Legends save lives

One sunny morning in late 2004, the Moken people of the Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea witnessed an alarming phenomenon -- the seawaters suddenly receded even as the placid weather remained unchanged. For Moken elders, this was a harbinger of the Laboon, the furious god of the waves who is said to wreak devastation once every two generations. The entire community evacuated to higher...