Based from wikipedia....

Malays.. they constitute the dominant ethnic group which live in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and East Timor, which together with Singapore and the southernmost part of Thailand (Patani) make up what is called the Malay archipelago.

Thanks, interesting post. I dont know much about the Malay people so it would be great if you could answer some questions:

Why are the Malay currently divided?

Is there a Pan-Malay movement?

Are all Malay Muslim?

Are Malay religious people?

Interesting Wikipedia map. Australia being out of the Malaysian archipelago makes sense, but not Malaysia. People identify themselves as various races in Malaysia for Chinese, Indians, and Malays. Malays make up the majority of the population.

Official language is Malay. The whole country is Malay-sia, and still, they are out of the map???

Very Interesting questions we have here... I try my very best to answer all of these questions based on my opinion and knowledge (which is not so much....).

1. Malay regions are divided.. probably because of the geographical factors... most of the region land is in island forms.. as u can see from the map... Borneo (consist of Sabah and Sarawak and Kalimantan), Philipines, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatera and Peninsular of Malaysia (by right supposed to be in tht map as MA) so the malay people are seperated by that.. the influence of colonization previously... based on different countries seperated the malay people more... Malaysia by British... Indonesia by Netherland/Holland, Philipines by Spain... I believe this is the factor why currently Malays are divided.

2. Pan-Malay Movement? well previously yes.. there were such movement... during Indonesia confrontation to join malaysia and Indonesia in one country.. called as Indonesia Raya... they attacked Malaysia... and the rest is History...

3. Are all malay muslim? Well.. u are referring to the specific malay in specific country or based on the map? if malay malaysian... like me... we are supposed to be all muslims... here the word 'supposed'... but there's some cases happened where malay changed the religion... if refer to the native malay (the original malay such as negrito, jakun) their belief in animism... some already convert to Islam, Christian, Hindu and etc... If u refer to Malay Indonesia... not all are muslims...

4. Are Malay religious people? in term of Islam or Christian or what? I answer u based on Islam cos I am a muslim... malay like other races too.. u are a turk .. am i correct? there will be some is good in 'dean'... some is moderate... some is simple... but most of malay i can say 98.99% who is muslim... we are devoted to Islam.. yeah.. as far as i can see from my observation and understanding...

I wish my answers are good enough...

Yes they were... Same as Malaysia, Brunei and other countries which are in MA

Before it was known as Singapore or Singapura in Malay... it was called as Temasik..

Here is a very interesting info i found:

Source: http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/malaya/malays.htm - http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/malaya/malays.htm

Cool... got arab blood in me.. lol .. I doubt that...

I Think singaproe is very difference with other malay country becasue of the people,in singapro there have more then 80% is chinese.and they speak chinese,even though english is a official langange of singaproe but the government suggest citizen learn chinese and speak chinese.

           Singapore's population, though small at 4.42 million as of  2005, is relatively diverse compared to most other countries, although neighbour malysia also features a multiracial population. The chinese, who have constituted the majority of the island population since the colonial days, account for 76.8 percent of Singaporeans.malays, who are the indigenous native group of the country, constitute 13.9 percent, though this number includes many Malay ethnic groups from other parts of the malay archipelago including the javaese, bugis,baweans and minangs. indians are the third largest ethnic group at 7.9 percent, consisting of several groups¡Xtamils, who form the largest Indian group, and others such as malayalees,punjabis and bengalis. The rest are made up of smaller groups such as Arbs, Jews, Thais, Japanese, and the Euroasia community

Based on what MRS 1-AM said is true...

Most population in Singapore currently majority is by the Chinese....

In Malaysia also this ethnic mostly can be found in southern part of Peninsular.. and Negeri Sembilan which is populated by Minang ethnic which is originally from Sumatra, Indonesia. This ethnic applied a culture where women will have more priority than men to be an heir.. this called as 'Adat Pepatih Putih'.

 well... me myself is mixed of Malay Pattani from the south Thailand...

Ethnics spread and diversity.

> >

> >

Indeed my friend. 

As we know from history the Malays were seafaring race. I havn't seen any material concerning the relationship between the Malays and the Polynesian. All I  can tell you is  based on research done by James Michiner when he wrote  the novel' Hawaii'. The Polynesien claimed that their root from the Malays of the SE Asia.

The Malagasy are Malays stock and I was told that the language and custom are akin to the early Malay culture. Frankly I have no  idea how they managed to get there.

AS for the Cape Malays in South Africa the history is quite clear. Bulk of them were shipped by the Dutch from Malacca to serve the early white sattlers in South Africa.

this remind me to UMNO's Song:

It's sounds almost like this:

Unite we Unite, Always loyal to support,

The heart strongly Unite.. We are the Malay people..

*My translation sounds ugly

The do seem linguistically related.

Just canoing.

They must have abandoned Indonesia after the local start of the Iron Age but before the arrival of Hinduism. That places the migration around the first centuries of the Common Era.

That sound intresting

Another of my theory is that during the early days they sailed to the east and discovered the South Pacific Islands but they have no skill in using iron and brass as tools.Very skillful sailors but somehow they sticked to the equator and that explained why the Malays never colonised Australia. My second theory is they did discovered the western seaboard of Australia,however, because of the arid condition of the land they refused to settle down. If they could have ventured further east Sidney and Melbourne could be called by another name. 

