The Orang Laut are several seafaring and tribes living around Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia and the 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 language 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
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
[Barbara Watson Andaya. Report of Three Residents of Jambi about the Threat of Johorese War Vessels in the Batang Hari River, 11 September 1714
]
/ref>[Mary Somers Heidhues. Southeast Asia: A Concise History. London: Hudson and Thames, 2000. Page 27] In return, the ruler gave the Orang Laut leaders prestigious titles and gifts.
Popular culture
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".
See also
External links
