I totally agree and I think it's a horrible development.

Being Muslim is not being Arabic.

Muslim Malays are not Arabs, just as all Hindus are not Indian, all Christians are not Westerners etc.

The minister's absolutely correct, there is a serious Arabisation going on. It has a vastly more detrimental effect on Malays than Westernisation. Why?

Because Westernisation is basically commercially driven. It's about products, art and lifestyle. Furthermore, Westernisation is not mono-cultural. Westernisation is not about Europeanisation or Americanisation. Instead, Westernisation has a habit to amalgamate other cultures into itself, including elements of Indian, Japanese and even Arabic culture. But at the end of the day, Westernisation does not force you to 'think Western'. You can live a Western lifestyle, like many of us do nowadays, but still retain your own values. Westernisation does not force you to change them.

But Arabisation is not about products, art and lifestyle. These things are of course included, but they are circumstantial. Arabisation is to think exactly like them and basically expel your previous values. Unfortunately, many disillusioned Malays think that Arab culture is some kind of über-culture and Arab language is the über-language. Many Malays have, therefore, apart from skin and features, ceased to be Malays. They're now Arabs. Their idenity is gone. They still speak BM but they mix it up with as much Arab as possible.

And many Arabs abuse the success of Islam to impose Arab values on - what they think - are 'lesser' Muslims.

I'm sure, however, that there will be a counter-reaction to this one day. Malays might abandon Islam en masse and seek their classic roots; just like many Northern Europeans and even Americans have abandoned Christianity and revived their pre-Christian Asa-tro religion or the pre-Christian celtic beliefs.

Others might - like me - give Islam another chance, for instance go back to its spiritual roots and dissect those roots from centuries of Arabisation as well as the religious hypocrisy surrounding it. Because Islam itself has been subject to Arabisation. Just like Christianity once was hijacked by the Romans when their military power eroded and they saw in Christianity another power tool, and started to force people to believe that the Bishop of Rome (later called Pope) is God's representative; many Arabs also have used Islam for political purposes and as a carrier of Arab culture.

good input Isarahim. right on in between the eyes.

May your good thought and knowledge lead more into the light and out of the total darkness of IGNORANCE!

On another subject of the Roman, I am reading a Novel, "The October Hourse", by Colin Mc Cullough, may be after I finish the book, I can gain a little more understanding about the Roman world.

From what I could recall reading some books about Roman in my childhood years, I know that each Roman emperor when they died, they wanted to be elevated and worshiped as God. Bizaar, really. So, when someone else came along and proclaimed he was God and sent by God while he was still walking around town in the Roman controlled "client states", he was persecuted. Paid dearly with his life. Watch Mel Gibson "Passion" and u can see what I mean.

Hi,

Actually, I am curious about what the original Malay food is. Please don't tell me it's TOM YAM, AYAM Paprick or Roti Canai Please.

Typical food you get in a Malay kampung:

Seluling daging lembu,
lemang,
rendang,
keropok udang,
keropok ikan,
nasi lemak,
nasi dagang,
nasi padang,
ubi kayu kukus + gula melaka,
sambal belacan,
sambal udang,
gulai ekor,
masam pedas,
pulut kuning + gulai ayam,
ikan bakar,
ayam bakar,
petai bakar,
pulut tatai,
acar-acar,
bubur caca,
laksa,
cucur udang,
cucur pisang,
cucur badak,
onde onde,
ikan masin,
ikan bilis,
ikan kembung goreng asam,
paku-pakis + kumtum pisang + daun-daun.
......

Mel Gibson is an active mainstream Christian. Nothing wrong with that, but as a mainstream Christian, you are not likely to question the basic Catholic/New-Testament storyline. I have seen the "Passion". It's very faithful to the Catholic version of Jesus.

But lot of unbiased researchers believe that the real, historical Jesus was quite different from the well wrapped product that Christians are served today. For starters, he was mainly a leader of a military uprising and he was a contender to the throne, because he claimed direct lineal descent from the David-Solomon (Daud-Sulaiman) bloodline. He never claimed to be sent by God or to be God's son. But he claimed to the the rightful King.

Because of these factors, and in addition being extremely well-read, charismatic and visionary - the elements of a 'Prophet' if you will - the Romans were seriously threatened. They were the occupying power since more than a century.

But I know, yet again, we're diverting to yet another thread....let's stop here.

