The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may also refer to any Malayic-speaking people living on coastal islands, including those of Mergui Archipelago islands of Myanmar and Thailand, commonly known as Moken.
An Orang Laut family living in a boat, circa 1914–1921.
An Orang Laut woman in Solok, Jambi southern Sumatra
House barges of the Orang Laut off the coast of Jambi and Riau, Dutch East Indies, circa 1914–1921.
Villages of Orang Laut in Riau Islands.
The Riau Islands is a province of Indonesia - not to be confused with neighbouring Riau Province from which the islands were separated in 2002. The capital of the province is Tanjung Pinang and the largest city is Batam. It shares a maritime border with Riau and Jambi to the east, Bangka Belitung Islands to the south, Singapore to the northeast, Malaysia and West Kalimantan to the west, and Vietnam and Cambodia to the north. It comprises a total of 1,796 islands scattered between Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo including the Riau Archipelago. Situated on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes along the Malacca Strait and the Natuna Sea, the province shares water borders with neighboring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. The Riau Islands also have relatively large potential mineral resources and energy, as well as marine resources.
Pulau Penyengat (Lit: Wasp island), lithography of an original watercolour by J.C. Rappard. ca. 1883–1889.
The Tomb of Puteri Hamidah, Queen of Sultan Mahmud Shah III.
Ali Kelana, Crown Prince of Riau-Lingga, one of the founding fathers of the Roesidijah Club Riouw, the first modern organisation in the Netherlands East Indies. (taken in 1899)
Abdul Rahman II of Riau Lingga, the last sultan of Riau-Lingga sultanate. He was subsequently deposed by the Dutch and went into exile