An interesting thought , TinTin.

Your post on the origin of the Malays in the Malay Archipelago is equally interesting. However, I would like to add that those ppl from Taiwan are believed to be from Yunnan in China.

Experts say that there were three waves of ancient  migration of ppl into the Archipelago :

1. Around 22,000 years ago of Afro-Asiatic race from the Andaman region. They were rather primitive and became the aboriginal ppl like the Sakais, Negritos, Javaman etc.

2. Around 3,000 BCE, the Proto Malays from Yunnan. They cultivated rice and used bronze. They settled by the river banks and pushed the earlier settlers further inland and into the jungles.

3. Around 1,000(?) BCE the Malays from Yunnan who were navigators, potters, weavers, blacksmiths etc.   

I must admit that prior to the arrival of the Malays to the Peninsular Malaysia the place was already inhibited by two types of people : 

• The dark skin race related to the Australian Aborigines;
• Asian looked which the researchers called South Mongoloid.

These are the indigenous peoples of the Peninsular Malaysia. I will come back once I get more information.

Here I would like to share some info on Orang Asli

Orang Asli or the indegenious minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia.. They are considered as original peoples or first people.

From study done by few researches, there are  18 sub-ethnic groups which can be classified in these groups:-

-Negrito
-Senoi
-Proto-Malay

They represent less than 1% of our country population...

Senoi and Negrito are being suggest tht to have historical link with indegenous peoples in Burma, Thailand and Indo-China...

Well.. for proto Malay, their ancestor were believed came from the Indonesian Island..

To date we tend to focus on the Malays in Peninsular which is part of Malaysia. However, for the sake of our intenational friends in this forum, we should steer the discussion towards the idea that the Malay race are the people living in 'Nusantara' or the Malay Archipelago. That include the people living, under the new geo-political structure, in the state of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philiphine,Sigapore, Brunei and the young independent state of Timor Leste.

There are so much things to be discovere and discussed under this topic such as:

• The formation of the several empires like the Srivijaya, Majapahit, Sailandra, Singhasari and the Malacca Sultanate
• The influencce of the Hindu culture and religion in the region ( including Buddhaism)
• The Chinese hegemony when the Chinese navy ruled the Southern Sea
• The influence of the Islam through the Arab and Indian Muslim traders
• The coming of the Europeans and colonisation
• The infux of the immigrant from China and India in the region
• Development after post colonialism

Of course we cannot tell everything in a single breath. 

U are absolutely rite.. tht's why we need a forum where other members need to contribute and share their knowledge with others... those points u mentioned.. we can discuss on different topics.. feel free to create one topic tin tin... especially the Malay development after post colonialism.. sounds interesting...  It would be nice to see some post on South East Asia in this forum rather thn to see all about South Asia

As similar human remains indicating dark-skinned and small stature race and artifacs have been found in Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia (Senois & Sakais)and east coast of Sumatra they have been grouped togather. Hence the relationship you had mentioned. I shall not say anymore as there is a whole host of ppl living in the jungles of SE Asia (who, by culture and ritual practices and language may also be grouped by the experts hence expanding further possible relationships)and I ain't an anthropologist..... 

They are believed to have reached the Malay Archipelago by sea route. Hence, they could  have indeed reached Peninsular Malaysia via Indonesia. I read somewhere that some scholars also called them Indonesians.  

Originally posted by Hamizao Hi, Cahaya. Where did the prev avatar go. I kind of like it.

mailto:lol@ Hamizao - lol@ Hamizao  .. I was thinking to promote Malay wardrobe to others when I started to use it... the real Baju kurung with Songket cloth... and the accesories... cucuk sanggul... and all... i'll use it bck once in a while...

Tht's supposed to be not good.. Malay people not only refer to Malaysian.. It's open to all Malay people all around the world.. we just want to share the history, the culture, the languages from the other friends... nobody is saying someone is better from others.. We all 'Rumpun Melayu' as wht Tin Tin said...

I couldn't find an answer in this thread so far to the question if the Austronesian or Malay people ethnically related or languistically related or a mix of both. The map that Tin-Tan posted shows the following spread of Austronesian or Malay languages:

Is this a spread of language? ethnic immigration? or both?

May I?

In 1963, Singapore, North Borneo(later known as Sabah) and Sarawak joined Malaya in the Federation of Malayasia. People became known as Malaysians.(Singapore became independent later in 1965). Before Malaysia, the people of Malaya were known as Malayans. Now they are generally known as West Malaysians while East Malaysians are the people from Sarawak and Sabah.

"Rumpun Melayu" refers to the Malay ethnics of the Malay Archipelago. Over the years they have evolved into various sub-cultural groups and known by different names.

Good explanation from Hamizao..
Anyway would like to add here.. Tin-Tin is a nick (lol ).. but i am not so sure whether it has a meaning.. have to chck with the nick owner..

Based on the source i have here.. the map probably shows the ethnic migration. coz Anthropologists had traced the home of the Malay race to the nortwestern part of Yunan in China..proto - Malays or Jakun were a seafaring people. they were once from coastal Borneo who expanded into Sumatra and the Malay Peninsular as a result of their trading and seafaring way of life. This may explain the map and the arrows direction.. but I am not sure why the map shows different colors of arrows.