Good list! Thank you! Another interesting area of research.

Of course on the Indonesian side, there are many dishes just as Malay as our Kampung food.

Since the early Malay hemisphere were held together by the mobility of the Orang Laut, I suspect original Malay food were mainly seafood combined with various vegetables and fruits from the Ulu areas.

Certainly by import we later got access to meat. It is notable also that Malay's diet included both beef and porc in those days.

there is no doubt a vast difference between the politico/historical jesus and the bible jesus.

the bible jesus was viewed, narrated and written in the religious point of view, with a lot of divine intervention of course. romantic and full of passion as mel gibson protrays him to be.

the politico/historical jesus was viewed by the non-believers as a serious contender to the throne of the jewish king, Herod. the power struggle then led to his final days of betrayal by one of his follower, whom we are told hang himself out of guilt.

as for me, i believe in the religious part of Jesus. Not the political part. Politic and religion don't mix!

as far as the roman was concerned, they washed their hand, hand-off, the crucifiction of jesus. let the jewes settled their own internal strife. why? the more they fought among themselves, the easier it was for the roman to rule. no united force to worry about.

anyway, I agree with you Isarahim, we are steered off our thread. let stop here.

Err..on Malay traditional food stuffs....Orchis's favorites...to add to UChangEng's list...

Tempoyak, Cencalok, Ulam of petai n jering, gulai of puchok ubi n paku, otak otak, ikan masin, n not to miss the tapai, or authentic Malay's kuih muih...., n nasi kunyit:)

BTW...there is this so rumoured...err....nasi kangkang...which has eluded Orchi....what is this about?

Orchi, are you just plain naive or trying to make a 'hit' here?;)

I miss out the Ulam in my list.

Actually Malay food is quite simple, nothing elaborate but can be quite distinctive. A lot of greens and chilies, spices and most of all, they use a lot coconut oil, coconut milk. My favourite is a simple dish of sambal belacan and ikan goreng asam on plain rice. I could eat like this for months without getting bored. Another of my favourite is sambal udang + petai. Then the nasi kunyit + gulai ayam with a lot of ubi kentang inside. Lastly, nasi pulut with coconut milk + durian. A sumptious meal, indeed! But don't burb in front of a Mat Saleh, you can kill him with a bad breath!

Anyone know about a sotong with stuffed coconut pulut inside, steamed and then eat with sweet gula melaka garvy on top?

Err...Abang UChangEng:) - Err...air liuh saya sedang meleleh dari mulut saya...syiok dah!..jom pi makan...hahaha...:D

Err...it is a definite torture to Orchi taste buds...having to read thru your latest post...err..over n over again.....syabas indeed!:)

With a glass of red. Wonderful!

Several of my MatSalleh friends eat durian with vigour. One always wants a single malt whisky to his durian, but that could surely kill 'em.

when it comes to food, we are in perfect harmony, in unison. In fact, we are equal before our FOOD!

Put two or three housewives together and when they started talking cooking, no one raise the issue of who has got this and that special previlleges!

And since men are excluded from this conversation we just have to depart to some other room...to talk more racially infected matters...until a few of the girls join in...

Err..Orchi grew up watching housewives n elder kids in the families...preparing kuih raya(s)....to be delivered....for our daddies..pak ciks..uncles..abangs..n adiks...whom were performing their duties...in the arm forces...ahem...talk about TRUE spirits of muhibbah..:)

Nasi Kangkang? Goodness!!!! Who's the lucky guy being served nasi kangkang?

Someone married to a Nyonya?

This is Orchi's link. Think it belongs here:

History
Precolonial Era
Located astride the sea routes between China and India, from ancient times the Malay Archipelago served as an entrepôt, supply point, and rendezvous for the sea traders of the kingdoms and empires of the Asian mainland and the Indian subcontinent. The trade winds of the South China Sea brought Chinese junks laden with silks, damasks, porcelain, pottery, and iron to seaports that flourished on the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra and Java. There they met with Indian and Arab ships, brought by the monsoons of the Indian Ocean, carrying cotton textiles, Venetian glass, incense, and metalware. Fleets of swift prahu (inter-island craft) supplied fish, fruit, and rice from Java and pepper and spices from the Moluccas in the eastern part of the archipelago. All who came brought not only their trade goods but also their cultures, languages, religions, and technologies for exchange in the bazaars of this great crossroads.

