Bajau

plural Bajaus · alternative Badjao · alternative Bajao

1. geographyAn island in Indonesia (part of the Riau Islands) with the coordinate location 3°7'31.84"N, 106°18'38.30"E.
2. anthropologyThe indigenous people native to Bajau island (part of modern-day Indonesia), these ethnic group nowadays predominantly inhabit the Bajau island and its adjacent regions in Indonesia and also expanded to the southern Philippines.

   The Bajaus, or sea gypsies, live in boats, their occupation being fishing.

   1905, United States. Bureau of the Census, Census of the Philippine Islands, volume 1, page 565

   2 more examples

   The largest tribe is the 60,000-member Bajau. The Bajaus were once sea nomads and pirates.

   1969, James W. Gould, The United States and Malaysia, page 30

   The Bajau are a group of seafarers who migrated from the Philippines only a couple hundred years ago. The Bajau on the eastern coast of Sabah carry on their traditional connection to the water, living as sea gypsies and coming to shore only for burials. On the west coast, however, many Bajau have settled on dry land as farmers and cattle raisers.

   2011, Daniel White, Ron Emmons, Jennifer Eveland, Jen Lin-Liu, Frommer's Southeast Asia, page 569

   Synonyms: sea gypsy

alternative Badjao · alternative Bajao

1. human sciencesThe native language spoken by the Bajau people (the indigenous of Bajau island in Indonesia).

   2007, Mark T. Miller, A Grammar of West Coast Bajau, PhD Thesis.