Ethnic origin of Malay in Malaysia and Indonesia

Introduction

This article narrates the origin of the Malay people in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. They are called 'orang Melayu' in their own language which is a branch of the Austronesian people.

Homeland

The homeland of the Malay is in the region of Palembang in southern Sumatra island of Indonesia. This is supported by the Malays who believe that the cradle of the Malay nation was situated there and also archaeological evidence; therefore, the Malay identity actually started there and not in the Malay Peninsula.

However, the current homeland of the Malays is in both western Malaysia and Sumatra due to migration.

First wave of migration

The original homeland of the Malayic people is in south-western Borneo. The first wave of migration of Malay/Melayu people is from south-western Borneo to Sumatra. Proto-Malay was formed in south-eastern Sumatra.

Second wave of migration

In 671 AD, Sri Vijaya was founded by Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa/King Jayanasa. He annexed the nearby Malayu kingdom of Sumatra in 684 AD.

By 775 AD, parts of the Malay peninsular until Nakhon Si Thammarat of southern Thailand came under the control of Srivijaya (671-1025 AD) based in Palembang of Sumatra which started a migration of ethnic Malay people into Peninsular Malaysia.

Sri Vijayan army

Inscriptions at Wat Sema Muang, a Buddhist temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat attested to this; the Malays of Srivijaya were still Buddhists at that time.

There is no reliable ancient map of the areas in Malay peninsular controlled by Sri Vijaya so the map below is just an over-simplification as it is dubious that they migrated to every part of the peninsular. The Austronesian usually settle near the coastlines in ancient times, so the interior land is still not controlled by Sri Vijaya as inferred by these oversimplified maps.

The purpose of Sri Vijaya in controlling the Kra Isthmus (situated in Southern Thailand) was to control the lucrative Maritime Silk Road from India to China and to force ships to travel through the Malacca straits instead of using the land route via Kra Isthmus.

Around 685 AD, the Sri-Vijaya empire annexed Kedah on west coast of Malay Peninsular.

The Pattani people most probably migrated to southern Thailand from Sumatra during the second (Srivijaya) wave of migration to guard the eastern part of the Kra Isthmus. They founded the Pattani kingdom which includes Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Kelantan.

The ancestors of Banjar Malay also came from Sumatra and migrated to southern Kalimantan of Borneo island to establish the Buddhist Kingdom of Tanjung Pura during the Sri Vijaya empire.

In 1025 AD, the Tamil Chola dynasty from India invaded Srivijaya resulting in a breakup of the empire into different regions. After the Chola attack, the capital moved from Palembang to Jambi around 1079 AD.

Third wave of migration

In 1275 AD, the Javanese King Kertanegara of Singhasari Kingdom decreed the Pamalayu expedition to conquer Sumatra. In 1288 AD, the Singhasari kingdom successfully conquered Srivijaya; the kingdom was then succeeded by Majapahit Kingdom in 1293 AD.

The third wave of migration started when a Sri Vijayan prince from Palembang believed to be Parameswara migrated to Temasek (modern-day Singapore) sometimes after the Srivijaya capital fell to the Singhasari and Majapahit kingdoms.

Parameswara was given the name Sang Nila Utama after he renamed the island as Singa-Pura (which means Lion City).

According to the Portuguese Tome Pires, the ruler of Pattani kingdom dispatched an armada to capture Parameswara in 1396 AD after he murdered Tamagi, the ruler of Temasek (Singapore), who was a relative of the King of Pattani.

So Pattani kingdom was established sometime after the breakup of the Sri Vijaya empire following the Chola invasion in 1025 AD; and before Parameswara came to Temasek around 1389 AD.

From Singapore, Parameswara and his followers fled to Malacca and founded the Malacca Sultanate (1400-1511 AD) which became prosperous by controlling the Maritime Silk Road trade (between China and India/Arab) along the Straits of Malacca.

A replica of Malacca palace

The Pahang Sultanate was also established by Malaccan Malay people in 1470 AD.

The Minangkabau people from western Sumatra also migrated to Negeri Sembilan during the Malacca Sultanate in the 15th century.

This third wave was actually the golden age for the Malays due to the lucrative trade between China, India and Middle East who stopped at Malacca.

After the Portuguese invaded Malacca in 1511 AD, the sons of Sultan Mahmud Shah, the last Malaccan king, dispersed to other areas of Peninsular Malaysia to establish several sultanates which are the Sultanate of Johor and Sultanate of Perak in 1528 AD. Perak Sultanate included the territories of present-day Selangor and Kuala Lumpur which didn't exist then.