In time, the ports of the peninsula and archipelago formed the nucleus of a succession of sea-based kingdoms, empires, and sultanates. By the late seventh century, the great maritime Srivijaya Empire, with its capital at Palembang in eastern Sumatra, had extended its rule over much of the peninsula and archipelago. Historians believe that the island of Singapore was probably the site of a minor port of Srivijaya.

Temasek and Singapura
Although legendary accounts shroud Singapore's earliest history, chroniclers as far back as the second century alluded to towns or cities that may have been situated at that favoured location. Some of the earliest records of this region are the reports of Chinese officials who served as envoys to the seaports and empires of the Nanyang (southern ocean), the Chinese term for Southeast Asia. The earliest first-hand account of Singapore appears in a geographical handbook written by the Chinese traveller Wang Dayuan in 1349. Wang noted that Singapore Island, which he called Tan-ma-hsi (Danmaxi), was a haven for several hundred boatloads of pirates who preyed on passing ships. He also described a settlement of Malay and Chinese living on a terraced hill known in Malay legend as Bukit Larangan (Forbidden Hill), the reported burial place of ancient kings. The fourteenth-century Javanese chronicle, the Nagarakertagama, also noted a settlement on Singapore Island, calling it Temasek.

A Malay seventeenth-century chronicle, the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), recounts the founding of a great trading city on the island in 1299 by a ruler from Palembang, Sri Tri Buana, who named the city Singapura ("lion city") after sighting a strange beast that he took to be a lion. The prosperous Singapura, according to the Annals, in the mid-fourteenth century suffered raids by the expanding Javanese Majapahit Empire to the south and the emerging Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya to the north, both at various times claiming the island as a vassal state.

The Annals, as well as contemporaneous Portuguese accounts, note the arrival around 1388 of King Paramesvara from Palembang, who was fleeing Majapahit control. Although granted asylum by the ruler of Singapura, the king murdered his host and seized power. Within a few years, however, Majapahit or Thai forces again drove out Paramesvara, who fled northward to found eventually the great seaport and kingdom of Malacca. In 1414 Paramesvara converted to Islam and established the Malacca Sultanate, which in time controlled most of the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra, and the islands between, including Singapura. Fighting ships for the sultanate were supplied by a senior Malaccan official based at Singapura. The city of Malacca served not only as the major seaport of the region in the fifteenth century, but also as the focal point for the dissemination of Islam throughout insular Southeast Asia.

Johore Sultanate
When the Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, the reigning Malaccan sultan fled to Johore in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, where he established a new sultanate. Singapura became part of the new Johore Sultanate and was the base for one of its senior officials in the latter sixteenth century. In 1613, however, the Portuguese reported burning down a trading outpost at the mouth of the Temasek (Singapore) River, and Singapura passed into history.

In the following two centuries, the island of Temasek was largely abandoned and forgotten as the fortunes of the Johore Sultanate rose and fell. By 1722 a vigorous seafaring people from the island of Celebes (modern Sulawesi, Indonesia) had become the power behind the throne of the Johore Sultanate. Under Bugis influence, the sultanate built up a lucrative entrepôt trade, centered at Riau, south of Singapore, in present-day Sumatra. Riau also was the site of major plantations of pepper and gambier, a medicinal plant used in tanning. The Bugis used waste material from the gambier refining process to fertilise pepper plants, a valuable crop, but one that quickly depletes soil nutrients. By 1784 an estimated 10,000 Chinese labourers had been brought from southern China to work the gambier plantations on Bintan Island in the Riau archipelago (now part of Indonesia). In the early nineteenth century, gambier was in great demand in Java, Siam, and elsewhere, and cultivation of the crop had spread from Riau to the island of Singapore.

The territory controlled by the Johore Sultanate in the late eighteenth century was somewhat reduced from that under its precursor, the Malacca Sultanate, but still included the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, the adjacent area of Sumatra, and the islands between, including Singapore. The sultanate had become increasingly weakened by division into a Malay faction, which controlled the peninsula and Singapore, and a Bugis faction, which controlled the Riau Archipelago and Sumatra. When the ruling sultan died without a royal heir, the Bugis had proclaimed as sultan the younger of his two sons by a commoner wife. The sultan's elder son, Hussein (or Tengku Long) resigned himself to living in obscurity in Riau.

