Real Bush-Crafter survives Tsunami

[Abbe Osram]

Real Bush-Crafter survives Tsunami

A Swedish newspaper shows a picture where a native from the Andaman and Nikobar Islands is running with a bow towards a landing helicopter shooting arrows, clearly showing that he doesn’t want any help.

http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=226344

They further write in the article that the group living on the Islands are estimated to be 400 to 1000 people. The article says further that the natives choose to live in their old ways hunting with bow and arrow, starting fire by friction, living in shelters etc. They believe that the group of natives moved up, in time, to the mountains and saved them-selves knowing the water, wind and signs of nature.

What I found real cool from the story is that these people don’t want to join our way of living, they clearly know about our society but they don’t want it for themselves and survived.

They live in tune with nature and made it out alive.

Cheers
Abbe

 

[Kath]

The existence of the Andaman and Nikobar peoples (together with the Adi people that were shown on the Tribe program last week) would seem to indicate that India has a pretty unique attitude to its tribal peoples. :ekt:

 

[Viking]

The real interesting thing in the artcivle is that they make fire by rubbing a stick against a rock and that they can feel scent of the wind and only by listen they can estimate how deep the sea is. That is knowledge that has been forgotten by modern man.

 

[Great Pebble]

I hope their way of life will continue unaffected, there's some concern about exactly what might be floating around in the water in that area. Very heavily militarised and a centre of India's nuclear weapons program.

 

[BIG-TARGET]

I hope that native is counting his blessings that the pilot isn't from NJ. That could have been messy!!!
Watch carefully!!!

:AR15firin : -l)

 

[Rob]

:yikes: :rolmao: :rolmao:

I do find that picture inspiring - and old bowyer friend will no doubt end up with that picture on his wall. And I am glad that there are peoples out there like that.

 

[Stuart]

The real interesting thing in the artcivle is that they make fire by rubbing a stick against a rock and that they can feel scent of the wind and only by listen they can estimate how deep the sea is. That is knowledge that has been forgotten by modern man.

be wary of the reported feats and abilities of such peoples buy the western media who seem to have an irresistible urge to romanticize.

this is not to say that there abilitys are no more amazing, just that a pinch of salt should be taken with any information which is supplied via the media.

 

[Great Pebble]

I was going to mention the fact that while the Indian Government have a policy of leaving the indigenous peoples of the region to their own devices as much as possible, they also allegedly like to keep them, shall we say, xenophobic. With a little bribery and corruption.

Makes camping in the neighbourhood an interesting proposition for the likes of the Myanmars, or indeed Chinese.

 

[Emdiesse]

What language is it in?
where can i translate it?

 

[Emdiesse]

Where can i get that translated to english?

 

[nomade]

Abbe Osram wrote:

"They believe that the group of natives moved up, in time, to the mountains and saved them-selves knowing the water, wind and signs of nature.

What I found real cool from the story is that these people don’t want to join our way of living, they clearly know about our society but they don’t want it for themselves and survived."

When I heard abou the location of that Tsunami I immediately thought about those remote people that you are talking about.

I knew about them and worried.The media never mentioned them. They only mentioned and showed on TV the Indian and other Asian mainland populations living there (settlers brought in by the Indian government who are not native of those islands).

Now I know thanks to your post that these people (called "Negritos" after the name first given to them by Portuguese navigators centuries ago) managed to read warning signs of the Tsunami and flee to safety in time.

Thanks for this story, Abbe Osram!

It just shows we are now so remote from nature...and so were also all the different Asian cultures living on the shores hit by the Tsunami although one would think that they would have at least traditions transmitted by forfathers who themselves had experienced a Tsunami (a rare but regular occurrence every 200 years or so)!).

There was another baffling story: a little English girl had done a school project on Tsunamis shortly before Christmas. Then she went to South Asia on holidays with her parents.

While on the beach she saw 2 warning signs she remembered of a coming tsunami: bubbles in the water and the sea withdrawing far below its normal low-tide level.

