Salaman is the leader of the Morgan tribe on the Thai island of Ko Surin Thai. A century's-old clan, Morgan tribal members lead simple lives in their straw huts propped up by bamboo stilts on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Their ancient traditions seem straight out of the Stone Age. Time, for the tribe, has little significance -- the tall, gaunt leader has never even owned a watch.

But one moment will stay with Salaman for a long time -- a moment of life and death. It came during the morning hours of last Sunday and Salaman had never seen anything like it before. "The water pulled back like a carpet, it was ragingly fast," he recalls, gesticulating wildly with his hands. He was confused for a minute, but then he saw the wall of water approaching. As loud as he could, he screamed: "Run as fast as you can! It's coming!" Behind the fleeing village, the tsunami hit.

The village elder's quick thinking saved the lives of the entire tribe -- all 180 members, says Salaman. Within minutes, everything behind and beneath them was destroyed as the deadly wave struck the beach. When the tsunami flood waters receded, they took with them everything that once belonged to the tribe -- the small boats it used to fish, their homes, everything. "If we hadn't run, we would all be dead," Salaman says.

A day later, the Thai Navy evacuated the Morgan people from Ko Surin Tai, taking them to the small mainland harbor town of Khura Buri, where they are staying in a make-shift shelter in a hall located near a temple. For many in the tribe, this is the first time they've been on the mainland. Prior to this, they lived a life that had changed little over the course of hundreds of years. Almost completely cut off from the outside world, they nourished themselves nearly exclusively on the fish the male villagers caught using their small wooden boats each day. Most of the sea-dependent tribe speak a little bit of Thai. But they mostly speak to each other in their own language, Morgan, from which their name is derived.

Before the wave, the Morgans led a wholly primitive existence without electricity, telephones or television. While the men were out fishing, the women would cook and whittle jewellery out of sea shells. If one of the tribe's members fell ill, the chief Salaman would take the person to the headquarters of Mu Ko Surin National Park on the neighboring island. That was normally the only contact with the outside world, but the park's proximity sometimes meant that tourist divers would occasionally boat over and illegally anchor on Ko Surin Tai's pristine beaches. Some even came specifically to visit the tribe -- photographing its unfamiliar rituals, like the tradition of smearing their faces with chalk.

Now, in the temporary shelter on the Thai mainland, their lives look like a scene out of the film "The Gods Must Be Crazy." Stranger yet, however, is how they survived. "It's just crazy," says Surat Akkavirotkul, a city council member," that thousands died because they stayed on the beach and this primitive people instinctively made the right decision and not a single one of them died." But Salaman is equally amazed -- he had no idea of the scope of the disaster and the thousands of Thais and tourists who died -- or even what the word "tsunami" meant for that matter -- before arriving here.

At odds with civilization

Because of the harmonious manner in which the Morgan tribe lives with nature, it is revered by people throughout Thailand. The fact that they have survived here -- even as hedonistic tourist centers like Phuket and Phang Nga have been destroyed in many parts -- has turned them into a symbol of hope for many. Indeed, many Thais who have been donating relief goods have specifically sent them here.

But such sentiment or even newspaper reports about the Morgans or the tragedy that has befallen the rest of Thailand, plays only a small roll for these people. All are illiterate and even village elder Salaman knows neither his age nor does he have a last name.

Sitting on the floor here in the dirty hall, many members of the tribe seem agitated. For more than a few, this is their first encounter with civilization. People across the country have donated candy bars for the needy, but it's a bizarre site to see half-naked Morgan children struggling to rip open the sparkling packaging only to stuff themselves with chocolate morsels as soon as they figure it out. Others are eating ice cream, which they are also seeing for the first time in their life.

There are mountains of donated clothing here, but the mothers are obsessed with the bras, which they're getting the chance to test for the first time. Some find them so chic that they're parading around, showing them off to each other without wearing anything over them. At least until a Chinese television crew arrives at Khura Bui and throws the camera lights on the tribe. Suddenly, they become shy -- and many even scatter to the corners of the hall, where they cover themselves completely in towels.

These are all scenes that worry village elder Salaman. "We need to get back to our island quickly," says Salaman, one of the few in his tribe who has frequently visited Khura Buri. He's worried that the children will start to take a liking to the modern lifestyle and that they won't want to return with him and the other grown ups.

Which is why he is trying to get his village back home as fast as possible. "We don't need much," he's been telling the local officials, "just a little wood and bamboo so that we can rebuild our huts." He says the Morgans can take care of everything else themselves. New boats need to be built, new stilts, new huts. It will take time -- but time hasn't meant much to the Morgans up till now.

For a few more days or possibly weeks, the clan will have to stay on in Khura Buri. On Monday, the first national park boat was sent back over to the Surine Islands since the rescue operations began nearly a week ago. The workers found little on the islands besides destruction. Nothing is left but ruins of the park headquarters on Ko Surin, Tai's neighboring island. The few bamboo huts here for visitors have been completely ripped to shreds and at least 90 people were killed here by the tsunami. Some had been sitting on the beach after visiting the rain forest that covers the hills here. Others were diving near the main island.