Although the sultan was the nominal ruler of his domain, senior officials actually governed the sultanate. In control of Singapore and the neighbouring islands was Temenggong Abdu'r Rahman, Hussein's father-in-law. In 1818 the temenggong (a high Malay official) and some of his followers left Riau for Singapore shortly after the Dutch signed a treaty with the Bugis-controlled sultan, allowing them to station a garrison at Riau. The temenggong's settlement on the Singapore River included several hundred orang laut (sea gypsies in Malay) under Malay overlords who owed allegiance to the temenggong. For their livelihood the inhabitants depended on fishing, fruit growing, trading, and occasional piracy. Large pirate fleets also used the strait between Singapore and the Riau Archipelago as a favourite rendezvous. Also living on the island in settlements along the rivers and creeks were several hundred indigenous tribes-people, who lived by fishing and gathering jungle produce. Some thirty Chinese, probably brought from Riau by the temenggong, had begun gambier and pepper production on the island. In all, perhaps a thousand people inhabited the island of Singapore at the dawn of the colonial era.

Source: U.S. Library of Congress (???)

(The real source is probably Barbara and Leonard Andaya)

Re: Malay Origins
 

Better late than never. Frightfully complete in addressing the different fragments of thought and immensely educational. Thank you isarahim and uchangeng for the contributions. I think not many malays actually no so much about their origins other than the kampung they or their forefathers came from.

Investigating my family tree, I am the product of a weird mix of historical influencers in the region. My great grandfather (maternal) was a dutch trader who settled in Penang with his muslim chinese wife. Their daughter, an english school teacher (my grandma) married an Indian Muslim sugar trader and their daughter (mum) married a Javanese whose father (my paternal grandpa) migrated from Singapore and previously Jakarta and was a religious teacher.

What am I? Malaysian :D

Re: Malay Origins
 

Scam or not? Well I have been puzzled for some time why the recognised historians in our country, or well regarded international researchers for that matter, do not appear to be involved in major archeological findings:

http://www.mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=2070

I don't believe Pillai is completely right on the nail, but certainly something is amiss.

Re: Malay Origins
 

Brilliant thread. I have ALWAYS wondered about this myself.


But there is something in particular that drawn me to this very subject.

I am a VERY lightskinned Malay with lightbrown eyes. So much so that I often stand out in Malay crowds and often fairer than most Chinese. And apparently this runs in my family as my siblings are the same, so is my mom, her siblings AND my maternal grandparents. Many have commented that I don't even look like a Malay. A lot of people recognize me because of it (because I'm very putih, as they put it).

The only 2 Malays that I've met who are of comparable skintones are mixed blooded. One is quarter Japanese and the other one half-Japanese.

The thing is, noone in my immediate bloodline is/was a non-Malay. I tried asking my parents about it but received no satisfactory explanation. No stories handed down, no nothing. "We ARE pure Malays" was what they said, or something to that effect.

So what I am asking is, if I am indeed a fullblooded Malay, how come I don't really look like one? As do all my siblings? So it could not have been a genetic fluke. Does anyone know if there is a breed of Malays from a particular area who are lighter skinned or mixed marriages from a particular time with a particular group of people from a particular land? Or something. Gimme something. I'm dying to know.

Its annoying cuz i don't know the roots of my family. Often Malays know what kind of malay they are. Javanese, Minangkabau or whatever. And when I was asked that question, my answer is always "I dont know". My family are not Javanese or anything. My maternal grandparents are very fairskinned and they're from Malacca. My dad's side of the family is from Kelantan, and of rather average skintone, but not exactly dark, but rather lifghtbrown-ish.

Re: Malay Origins
 

I know one other person like you..a Malay..we call him Haniff or Ah Foo :D . will ask him where he is from..but he was told he is pure Malay too. Maybe Hang Li Po bloodlah..malacca and all that.

Re: Malay Origins
 

History
Ancient Malay Peninsular
The Malays
The Malays are the race of people who inhabit the Malay Peninsula (what is today Peninsular Malaysia) and portions of adjacent islands of Southeast Asia, including the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and smaller islands that lie between these areas.

http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/malaya/hindu.htm

Buddhist Empires
The greatest of Malay empires, Sri Vijaya, had its beginning at Palembang which lying at the south of Sumatra dominated the Straits of Sunda. With its capital at Bukit Seguntang, the Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing in 671 A.D. described it as an important centre of Buddhist learning, with more than a thousand monks devoting their days to study and good works. Four inscriptions in old Malay throw light on this Buddhist Sri Vijaya.