She told her parents about it who belived her and then succeeded to convince everyone on that beach to leave immdiately: they all fled and are all alive and well today: this little girl saved 300 lives!

This is not about real bushcraft skills but just knowledge available in books or the Internet. But because she was a child she had a sort of closeness to reality and of taking things seriously. Not very far from a bushcrafter's mindset
(or a traditional people like the Islanders Abbe Osram talks about).

Abbe Osram post also shows how right these people are to resist our contact, influence and ways. I know from accounts of anthropologists how difficult it is to even make contact with them. Some managed through patience and respect that the Islandrers eventually recognized. They are very threatened. They were left alone for some time by the Indian governement (this is Indian territory) but for how much longer? There are more and more encrouching on their forest territory, roads, etc

The Indian/Asian populations who recently settled there don't understand this hunting/gathering people who is both racially and culturally completely different from them.

In particular they don't understand their refusal to wear clothes. A French anthropoliogist who spent time with the Islanders said that the Indians in his team wanted to put clothes on these people as a matter of urgency. Nakedness was really shocking to them.

Many of us humans think we are right and our ways are the right way and we know best...all over the world...

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi mate,
I am happy that you got something out of the story. I am happy too that the kid with her knowledge managed to save 300 lives but what struck me a lot in your story was that the parents actually listened to the kid and put some action going.
It is not so easy to say to 300 people taking a sunbath: "Listen guys my little girl here believes a giant catastrophe will hit in one hour this sunny beach, lets run for our life’s. Good Kid and good parents and some 300 smart people believing the kid.

cheers
Abbe

 

[nomade]

Yes mate, I thought the same: this is indeed the most incredible part of the story...that she could convince first her parents then an entire crowd of adults!

It is a miracle! Sometimes when people believe something very strongly they sound very convincing, their belief becomes contagious.

Whoever is interested in survival or survival situations is left very thoughtful with stories like that:

safety was available. Why was it unavailable to so many?

A lot of real bushcraft it seems to me is about realizing what is available to you that most of us modern people don't know (forgot) exists and don't try to find out.


I am very surprised that apart from the "negritos" hunter gatherers you are talking about on these islands, none of the mainland Asian populations living by the sea there had a tradition which teaches them to read the warning signs of tsunamis. Maybe it got lost over time. Because tsunamis happen so rarely.

Sorry the post is getting long...but just one more thingI had forgotten to say in my previous post:

THERE ARE NO CASUALTIES ANYWHERE AMONG THE WILDLIFE!

ALL WILD ANIMALS PLUS THE DOMESTIC ONES FREE TO LEAVE LEFT way before the tsunami struck and they all went...on heights!

Aniamals perceive signs and some hear the low frequency sound of a distant earthquake (elephants, some there left with tourists on their back...) but what is even more extraordinary is that they know these warning signs mean "go on heights!". How do they know the rumble or roar they hear or perceive means a tidal wave?

FOR ANYONE LIVING IN THE UK OR RECEIVING THE BBC RADIO PROGRAMS, THERE WILL BE A RADIO PROGRAM
ON HOW THE WILDLIFE FLED THE TSUNAMI LONG BEFORE IT CAME

ON THE BBC STATION "RADIO4", 198 LONG WAVES (LW) OR 92-95 FM

ON MONDAY 14.02.05 AT 9PM
WITH A REPEAT ON TUESTAY 15.02.05 AT 11AM

Her is a summary of the program from radio 4 listings (bbc.co.uk):

21:00 Nature
Animal Instinct

Beyond the example of cats and dogs appearing to know when their owners are returning home, there are a host of finely-tuned senses at work within the animal kingdom. With very few wild animals thought to have been lost during the recent devastating tsunami, Lionel Kelleway explores the behaviour and instincts of animals that might help them to survive such catastrophic natural disasters.

[Rptd Tue 11.00am]

Sorry the post got quite long but these questions are so interesting...