PORT BLAIR, India (13 Jan 2005) -- The king and the queen of an endangered aboriginal tribe vowed to rebuild their jungle kingdom on an isolated Indian island which was smashed by tsunamis. King Jirake wields absolute power over his 48 Great Andamanese subjects on Strait Island, 250 kilometres (150 miles) from Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The 62-year-old king and his queen Surmai shepherded their subjects to the safety of a hilltop as the giant waves crashed ashore on December 26. "Everything was swept away, our houses, boats, bows and arrows, spears and our stock of whisky," said Jirake, near a hospital in Port Blair where he was rushed December 28 for treatment for stress. A total of 1,492 people died on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, according to an official count, and more than 5,000 are missing and feared dead. "We can make new bows and arrows but we will have to buy our whisky," the king told a local reporter in a rare interview arranged by tribal supporters. India doles out cash to the Great Andamanese to buy goods through intermediaries. "Now we go back to our land and resume our lifestyle," said the Great Andamanese queen, obliged to wear a modern Indian dress near the state-run hospital in Port Blair. "We wear knitted leaves, hunt pigs, turtles and fish and we live on the beaches and this costume and shoes feel terrible," the diminutive king said, clad in cotton trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and rubber-soled shoes. "We feel like prisoners. We are going back to take stock of our people, after all we are all that they have," said Jirake, who was "elected" king over a decade ago after his father died. He himself lost eight brick-and-mortar shelters provided by the Indian state on his island. The royal couple, accompanied by their 25-year-old princess Tango, spoke in broken Hindi which they have picked up from Indian officials in charge of welfare for negrito aboriginal tribes who survive on the archipelago. The Great Andamanese numbered 10,000 in 1789. But their friendliness to outsiders who brought measles, syphilis and influenza which saw their numbers shrink to 625 in 1901. By 1969 only 19 Andamanese survived, according to Indian government figures. They were resettled on Strait Island to try to protect their society. | | India's 1971 census shows a population of 24 surviving Great Andamanese but by 1999 their number had grown to 41 and the population swelled to 49 last year. Photography of Andaman's Stone Age tribal people is banned by an order of the Supreme Court and access to their habitats is blocked by the local administration. The forager Andamanese are among five endangered primitive tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. There are 200 warrior-like Sentinelese, the 98-member Onge, 350 Jarawa and 250 hunter-gatherer Shompens. All appear to have survived the tsunamis in their reclusive reserves, anthropologists say. Modernity has, however, touched Princess Tango, a mother of three. She loves to watch a television provided by the Andamanese administration and prefers Bollywood films starring hearthrob actor Shahrukh Khan. "I also go out with the boys to hunt but dad does not like it," said the princess. The Andamans' tribal community also includes 30,000 Nicobarese, many of whom have integrated in mainstream society. Thousands of Nicobarese are however missing and feared dead. Officials, meanwhile, said Andaman's aborigines appeared to have survived the towering waves that smashed the pristine archipelago, popular for snorkeling and scuba diving. "All members of of these communities have been accounted for except for one Shompen who is missing," said V.V. Bhat, Andaman's chief secretary, as the navy evacuated three islands late Wednesday of its hundreds of tribal inhabitants. SOURCE - AFP |