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/3795/hindu.htm

Err...Orchi stumbles onto Malay Culture & History ...which is a very interesting read...hopes these materials are relating to the understandings of our dear forumers IsaRahim...MackZulkifli and UChangEng...n the rest too... :)

Re: Malay Origins
 

How true is it that the Sultan of Selangor is the direct descendant from the Putri Hanglipo linage?

How about the Sultan of Johor? descendant from one of the putra of sultan Melaka, whom the sultan had "sent" to be king in a state far away after the putra killed Tun Perak's son who accidently kicked a takraw that hit his majesty's head, causing the head-gear to drop.

We're all mixed up, aren't we? I think I'm about 18/32nds Malay if I just count recent generations. The 14/32nds are Chinese, Arab, Mamak, Western...

New to me. I thought the current royal line of Selangor is completely unrelated to the Melaka-Srivijaya line (with the possible exception of latter day intermarriages with the house of Perak of course).

But intriguing! Since I'm back in Malaysia for a few days, let me check through my book collection. Perhaps I'll post something different later...



If I understand correctly, the current Sultan of Johor is *not* of the Srivijaya-Melaka line. Instead he is related to the Temenggung of Johor pre-1699. The original line of Sultans of Johor-Riau were extinct with the regicide of 1699, a murder machinated behind the scenes by the Temenggung, from whom the current royals are descendants. The only remaining royals with a Srivijaya-Melaka-line pedigree are the house of Perak, but they're rather cousins, not by direct lineage.

Err...Orchi stumbled upon the following...which should belong in this thread here...

"The Malays originated in Yunnan, China. They Proto-Malays were also known as Jakun.

They were seafaring people. Probably because of their seafaring way of life or trading, they were believed to have lived in coastal Borneo. They then expanded into Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. A Portuguese historian, Godinho de Eredia, referred to the Malays as Saletes (Orang Selat, or People of the Straits).

The Malays played a major part in the Making of great Malay empires of Malacca and Johor. Present day Malays of the Peninsula and the coasts of the Malay Archipelago are described anthropologically as deutero-Malays. They are descendants of the tribal proto-Malays mixed with modern Indian, Thai, Arab and Chinese blood."

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0012..._the_malays.htm

MORE interesting read here...

Err...n while searching for the earliest history of the Malacca Sultanate...Orchi found the following...

"The Sultanate thrived on entrepôt trade and became the most important port in Southeast Asia during the 15th and the early 16th century. Furthermore, Malacca was as a major player in the spice trade, serving as a gateway between the Spice Islands and high-paying Eurasian markets. This is reflected by the Portuguese writer Duarte Barbosa who wrote "He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice".

One of the factors that contributed to the rise of Malacca was the monsoon winds that enabled Arab and Indian traders from the west to travel to China in the east and vice versa. At the height of its power, the Sultanate encompassed most of modern day Peninsula Malaysia, the site of modern day Singapore and a great portion of eastern Sumatra. It was also the center of Islam in the eastern sphere, where imams and ustazes came to discuss religion and the like. Muslim missionaries were also sent by the Sultan to spread Islam to other communities in the Malay Archipelago, such as in Java, Borneo, and the Philippines. Most of South East Asia at that time was Hindu.

The Sultanate's most important regional rivals were Siam in the north and the declining Majapahit Empire in the south. Majapahit was not able to control or effectively compete with Malacca within the archipelago, and came to an end during the later 15th century. Siam on the other hand attacked Malacca three times, but all attacks were repelled.

At the same time, Malacca had a good relationship with the Ming government of China, resulting in Zheng He's visits. Parameswara had met the Chinese emperor in China to receive a Letter of Friendship, hence making Malacca the first foreign kingdom to attain such treatment. In 1409, the sultan paid tribute to the Chinese emperor to ask for protection against Siam. Moreover, one of the sultans, Mansur Shah even married a Chinese princess named Hang Li Po. This Sino-Malacca relationship helped deter Siam from further threatening Malacca."

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Malacca

Ahem...had Parameswara NOT gone to meet with the Chinese Emperor in China...the Sultanate of Malacca would have probably fallen under the Siamese rules...eventually.

