Tsunami folklore ‘saved islanders’
BBC NEWS: “Traditional knowledge handed down from generation to generation helped to save ancient tribes on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the worst of the tsunami.

The aboriginal tribes – some of the oldest and most isolated in the world – have oral traditions apparently developed from previous earthquakes that may have allowed them to escape to higher ground before the massive tsunami struck the island chain off Indonesia.

The Onge tribe, for example, have lived on Little Andaman for between 30,000 and 50,000 years and, though they are on the verge of extinction, almost all of the 100 or so people left seem to have survived the 26 December quake and the devastating waves which followed. Their folklore talks of “huge shaking of ground followed by high wall of water”. When the earthquakes struck, the Onges moved to higher ground deep inside their forest and escaped the fury of the waves that entered the settlements.”

Another aboriginal people – the Jarawa on South and Middle Andaman – also fled to higher ground before the waves.”