The Maniq of Thailand

A group of Maniq sit under a house watching a cell phone video. The Maniq of Trang province differ slightly as they were the first to give up nomadic life and became permanently settled in their own remote forest village. Evidence suggests that the Maniq, a Negrito tribe of hunters and gatherers, have inhabited the Malay Peninsula for around 25,000 years. Today a population of approximately 350 maniq remain, marooned on a forest covered mountain range in Southern Thailand. Whilst some have left their traditional life forming small villages, the majority still live the way they have for millennia, moving around the forest following food sources. Quiet and reclusive they are little known even in Thailand itself but due to rapid deforestation they are finding it harder to survive on the forest alone and are slowly being forced to move to its peripheries closer to Thai communities.

    The Maniq: Thailand’s Last Hunter-Gatherers

    The Negritos of Thailand comprise several bands of foragers native to Southern Thailand who have inhabited the Malay Peninsula for over 40,000 years. They are commonly known as Sakai in Thailand, meaning savage or wild people in Malay; Semang, meaning human in the Lanoh language of Malaysia; Chāo Pā, meaning forest people in Thai; Ngō̜ pā, meaning Rambutan people in Thai, comparing the texture of their hair to the spikiness of the Rambutan fruit; Orang Asli, meaning natural or original people in Malay; and Mani(q), meaning human being/jungle dwellers in the Maniq language. 

    Derogatory terms like Sakai and Ngō̜ pā, are often still used in Thailand and Malaysia, but only in cases of ignorance or prejudice. Although generally labeled Semang or Orang Asli in Western ethnology in both Thailand and Malaysia; Maniq or Koy is the preferred term when referring to the negrito indigenous groups in the Malay Peninsula and those who currently dwell in the Thai provinces of Phatthalung, Trang, Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. It is important to note that although the Maniq are the only indigenous Negrito people in the Malay Peninsula, they are not considered to be the only indigenous groups living in Thailand and Malaysia.

    The Maniq groups in Thailand currently number at around 600 in total, however, the number is still far behind the amount living in Malaysia, which is home to more than 170,000 Maniq. Our knowledge on the Mani, as with many nomadic groups, is forever changing. The goal of this exhibit is to provide you with the most up to date information on the ethnography of the Maniq.

     

    In this exhibit you will see:

    • Recent photography taken with the Maniq’s permission. Courtesy of Luke Duggleby.
    • The Maniq in pop-culture.
    • The Maniq in folklore, tales, or legends.
    • The Maniq in local historical accounts.
    • Artifacts used and/or crafted by the Maniq.

     

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