Err...can somebody be kind to pass on the infos gathered from this thread alone to Lim Kit Siang...for his own reference...???:D

Wow, this is a good forum and a good reading. But I have nothing to contribute to this forum right now but maybe something to the future Malay bangsa. Because my kiddies will be a malay/javanese/indian/chinese origin with a mix of Aussie part of it which is a bit of Spanish, a bit of english and a bit of scot in their lineage.

best thread thus far

kudos

It is also interesting, that 1405 Admiral Zheng He, a chinese muslim from Yunnan prov, was the Ming Empire's liason with Melaka.

Cheers, m

Well, why not? Isnt that what an empire is for...to carry your religious and social values, as well as your people, into other territories.

One reason why Muhammad (pbuh) is described as being so influential in world history is because of what he did for Arabia and arabs...Islam (under his leadership/rule) being the driving force for the creation of an Arab-Islamic empire that spread from North Africa to Persia, and brought Islam to India and west africa and southeast asia.

Yes, the spread of Arab culture happened along with the spread of Islam...many north africans are Arab, many Malaysians have arab names...and many Malaysians have pakistani style names, and many pakistanis have pakistani style names...so what?

Malays are not losing their culture because of Arab influence...neither are pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Canadians, Kyrgyz, or Bosnians. Cultural issues happen because because people are not encouraged to think independently. When people think the solutions to their problems come from outside, not inside, of course there will be problems.

Arab culture is wonderful, and so is Malaysian and Malay culture...and you can be equally muslim even if you dont have a beard (The beard idea is that it should be no longer than the length of your fist), you wear your pants below your ankles, and you dont speak arabic.

To stereotype arab culture and suggest that they see themselves as superior is slightly unfair...the average arab-on-the-street is just a man or woman trying to live their daily life and put food on the table...just like everyone else. I say (and I say this to my Canadian - muslim friends as well) instead of feeling put down by another culture, lift your own culture up.

Cheers, m

Malays who are light skinned usually have chinese or arab ancestries. Genes don't lie. It is because of several generations that they lose their ancestors. They won't be called 'mixed blood' and called malay for convenience and other reasons.

Remember, malacca was a trade center for indian, arab and chinese in the past. Your dad is obviously malay from kelantan.

Why don't you look at your maternal grandparents and see whether they look more like caucasians or mongoloids . If they have chinese eyes, then you have chinese ancestries, if they have arab nose and eyes then you have arab ancestries.

Err...there is more to come later guys...

n here's more...hoping it would be just as interesting to read...n to understand about the Malay origins...as well as our history.

Ancient Malaysia: 35,000 BC - 100 BC

Historians often speak of Malaysia's ancient past as something "shrouded in mystery," a kind of black hole in Asian history. The truth is that there is not much archeological evidence or written records from ancient Malaysia; but it is likely that this situation will change. Many suspect that there are more prehistoric archeological sites along the coasts and in the jungles and hills, but given Malaysia's riotous vegetation it will take time to find them.

We do know that homo sapiens have been in Malaysia for a long time. The oldest known evidence of human habitation is a skull from the Niah Caves in Sarawak dating from 35,000 years before Christ. On the peninsula, stone age tools and implements from about 10,000 BC have been found, and some archeologists suggest that they were left there by the predecessors of the Negrito aborigines - one of the earliest groups to inhabit the peninsula.

We also know that about 2,500 years before Christ a much more technologically advanced group migrated to the peninsula from China. Called the Proto-Malays, they were seafarers and farmers, and their advances into the peninsula forced the Negritos into the hills and jungles. History's periodic waves of cultural evolution, however, soon created another group, the Deutero-Malays. They were a combination of many peoples - Indians, Chinese, Siamese, Arabs, and Proto-Malays - and they had risen by mastering the use of iron. Combined with the peoples of Indonesia, the Deutero-Malays formed the racial basis for the group which today we simply call the Malay.

http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/malaysiahistory.htm

Hindu Kingdoms
100 BC - 1400 AD

Early writings from India speak of a place called Savarnadvipa -- the Land of Gold. This mystical, fantastically wealthly kingdom was said to lie in a far away and unknown land, and legend holds that it was on an odyessy in search of Savarnadvipa that the first Indians were lured to the Malay Peninsula. Blown across the Bay of Bengal by the reliable winds of the southwest monsoon, they arrived in Kedah sometime around 100 BC. Whether or not the civilization they encountered there was the one from the ancient chronicles will probably never be known, but it is certain that the sailors considered the trip lucrative. From that point on, and ever-growing stream of Indian traders arrived in search of gold, aromatic wood, and spices.

