern music are increasingly gaining popularity and attracting more attention from old and young community members.

A Moklen family burnt coconut l...l indicate their nomadic roots.

7 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

A Moklen family burnt coconut leaves they used to make a shack for sleeping during the Idun Awdah festival.

According to Olivier Ferrari, who studied the structures and social functions of Moklen rituals, even though the Moklen have become “settled” nomads, they still hold several rituals outside their villages. Most objects used in these rituals are burnt or left behind after use, demonstrating their non-accumulation ideology and nomadic identity.

The Moklen have become sedentary and reside primarily on the mainland. However, the shack building and burning during the festival indicate their nomadic roots.

Long Hanthale is among the few ...;gill net” in Moklen.

8 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Long Hanthale is among the few remaining Moklen fishermen in the Bang Sak community. He loads squid traps, or “duboei” in Moklen, onto his sidecar motorcycle before taking them to his fishing boat.

With the rise of tourism and land development along the Andaman Coast since the 1980s, younger generations of the Moklen have turned to labor jobs in tourism and agriculture, leading to a disconnection with traditional maritime lifestyles. This has resulted in a loss of basic vocabulary related to fishing among the Moklen community.

A linguistic study by Phawathat Phongsi in 2022 revealed that even older active speakers could not remember the word “pokat,” which means “gill net” in Moklen.

Elder Yo Hanthale (left) and El...forts to promote their culture.

9 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Elder Yo Hanthale (left) and Elder Roen Hanthale are holding a Moklen spirit post and a miniature shrine of Aebap Samphan (the name can be interpreted as “three-thousand men” or “three-thousand boats.”) In the Moklen oral history, Aebap Samphan is the most significant ancestor figure in their myth of origin. The Moklen community is displaying these miniatures at the Bang Sak Cultural Center as part of their efforts to promote their culture.

Prathip Nawarak (center), the h...s different collection methods.

10 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Prathip Nawarak (center), the headman of the Moklen village Thap Pla, and his friends swim against the current to collect the local clams known as “iek lapa” in Moklen. These clams are found in sandy canal beds. Thap Pla is situated in the estuaries amidst mangrove forests and is abundant in clams. The community members know precisely where to look for each type of clam, which requires different collection methods.

Thanachai Udom is a young Mokle...oring may no longer be allowed.

11 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Thanachai Udom is a young Moklen boy who enjoys swimming at Bang Sak Beach. This beach is where Moklen fishermen of the Bang Sak community anchor their boats during fishing season. After the 2004 tsunami, the once peaceful beach became a popular tourist destination, leading to the construction of luxury resorts on the Moklens’ foraging grounds.

According to local information from March 2024, the last empty spot on the beachfront in this photo, where Moklen fishermen moor their boats and place their squid traps, will soon become another luxury resort, and boat mooring may no longer be allowed.

Sea bean, known as “c...e first time this has happened.

12 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Sea bean, known as “chuetak tue ao” in Moklen, is a coastal plant that grows naturally on Bang Sak Beach. Its flowers bloom for only a few weeks in December, and the Moklen love to eat them in spicy salads or batter-fried.

Nowadays, the plant can only be found on the beachfront, which will soon be developed into a resort, as mentioned above. This means that the plant and the traditional knowledge related to it, which is encoded in the language, will soon exist only in the memory. This is not the first time this has happened.

Elder Lap Hanthale and her frie... Moklenic and Malayic speakers.

13 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Elder Lap Hanthale and her friends are bringing bog screwpine that they have cut from the community's coastal forest to their homes. They will use it to make traditional baskets and mats, an activity that Moklen elders still practice today.

The Moklen word for screwpine, “chuekae,” can shed light on the historical development and sociolinguistic dynamics of Moklen communities. It may also provide insight into the undocumented history of the Moklen migration.

According to Dr. Pittayaporn, “chuekae” exists in Moklen and Moken, two closely related but distinct languages that form the Moklenic subgroup within the Austronesian family. However, the aspirated consonant sound /ch/ in this word suggests influence from Malay, which belongs to the Malayic languages, a different subgroup. This aspirated sound likely entered the Moklenic languages after the 15th century through contacts between Moklenic and Malayic speakers.

Elder Chim Wari earns a living ...im has no one to pass it on to.

14 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Elder Chim Wari earns a living by searching for clams along the muddy seashore of Laem La, her home village in Phuket, and doing odd jobs to make ends meet. But music is her true passion. Chim is the only Moklen in Thailand who still composes songs in her native language using traditional melodies. This is how she contributes to preserving the Moklen language and culture.

Unfortunately, the younger generations in her village are not interested in learning this art form, and Chim has no one to pass it on to.

At Bang Sak Beach, Amnuai Hanth... sustainable fishing practices.

15 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

At Bang Sak Beach, Amnuai Hanthale is preparing to load his fishing boat with squid traps. Most Moklen fishermen rely on these hand-made traps for squid fishing, as they are highly selective and only target specific species, ensuring sustainable fishing practices.

Lon Hanthale walks in the rain ... Moken and Moklen perspectives.

16 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Lon Hanthale walks in the rain during the monsoon season, or “balat” in Moklen, which also means “year.”

Michael D. Larish, who studies the position of Moken and Moklen within the Austronesian language family, has found that Mokens living on islands count years based on the dry seasons when ocean conditions are suitable for sea hunting. On the other hand, Moklens seem to have taken a more mainland perspective and count years based on wet seasons, which are more noticeable to people who rely on the monsoons for wet-land rice production.

Such lexical differentiation illustrates how ecological adaptation has influenced Moken and Moklen perspectives.

La-ong Klathale looks for dog c...dy flats covered with seagrass.

