The ritual includes small boats being set adrift to drive away evil and bring good luck and prosperity – a beautiful spectacle at night. Many ceremonies are held in local villages.
The festival takes place on the full moon day in the sixth and the eleventh months of the lunar calendar.
Location: Ban Saladan, Koh Lanta, Krabi, Thailand.
(Source: InspirePhuketKrabi.com)
Who is sea gypsy?
The nomadic Sea Gypsies (Chao Ley) arrived on Ko Lanta more than 500 years ago with their unique language, matriarchal social system and animist beliefs. The Chao Ley shown here are from a tribe called Urak Lawoi, who according to local legend are relatives of Morgan, another group of Sea Gypsies on Surin Island in Phang Nga.
Sea Gypsies came to the area as nomadic boat people of Indo-Malay origin with a subsistence-based fishing livelihood. Today many have been granted land, surnames, and citizenship in Thailand. These unique people blend into the local population but they retain their own language, culture and close ties with the sea.
There are still two Chao Ley villages less than a kilometre apart on the southeast coast of the island. There is one tiny, private Sea Gypsy museum called ‘Sea Gypsy House’ nearby, a seaside compound with various buildings standing amongst the mangroves and tidal pools near Ko Lanta’s Old Town. It serves as both an educational centre for visitors and a place for the Sea Gypsies to fashion jewelry and traditional musical instruments. (Source: Lantainfo.com)
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