North Sentinel Islanders

This is a photograph of the mysterious Sentinelese people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Islands.  The Sentinelese people may be one of the most isolated populations in the world.


The island, and this photograph, came to global attention in 2018 with the murder of John Allen Chau, an American missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese to Christianity.  He was killed after illegally travelling to the island.  He should have know better.  The Sentinelese have a long history of extreme aggression towards outsiders trying to make contact.


Describing the Sentinelese, 13th century explorer Marco Polo wrote, "They are the most violent and cruel generation who seem to eat everybody they catch."

Fast forward through years of Burmese slave trading and British occupation (which probably didn't lessen the Sentinelese dislike of outsiders) to 1867 when an Indian merchant ship, Nineveh, was wrecked during a storm. 106 crew members landed on the beach and the Sentinelese attacked them. Luckily for them, they were just out of reach and were rescued.

In 1880 Maurice Vidal Portman, a British officer, landed on the island. He wanted to learn about Sentinelese culture. His expedition captured 6 weak Sentinelese, planning to teach them English. Two elderly captives promptly died and Portman ordered the 4 remaining children be returned to the island.

A Nat Geo film crew approached the island in 1974 to shoot some footage but the director was immediately shot in the leg by a bow and arrow. They left!




In 1981 a freighter, the Primrose, ran aground.  Some days later a watchman saw a group emerge from the jungle. "Wild men, estimate more that 50, carrying various homemade weapons, are making two or three wooden boats" the captain radioed to his HQ in Hong Kong.  But the seas were too rough for the islanders' boats and after 3 days the Indian navy winched the sailors to safety.  The Primrose still lies where she ran aground and the islanders may have entered the iron age using metal from the wreck to make heads for spears and arrows.

Indian anthropologists made the first (and last) peaceful contact in 1991 when they brought gifts which the Sentinelese accepted.  It soon went down hill though, and in 1996 the Indian government banned any further visits to the island.


The Indian Ocean boxing day earthquake caused substantial (1-2m) uplift to the island.  Three days after the earthquake and tsunami an Indian government helicopter went to check on the islanders and saw several individuals on the beach - who proceeded to shoot arrows and throw spears and stones at the helicopter.  The Sentinelese survived!



The islanders killed two men fishing close to the island in 2006, then attacked the helicopter that came to recover the bodies. Indian authorities cancelled the operation.

Finally, back to the event that brought the world's attention to the island.  John Allen Chau knew the risks.  He had been shot with a bow and arrow during a previous attempted visit.  The Sentinelese murdered him soon after he landed but, given the special status of the island (the Indian government has declared the entire island and its surrounding waters an exclusion zone), no attempt was made to recover his body.


Anthropologists think the population of North Sentinel Island is between 50 and 400 - but nobody knows.  The Sentinelese may have lived in isolation for about 60,000 years so there could be a direct line between them and their pre-Neolithic ancestors.  Nothing is known of the Sentinelese language.  When individuals from neighbouring islands tried to communicate they did not recognise any of the language spoken by the inhabitants suggesting they have been isolated for a very, very long time.  It really is a mysterious place, and I hope it stays that way.

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