17 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

La-ong Klathale looks for dog conches, or “iek chak tin” in Moklen, on Ko Phra Thong, one of the few islands inhabited by the Moklens. Collecting this type of sea snail requires knowledge of the tide patterns and sharp eyesight to spot the conches. These creatures are almost invisible in muddy flats covered with seagrass.

Elder Lap Hanthale sits on fall...een taken to protect the beach.

18 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Elder Lap Hanthale sits on fallen tree trunks at Bang Sak Beach, an important foraging ground in her home village. Unfortunately, the beach has been seriously affected by coastal erosion in recent years, which can be attributed to sea level rise, changes in current patterns, and global warming.

According to Dr. Kitichate Sridith, a botanist at Prince Songkhla University, the fallen trunks were sea almond trees, which generally grow 5-10 meters away from the seashore. This implies that the coastal erosion was so severe that the waves reached this far into the land. Unfortunately, no measure has been taken to protect the beach.

Every Moklen community has a un...he village headman of Thap Pla.

19 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Every Moklen community has a unique oral history, traditions, landscape, and ecosystem. However, little has been explored and documented about this biocultural diversity.

Dr. Narumon Arunotai is leading a project to build a diversity database of the Moklen community. She began with the Thap Pla village and is training younger Moklens to do fieldwork by gathering information from elders and marking it on a map using GPS technology. Dr. Arunotai has previously completed a similar project for Tha La Beach in Phuket and created a diversity map, pictured, which she is showing as an example to the village headman of Thap Pla.

Nop Hanthale (right) cares for ... communicate in their language.

20 of 20 © 2024 Athikhom Saengchai

Nop Hanthale (right) cares for her grandson during the daytime while the mother works in a hotel. Although Nop is more fluent in Moklen, she speaks Thai to the baby.

This is a typical situation in Moklen families nowadays. Most Moklen speakers are of grandparental generations and use the language only within peer groups. Due to a long history of discrimination, they encouraged their children and grandchildren to speak Thai, which is associated with upward social movement, modernity, and economic opportunity. Moreover, parents generally use Thai to interact with their children at home. This has disrupted the intergenerational transmission of the Moklen language.

Attempts to revitalize Moklen have been unsuccessful because of the lack of learning materials and practical and systematic orthography. Dr. Pittayaporn’s Thai-based orthography for Moklen and his trilingual dictionary will facilitate learning, encourage the production of reading and teaching materials, and, most importantly, inspire members of the Moklen community to communicate in their language.

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Thumbnail of Phi Klathale prepares for a scho_sing their language and culture.

Thumbnail of Elder Lap Hanthale struggles to _he severely endangered language.

Thumbnail of The researchers are adjusting he_e database of Moklen vocabulary.

Thumbnail of A group of young men brings a bo_ language and culture vanishing.

Thumbnail of Ancestor worship is of utmost im_loss of Moklen in the community.

Thumbnail of A group of Moklen children prepa_old and young community members.

Thumbnail of A Moklen family burnt coconut le_al indicate their nomadic roots.

Thumbnail of Long Hanthale is among the few r_o;gill net” in Moklen.

Thumbnail of Elder Yo Hanthale (left) and Eld_fforts to promote their culture.

Thumbnail of Prathip Nawarak (center), the he_es different collection methods.

Thumbnail of Thanachai Udom is a young Moklen_ooring may no longer be allowed.

Thumbnail of Sea bean, known as “ch_he first time this has happened.

Thumbnail of Elder Lap Hanthale and her frien_n Moklenic and Malayic speakers.

Thumbnail of Elder Chim Wari earns a living b_him has no one to pass it on to.

Thumbnail of At Bang Sak Beach, Amnuai Hantha_g sustainable fishing practices.

Thumbnail of Lon Hanthale walks in the rain d_d Moken and Moklen perspectives.

Thumbnail of La-ong Klathale looks for dog co_ddy flats covered with seagrass.

Thumbnail of Elder Lap Hanthale sits on falle_been taken to protect the beach.

Thumbnail of Every Moklen community has a uni_the village headman of Thap Pla.

Thumbnail of Nop Hanthale (right) cares for h_o communicate in their language.

Private Story

Moklen Language and Culture

Copyright Athikhom Saengchai 2024

Date of Work Mar 2021 - Ongoing

Updated Apr 2023

Location Phuket and Phang-nga, Thailand

Topics Arts, Culture, Documentary, Ethnic minorities, Photography, Photojournalism

Moklen is a severely endangered language spoken by the Moklens, an ethnic group scattered in Phang-nga and Phuket along the Andaman Coast in southwestern Thailand. Less than 200 of the 6,000 population actively use it, all in grandparental generations. Due to a long history of discrimination, the majority of young generations feel ashamed of their identity, abandon Moklen, and assimilate into Thai society. Linguists estimate that Moklen will disappear in 14 years, and the world will lose valuable traditional knowledge of nature along the Andaman Coast encoded in the language and accumulated over generations.

Since 2021, I have been working with Dr. Pittayawat Pittayaporn (Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University) and his research team as a photographer in the project “Research and Documentation of the Moklen Language and Culture in the Southeast Asian Context.” The project aims to document and study the Moklen language and culture and build an online community archive. Moreover, I have been following Dr. Narumon Arunotai (Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute), a leading expert on sea nomads in Thailand, in her ongoing project to train young Moklens to build a database of biocultural diversity in the Moklen community by using GPS technology.

This is a selection of photos from this ongoing project that will give an overview of the Moklen community and their disappearing language and culture, highlighting the work I have been doing to date.

Based on this project, I am applying for the Level 1 grant from the National Geographic Society to create a photo essay that will bring global and local audiences to the little-known Moklen community to learn about their lives through their language and elevate the endeavors of the two research teams to save the vanishing Moklen language and culture.

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