Blue Tribes Garden Beach Resort - Koh Lipe Thailand




Chao Leh

SWEET PEOPLE ARRIVED CANOEING LONG TIME AGO FROM VERY FAR AWAY…
THE MAGIC OF SIMPLICITY

Koh Lipe is an outstanding island… the nature was very generous but…Lipe island wouldn’t be the same without the Chao Leh.

Chao Leh is a thai word (meaning people from the sea) which identify a minority people, socially and culturally distinct from the dominant thai ethnic group.
The scientific word for Chao Leh is Urak Lawoi (meaning people from the sea in Urak Lawoi language).
Their language, which traditionally has no written form, is part of the Austronesian language which spreads from Easter island in Polynesia to Madagascar in Africa.

In Thailand, the Urak Lawoi are found mainly on the island of the Andaman sea; We know they settled in the area of Koh Lipe and the Butang Archipelago in the 1910s, mostly coming from Phuket and Koh Lanta. Urak Lawoi left Taiwan around 5000 years ago, through Palawan and Borneo they reached Sumatra where probably they settled for long time.

mappa

The Chao Leh are still pretty animist.
Their belief is deeply focus on spiritism, ancestors and it’s very much relate with the surrounding nature… jungle, sea, sky, animals.
Today we have the modern medicine… but in Lipe, still, you can see the shaman.

Around 1300 Chao Leh live today on Lipe island, most of them in the main village and some in micro communities and large families… with a great knowledge of seas and winds, they are superbe longtailboat captains, fishermen and seafood pickers.

Nowadays the Chao Leh are facing new problems connected with the increase of tourism business;
It’s a fragile world of nice simple people, babies and beautiful nature… we felt in love.

We remind you that Blue Tribes is an Italian – Urak Lawoi cooperation
and that Blue tribes helps to substain the life and the economy of a large Urak Lawoi family of around 28 people.


	Blue Tribes Garden Beach Resort - house nr. 45, Moo 7, Tambon Koh Sarai - Amphor Muang, Satun - Koh Lipe, Thailand infobluetribes@gmail.com