Goods were not the only items exchanged in the peninsula's ports: the Indians also brought a pervasive culture. Hinduism and Buddhism swept through the land, bringing temples and Indian cultural traditions. Local kings, who sent emissaries to the subcontinent, were impressed by the efficiency of the Hindu courts, and soon began to refer to themselves as "rajahs." They integrated what they considered the best Indian governmental traditions with the existing structure, and historians typically refer to these kingdoms as "Indianised kingdoms." Today, the most visible example of the early Indian influence is in the Malay wedding ceremony, which is very similar that of the subcontinent.

http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/history02.htm

Islam and the Golden Age of Malacca
1400 AD - 1511 AD

Until the 15th century, the Hindu kingdoms of peninsular Malaysia were largely overshadowed by neighboring kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia. The strongest of these kingdoms was called Srivijaya, and the records of Chinese, Indian, and Arab traders laud it as the best trading port in the region. It was the first great maritime kingdom in the Malay archipelago, and other ports quickly emulated its success. At some time around the 13th century, as other entrepots emerged, Srivijaya's influence declined. The lack of a strong central power, coupled with the ever-present nuisance of pirates, amplified the need for secure, well-equipped port in the region. Fate would make this port the city of Malacca.

According to the Malay Annals, Malacca was founded in 1400 by a fleeing Palembang prince named Parameswara. Its rise from a village of royal refugees to a wealthy kingdom was swift. Perfectly located for trade, within 50 years it was the most influential port in Southeast Asia. At any one time, ships from a dozen kingdoms great and small could be seen in the harbor. With these traders came Islam, and Malacca's rulers now referred to themselves as "sultans." The sultans were the heads of a highly organized municipal government, whose main purpose was to facilitate trade. Every incoming ship was met by a multilingual harbor capitan, whose staff would see to all the vessel's needs. There were also gaurded storehouses where goods from the interior and abroad could be stored until traders arrived. Most importantly, Malacca was able to control what had always been the bane of trade in the Straits area - pirates. By building alliances with outlying tribes and ports, Malacca established a kind of regional "navy" that policed the local waters and escorted friendly vessels.

With the success and power it enjoyed, Malacca came to control the entire west coast of the Malay peninsula, the kingdom of Pahang, and much of Sumatra. At the height of its power, however, fate would ruin the city as quickly as it built it up. In 1511, the Portugeuse arrived, beginning a colonial legacy that would last well into the 20th century.

http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/history03.htm

Colonial Malaysia 1511 AD - 1957 AD

At the beginning of the 16th century, the eastern spice trade was routed through Egypt, and no non-Muslim vessel was permitted to dock in Arabian ports. The competing European powers, painfully aware of the need for an open trade route to India and the Far East, sought to establish their own trading ports at the source. In 1511, a Portuguese fleet led by Alfonso de Albuquerque sailed into Malacca's harbor, opened fire with cannon, and captured the city. Malacca's golden age had come to an end.

The Portuguese constructed a massive fort in Malacca - A Famosa - which the Dutch captured in turn in 1641. This would give the Dutch an almost exclusive lock on the spice trade until 1785, when the British East India Company convinced the Sultan of Kedah to allow them to build a fort on the island of Penang. The British were mainly interested in having a safe port for ships on their way to China, but when France captured the Netherlands in 1795, England's role in the region would amplify. Rather than hand Malacca over to the French, the Dutch government in exile agreed to let England temporarily oversee the port. The British returned the city to the Dutch in 1808, but it was soon handed back to the British once again in a trade for Bencoleen, Sumatra. The Dutch still largely controlled the region, however, and in 1819 Britain sent Sir William Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore. These three British colonies - Penang, Malacca, and Singapore - came to be known as the Straits Settlements.

