Andaman Islands

thumb|Map of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman Islands are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about 130 km (81 mi) southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, while the Coco Islands and Preparis Island are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar. Quotes Beyond (the Lendjebālus islands, i.e., the Nicobars) are two islands divided by a sea called Andāmān. The natives of these isles devour men alive; their hue is black, their hair woolly; their countenance and eyes have something terrifying about them. Their feet are long; the foot of one of them is as much as a cubit long. They go naked, and have no boats. An Arab traveller of the 9th century. Joseph-Toussaint Reinaud, ed., Relations des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde et à la Chine dans le IXe siècle de l'ère chrétienne, vol. 1 (Paris, 1845), p. 8. Extract translated and cited in F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua (1911), p. 148, note When sailing from Lan-wu-li to Si-lan, if the wind is not fair, ships maybe driven to a place called Yen-tʿo-man. This is a group of two islands in the middle of the sea, one of them being large, the other small; the latter is quite uninhabited. The large one measures seventy li in circuit. The natives on it are of a colour resembling black lacquer; they eat men alive, so that sailors dare not anchor on this coast. Zhao Rukuo, Zhu Fan Zhi, I.38. Translated by F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua (1911), p. 147 External links Category:Islands