WHAT LIFE IS REALLY LIKE ON THE ISLAND CUT OFF FROM EVERYONE FOR 30,000 YEARS
Poison arrows, knives, spears, clubs, axes, rocks — all of them have been waved very angrily. Over the years, the message from the natives of the tiny island of North Sentinel in the Bay of Bengal could not have been clearer.
‘Keep away. Go home. Buzz off. Visitors not welcome. We want to be alone.’
Of course they do. The Sentinelese are one of a very few remaining ‘uncontacted peoples’ in the world and they are determined to keep it that way. Which means we know tantalisingly little about their language, their culture, their belief system or even how many of them there are.
But what we do know is that they have lived happily and largely healthily on their tiny, lush, mangrove-swamped 20-square-mile island for at least 30,000 years.
During which time, they have feasted on wild pig, clams, berries and honey, engaged in energetic communal sex sessions on the beach and repelled pretty much every visitor (well-meaning or threatening) with a flurry of poison arrows and razor sharp machetes.
So it wasn’t such a surprise last weekend when John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old American Christian missionary-cum-thrill-seeking explorer who visited the island was felled by a poison arrow and then dragged round the white sand beaches by a piece of twine until he was dead.
Apparently Chau, a graduate of the evangelical Oral Roberts University, Oklahoma, who had previously declared visiting North Sentinel as his ‘must-do adventure’, had decided his life’s calling was converting the Sentinelese to Christianity. Poor wellintentioned Chau. Of course, his death is an utter tragedy — a young life cut off in such an horrific and courageous way. He continued walking into the arrows as they fired, so intent was he on delivering his message from God. And from all accounts he was a wonderful human being — ‘kind’, ‘big-hearted’ and ‘wonderful fun’.
But he shouldn’t have been there. Under Indian law, it is illegal for anyone to be within five nautical miles of the islands and, since last year, even filming the natives in the Andaman Islands — which include North Sentinel — has been illegal.
This is partly to protect visitors such as Chau, from the natives’ deadly tendencies.
But more importantly, it is to ensure the continued survival of the world’s last pre-neolithic tribe. A people, so isolated, so apart from, so unexposed to modern life that they are unlikely to have any resistance common illnesses such as flu, measles or even a cold. As Sophie Grig, a senior researcher with Survival International, put it: ‘This is one of the most vulnerable tribes on the planet. He could be passing on diseases that could literally wipe them all out.’
Which as well as being a disaster for them, would be an anthropological catastrophe. Because the Sentinelese are the only surviving direct descendants of the first humans in Asia. More than 75,000 years ago they made their way from Africa to the Middle East, Burma and India.
Eventually, they reached the Andaman Islands. Some moved on, but others stayed on North Sentinel, drawn by the lush mangrove jungles, perfect white sandy beaches and a natural bounty so rich and easy to plunder there was no need to cultivate the land. The men hunted turtle, pigs and fish with spears, bows and arrows tipped with bone and hardwood.
The women gathered tubers, coconuts berries and clams and caught fish in homemade nets.
In the summer they collected honey, smearing their bodies with
This is one of the most vulnerable tribes on the planet. He could be passing on diseases that could literally wipe them all out