While many Thai Buddhists are committing the light waving ceremony under the waning moon in the third lunar month, hundreds of Moklen people, one of the ethnic fishermen groups in the southern Thailand gather together at a small beach located in the north of Phuket, eat, drink, and enjoy each other’s company. Photographer Athikom Saengchai, working closely with ChulaSEAL’s researcher Pittayawat Pittayaporn, tells the story of the Moklen’s “Idun-Awda” /ʔidúːn ʔáwdàʔ/ festival through a photo documentary.
Known as /nɔ̄ːn hàːt/ ‘sleeping on the beach’ in Thai, the cultural event was first started by Moken people who lived in the north of Phuket Island. It occurs every year from two days before waning moon to the day of waning moon in the third lunar month, so that the Moklen people can pay respect to the ancestral spiritual beings that protect them. Moreover, this ceremony also serves as an annual reunion for Moklen people from different communities as well.
This ceremony provides us with many insights into the Moklen culture. For instance, it is a manifestation of their belief in their ancestral spiritual beings, as well as a reflection of the influence of other cultures, with which the Moklen have been in contact. The festivity thus highlights the Moklen’s cultural dynamism as part of the mainland Southeast Asia.
Nevertheless, the Moklen’s adapting themselves to modern urban society means that their own cultural identities have also started to fade away. Their assimilation to the Thai society at large also mean that the Moklen people and their cultural heritages remains mostly visible. As a result, the Moklen language and culture is critically endangered but remains seriously understudied.
The photo documentary is a part of “The Mainland Southeast Asian language landscape and the arrival of Tai language: Phase I”, a project from our research unit, supported by Institute of Suvarnabhumi Studies, Thailand Aacademy of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts (TASSHA).