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Orang Laut

Ethnic group of Southeast Asia

Summary

Ethnic group of Southeast Asia

Field	Value
group	Orang Laut
{{Script	Arab	اورڠ لا{{Jawi-HamzaThreeQuarter}}وت}}
image	[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Woonschuit van een Oerang-Laoet familie Ka. Toengkal TMnr 10010488.jpg	300px	]]
caption	An Orang Laut family living in a boat, circa 1914–1921.
population	420,000
popplace	Malay Peninsula:
MalaysiaRiau Archipelago:
IndonesiaSingapore
langs	Loncong, Orang Seletar,
Malay (Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian)
rels	Animism, Folk religion, Islam
related	Orang Kuala, Orang Darat, Orang Seletar, Sama-Bajau, Moken, Urak Lawoi’ people, Malay people

MalaysiaRiau Archipelago: IndonesiaSingapore Malay (Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian)

An Orang Laut woman in [[Solok]], [[Jambi]] southern [[Sumatra

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 the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar and Thailand, commonly known as Moken.

The population of the tribe in the 21st century is estimated 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

Broadly speaking, the term encompasses the numerous tribes and groups inhabiting the islands and estuaries in the Ria Archipelago, the Pulau Tujuh Islands, the Batam Archipelago, and the coasts and offshore islands of eastern Sumatra, the southern Malay Peninsula and Singapore.

History

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 pirates, directing traders to their employers' ports and maintaining those ports' dominance in the area. In return, the ruler gave the 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.

Popular culture

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".

References

Adriaan J. Barnouw. (February 1946). "Cross Currents of Culture in Indonesia". The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 2.
David E. Sopher. (1965). "The Sea Nomads: A Study Based on the Literature of the Maritime Boat People of Southeast Asia". Memoirs of the National Museum.
"The Malay Peninsula and Archipelago".
Barbara Watson Andaya. ''Report of Three Residents of Jambi about the Threat of Johorese War Vessels in the Batang Hari River, 11 September 1714''. Jakarta : Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia. 2013 https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/media/dasadefined/HartaKarunArticles/HK010/Doc_10_Eng.pdf
Mary Somers Heidhues. ''Southeast Asia: A Concise History''. London: Hudson and Thames, 2000. Page 27
Paul Wheatley. (1961). "The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula before A.D. 1500". [[w:University of Malaya.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ethnic-groups-in-indonesia ethnic-groups-in-sumatra ethnic-groups-in-malaysia ethnic-groups-in-singapore indonesian-people-of-malay-descent modern-nomads

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