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 babasand 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. 

The Malays

"I cannot but consider the Malayu nation as one people, speaking one language, though spread over so wide a space, preserving their character and customs, in all the maritime states lying between Sulu Seas and the Southern Oceans." - Stamford Raffles, 'On the Malayu Nation', Asiatic Researches, 12 (1816): 103.

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.

Anthropologists trace the home of the Malay race to the northwestern part of Yunnan, in China. These tribal proto-Malays, or Jakun, were a seafaring people. They were once probably a people of coastal Borneo who expanded into Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula as a result of their trading and seafaring way of life. These sea-tribes, refered to by the Portuguese historian Godinho de Eredia as Saletes (Orang Selat, or People of the Straits), played a major part in the making of the great Malay empires of Malacca and Johor. The present-day Malays of the Peninsula and coasts of the Malay Archipelago are described anthropologically as deutero-Malays and are the descendants of the tribal proto-Malays mixed with modern Indian, Thai, Arab and Chinese blood.

Malay culture itself has been strongly influenced by that of other peoples, including the Siamese, Javanese, Sumatran and, especially, Indians. The influence of Hindu India was historically very great, and the Malay were largely Hinduized before they were converted to Islam in the 15th century. For nearly two thousand years, the unremitting traffic of traders between the Archipelago and India resulted in frequent inter-marriages along the whole of the west coast of the peninsula, especially Tamils and Gujeratis. Some Hindu ritual survives in Malay culture, as in the second part of the marriage ceremony and in various ceremonies of state. Malays have also preserved some of their more ancient, animistic beliefs in spirits of the soil and jungle, often having recourse to medicine men or shamans (bomohs) for the treatment of ailments.

In the northern states of Perlis and Kedah, inter-marriages with Thais were commonplace. The east coast state of Kelantan still has traces of Javanese culture that date back to the era of the Majapahit Empire of the fourteenth century. The Sumatran kingdom of Acheh dominated Perak for over a century. The Bugis from Indonesia's Celebes Islands colonised Selangor and fought for rulers in States along the length of the peninsula - from Kedah to Johor. The Minangkabaus from Sumatra had their own independent chiefdoms in what is today Negri Sembilan. This mix of different races to form what is the modern Malay can be clearly seen in the lineage of, for example, Malacca royalty. Sultan Muhammad Shah married a Tamil from south India. Sultan Mansur Shah married a Javanese, a Chinese and a Siamese - the Siamese wife bore two future Sultans of Pahang. It was this diversity of races, cultures and influences that has the given the modern Malay race the rich and unique historical heritage it has today.

History of Malaya : 2000 BC - 1963 AD

Malaya, now the largest component of the Federation of Malaysia occupied the Malay Peninsula, which extends south–southwest from the narrow Isthmus of Kra to Singapore, which was not part of Malaya. There is archaeological evidence of human occupation at least 5,000 years ago, and it is clear that the peninsula was one of the routes by which the prehistoric peoples of Indonesia, Melanesia, and Australia travelled on their way south to their ultimate destinations, and that successive waves of people left some of their number in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula.

The Stone and Bronze Ages

The earliest known inhabitants of Malaya had physical characteristics that suggest an affinity to present-day Melanesians and Papuans. They lived in caves, made rough stone tools, and were probably in undisturbed possession until a little before 2000 BC, when a people with a Neolithic culture arrived from the north, possibly from southwest China. These were farmers, kept domestic animals, and were skilled in pottery making and in selecting and working stone to make tools and ornaments.

Evidence of a Bronze Age culture, dating from about 250 BC, has been found in two widely separated places in Malaya, at Klang and on the Tembeling River in Pahang. This is known as the Dong Son culture. Two bronze gongs and three large bronze bells are among the most important articles of this period that have been discovered. They were almost certainly brought into the country from Sumatra or Indochina.

Malaya Restaurant

The Malaya was founded in 1963 by Wong Tai See. A merchant seaman who migrated to Australia from Hong Kong in the 1940’s.

With spices imported from Singapore and rented premises at 787 George Street Sydney,The Malaya opened for business challenging the then conservative Australian palette with authentic spicey dishes based on traditional south east Asian cuisine.

In 1996 Lance and Givie Wong bought and renovated 761 George Street and presented a more contemporary Malaya restaurant to the market place. During the late 1990’s the city expanded towards the harbour and in 2001 Lance and Givie relocated The Malaya to 39 Lime Street, King Street Wharf. The Malaya has evolved with the times with its sweeping water views, a contemporary restaurant space and a new range of seafood dishes from Head Chef Mustapa Jaffar, that reflect its new harbourside location.

http://www.themalaya.com.au/index.html

The Iron Age and the proto-historic period

Archaeological discoveries belonging to the Iron Age period can be divided into two categories, those probably representing the indigenous population and those brought in by settlers. The earliest and most mysterious of these discoveries is the collection of beads found at Kota Tinggi, in Johore, about 20% of which have been identified as of Roman origin and dating from the first two or three centuries AD. This probably indicates a foreign settlement on the Johore River at a very early date.

The most important settlements of foreigners on the west coast during this early period were near Kedah Peak, where colonies of southern Indians lived from the 4th to the 12th century AD. At Kuala Selinsing, in northern Perak, considerable quantities of wheel-made pottery, gold ornaments, cornelian and glass beads, and shell ornaments have been found, alongside skeletons of proto-Malay types, which point to the conclusion that this was an important indigenous settlement probably flourishing about AD 800. The only other material evidences of indigenous settlements during the proto-historic period are slab graves and iron implements found in Perak, Selangor, and Pahang, dating probably from the 10th century AD.

From early in the Christian era there were merchant ships plying between India and China, some of which put in at river mouths in the Malay Peninsula. The reports that these traders carried back to their native lands are the main source of historical information about this early period.

Though in the centre and south of western Malaysia there are few traces of continuous occupation except by pre-urban tribes before the 15th century, there is ample evidence of Malay settlements in the north, notably in Kedah, Singgora, and Ligor, from a very early date. At one period they formed part of the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Lankasuka. Kelantan, Trengganu, and Pahang can also be identified from early Chinese records as Malay settlements of some importance, reaching a high standard of culture and wealth.