In November 2018 John Allen Chau, a 26 years old American missionary decided to go to India's North Sentinel Island illegally.
The natives of this Island are believed to be a part of the North Sentineles tribe and they might be the world's last uncontacted tribe. It means that they know nearly nothing about the rest of the world.
John was a Christian and was so obsessed with his religion, that he wanted to teach Christianity to the people living on this Island.
So he went to a nearby Island,bribed a fisherman with 25000 rupees.And convinced the fisherman to drop him off at the Island.
They begin the journey on the night of 14th November 2018,hiding from the coast gaurds in the darkness. He was carrying his camera, some scissors, a kayak for the remaining journey, some dried fish, a football and a Bible which he had hoped to give them as a gift.
On the morning of the 15th November, as soon as they reach the Island. He tells the local fisherman to wait at a distance and gone closer to the island alone on his kayak.
He spots some houses and heard women talking, so he prepared to park his kayak on the beach ,and then he spotted 2 Sentinelese men carrying bows and arrows approaching them. He greets them by saying "My name is John, I love you and the Jesus loves you, Jesus Christ gave me the authority to come here to you . Here is some fish for you."
The two Sentinelese men place their arrow in the bow and get ready to shoot at him. Panicking, John turn around to leave.
Some hours later, he tried again. He went to the North Shore of the Island this time, from afar he could see about 6 Sentinelese people on the islandisland looking in his direction, shouting as if trying to say something. Obviously, neither group could understand the language of the other.
Whatever syllables John could identity, he tried to repeat them and shouts towards them. John slowly kept on aproaching them, remaining at a safe distance he starts dropping off the gifts he had brought for them.
There was a child and a young girl near him, carrying bows and arrows. John got off his kayak and tried to talk with the child , a sentinelese man steals his kayak behind him while he tries to explain some verses of the Bible to the child. A few seconds later, the child took aim at John's chestchest and shot an arrow. The arrow hit the Bible by chance and John's life was spared.
Panicking once again, John tried to escape but since he did not have his kayak this time, so he swims back to the boat somehow. He went back since he don't want to die. He wrote in his diary, about everything he faced on that day.
But his obsession with the Lord, had turned into madness. He tried to convince himself , that he needed to return to the Island as it was the purpose of his life.
16th November 2018 he wrote a letter to his family , he tells his parents " You guys might think I'm crazy but it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people. If I get killed, please don't blame these people."
After writing this ,he set to the North Sentinel Island once again on his boat. This time he didn't come back, the local fisherman who had driven him watched the Sentinelese burying a body from afar. Judging by the clothes, he gets to know that it was John Allen Chau's body.
According to the diary written by the John on his experiences, their height is not more than 5'3" to 5'5".
Additionally, the video footage cleary shows that Sentinelese people have short hair, they have shinning dark skin, well defined muscles, there are no signs of obesity or malnutrition.
According to John's diary, some of the people had yellow paste on their faces , they don't wear clothes but wear some fibre stings on their head, neck and waist.
Women wear thinner strings and Men wear thicker strings.Men carry weapons like Bows and Arrows, spears.
Apart from this, Sentinelese people know how to build boats. They builds small, narrow canoes with wood.
Surprisingly, they are not very curious about their surroundings.
In term of food, we know that they cannot farm so they survive by hunting of animals.
Regarding the language, their language contains a lot of high-pitched sounds such as ba, pa, la and sa.
With regards to their lifestyle, the Sentinelese lived in two different houses. A big hut for multiple families to live together and a small hut for single family.
According to john's diary, there are about 250 Sentinelese on that island. While the estimates of Indian government is about 500 approx. Because no one has been able to count the exact numbers of people living there, so that's estimates.
Amazingly they are living with nature so sustainably, that humans don't overpower nature. Nowadays, many people believe that we should continue our efforts to establish contact with them. On the other hand some people believe that we need to protect them from the outside world, since they are living peacefully , they should be allowed to remain isolated.
0 Comments