While the European powers played their regional chess game, the local Malay sultanates continued on their own affairs. After Malacca was captured, the new Muslim trading center became Johor, then later on Perak. Both the Minangkabau Immigrants from Sumatra and the Bugi people from Celebes immigrated to the peninsula in large numbers, leavingn lasting cultural contributions. In the late 1860's, a number of Malay kingdoms began fighting each other for control of the throne of Perak, causing enough of a disturbance in the region to inspire Britain to intervene and essentially force the Malay rulers to sign a peace treaty known as the Pangkor Agreement in 1874. The treaty, unsurprisingly, gave Britain a much greater role in the region - a role it would need in order to maintain its monopoly on the vast amount of tin being mined in the peninsula.

Coupled with the power of the White Rajas in Borneo, Britain ruled over what was then called Malaya until the Japanese invaded and ousted them in 1942. During this time, large numbers of Chinese fled to the jungle and established an armed resistance which, after war's end, would become the basis for an infamous communist insurgency. In 1945, when W.W.II ended, Britain resumed control again, but Malaya's independence movement had matured and organized itself in an alliance under Tunku Abdul Rahman. When the British flag was finally lowered in Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka Square in 1957, Tunku became the first prime minister of Malaya.

http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/history04.htm

I disagree. Many Malays are. There is a lot of original Malay culture that has been lost forever. Many so called religous Malay leaders speak with voices which betray a complete void of nor respect for any Malayness.

And I'm saying this despit the fact that I have some Arab blood myself.



On this I agree. There are Arabs and there are Arabs. There are extremely jovial, friendly and trustworthy Arabs and there are the *other* ones...

Great to see that one if my favourite threads has woken up again!

Thanks Orchi for the pastings.

Malaysian Culture

Cultures have been meeting and mixing in Malaysia since the very beginning of its history. More than fifteen hundred years ago a Malay kingdom in Bujang Valley welcomed traders from China and India. With the arrival of gold and silks, Buddhism and Hinduism also came to Malaysia. A thousand years later, Arab traders arrived in Malacca and brought with them the principles and practices of Islam. By the time the Portuguese arrived in Malaysia, the empire that they encountered was more cosmopolitan than their own.

Malaysia's cultural mosaic is marked by many different cultures, but several in particular have had especially lasting influence on the country. Chief among these is the ancient Malay culture, and the cultures of Malaysia's two most prominent trading partners throughout history--the Chinese, and the Indians. These three groups are joined by a dizzying array of indigenous tribes, many of which live in the forests and coastal areas of Borneo. Although each of these cultures has vigorously maintained its traditions and community structures, they have also blended together to create contemporary Malaysia's uniquely diverse heritage.

One example of the complexity with which Malaysia's immigrant populations have contributed to the nation's culture as a whole is the history of Chinese immigrants. The first Chinese to settle in the straits, primarily in and around Malacca, gradually adopted elements of Malaysian culture and intermarried with the Malaysian community. Known as babas and nonyas, they eventually produced a synthetic set of practices, beliefs, and arts, combining Malay and Chinese traditions in such a way as to create a new culture. Later Chinese, coming to exploit the tin and rubber booms, have preserved their culture much more meticulously. A city like Penang, for example, can often give one the impression of being in China rather than in Malaysia.

Another example of Malaysia's extraordinary cultural exchange the Malay wedding ceremony, which incorporates elements of the Hindu traditions of southern India; the bride and groom dress in gorgeous brocades, sit in state, and feed each other yellow rice with hands painted with henna. Muslims have adapted the Chinese custom of giving little red packets of money (ang pau) at festivals to their own needs; the packets given on Muslim holidays are green and have Arab writing on them.

You can go from a Malaysian kampung to a rubber plantation worked by Indians to Penang's Chinese kongsi and feel you've traveled through three nations. But in cities like Kuala Lumpur, you'll find everyone in a grand melange. In one house, a Chinese opera will be playing on the radio; in another they're preparing for Muslim prayers; in the next, the daughter of the household readies herself for classical Indian dance lessons.

Perhaps the easiest way to begin to understand the highly complex cultural interaction which is Malaysia is to look at the open door policy maintained during religious festivals. Although Malaysia's different cultural traditions are frequently maintained by seemingly self-contained ethnic communities, all of Malaysia's communities open their doors to members of other cultures during a religious festival--to tourists as well as neighbors. Such inclusiveness is more than just a way to break down cultural barriers and foster understanding. It is a positive celebration of a tradition of tolerance that has for millennia formed the basis of Malaysia's progress.

http://www.geographia.com/malaysia/cultures.html