Urak Lawoi are an ethnic group residing on the islands of Phuket

Phuket Province

Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...

, Phi Phi, Jum, Lanta, Bulon and on Lipe

Ko Lipe

Koh Lipe is an island in the Adang-Rawi Archipelago in the Satun Province of Thailand.Koh Lipe is a tiny island in the Andaman Sea located 70 km off the southwest coast of Thailand near the Malaysian border. The Thai name is transliterated many different ways into English. The most common...

 and Adang, in the Adang Archipelago, off the western coast of Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. They are known by various names, including Orak Lawoi', Lawta, Chaw Talay, Chawnam, and Lawoi.

The population of approximately 6000 speak a language related closely to Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 but influenced by Thai

Thai language

Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...

. The Urak Lawoi are one of several southeast Asian ethnicities referred to as "sea gypsies" (chao leh in Thai). The local way of life has been changing rapidly in recent years, due to the rapid encroachment of the market economy

Market economy

A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...

, and the opening of Tarutao National Marine Park

Tarutao National Marine Park

Tarutao National Marine Park consists of 51 islands located in the Andaman Sea, off the coast of Satun Province of Southern Thailand. The Tarutao National Marine Park consists of two island groups: Tarutao and Adang-Rawi , which are scattered from 20 to 70 kilometers distance from the...

.