Annexation by Thailand

During 1350-1369 AD, the Tai kingdom of Ayutthaya annexed southern Thailand and northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia.

The Ayutthaya kingdom could not expand further to Malacca due to China's protection of Malacca during the 15th century AD.

In 1909 AD, a treaty was signed between Thailand and British Malaya with Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Yala remaining under Thailand's rule whereas Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah came under British Malaya's rule. The Kelantan-Thai border is defined by the Golok River.

It was also the drive by Thai authorities to close down traditional Malay schools in the 1950s and 1960s if they did not switch to Thai-medium instruction and teach the national secular curriculum which led to the creation of the separatist BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional) in 1963. The bombings in southern Thailand are caused by these Malay separatists.

Banners on 13 March 2022 in southern Thailand

Religion

The ethnic Malays under the Sri Vijaya empire were initially Buddhists. The Chinese Buddhist monk I-Ching travels to Sumatra confirmed that this was a Buddhist empire and not a Hindu empire.

Sri Vijaya Buddhists

The Malacca empire adopted Islam during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah (1424-1444 AD).

The whole of Pattani kingdom adopted Islam in 1457 AD after a Muslim preacher cured the king of a difficult illness.

Muslim Pattani Malay in Thailand

Writing script and language

The earliest Malay writing, Kedudukan Bukit inscription, was the stone inscriptions found in southern Sumatra, written in 683 AD during the Sri Vijaya empire, which was written in an archaic form of Malay which provides reliable clue to the history of the Malay people.

The earliest writing was written in the Pallava script which was based on the Indian Brahmi script.

Pallava script stone inscriptions in Palembang

After the Malays converted to Islam, they used the Jawi script which was adapted from the Arabic script.

The standard Malay language in Malaysia and Indonesia originated from Malacca-Johor language (15th-18th century AD) which descended from the so-called 'Classical Malay' due to its prestige during the Malacca empire. Classical Malay itself descended from the Old Malay language (7th-14th century AD) which originated from Palembang.

The Kelantan-Pattani language (strictly speaking not a dialect) which is quite different from Standard Malay language also descended from Old Malay but didn't descend from Classical Malay because they migrated to the Malay Peninsular earlier than the Malaccan Malays.

Malay subgroups

These are proposed subgroups of the ethnic Malay

Kelantan-Pattani Malay: Thailand(Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala) & Kelantan, Terengganu.
Kedah Malay: Kedah, Satun (Thailand), Perlis
Palembang Malay: Palembang (South Sumatra), Jambi province, Riau province of Sumatra (not the same as the Riau islands), Bengkulu of Sumatra
Malaccan Malay: Malacca, Johor, Perak, Pahang, Selangor
Minangkabau: Negeri Sembilan of Malaysia, West Sumatra province of Indonesia
Banjar: Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan

Only the Austronesians who originated from Palembang-Jambi area in Sumatra who spoke a language descended from proto-Malay are considered ethnic Malays.

Origin of the Minangkabau, Banjar, Kedah Malay

Around 1286 AD, a Malay ruler and his followers moved inland along Batang Hari River from coastal Jambi to become the ancestors of the Minangkabau people in western Sumatra. In late 19th century, they migrated to Malay Peninsular to form the state of Negeri Sembilan.

Banjar-Masin was the capital of Sultanate of Banjar which was established in 1526 AD in the area of the previous Malay port of Tanjung Pura in South Kalimantan. 'Banjar' means village in the Malay language and 'Masih' means Malay in the local Ngaju language. (Ngaju tribe is the native tribe of South Kalimantan). Most of the Banjar Malay language vocabulary are taken from the Malay language with a small number from Javanese and Ngaju languages.

Terengganu Malay seems to have the same origin as the Kelantan Malay with many cognates but it was later influenced by the Johor Sultanate. This can be seen in the video below.

The Kedah subgroup most probably originated from the Bujang Valley Buddhist complex in Kedah. The Pallava script of the 7th century AD found in Bujang Valley Buddhist complex suggested that the Kedah subgroup actually migrated there during the Sri Vijaya period to guard the western part of the Kra Isthmus.

Another evidence of a Sri Vijaya origin is that the pottery found in Bujang Valley is similar to the pottery found in Kota Cina which is an old port in north Sumatra associated with Sri Vijaya. More discussion about this in the next section.

Other early kingdoms in Malay Peninsular

The only confirmed Malay kingdoms in the Malay Peninsular were Sri Vijaya kingdom, Malacca Sultanate, Johor Sultanate, Perak Sultanate, Pahang Sultan and Pattani Sultanate/Kingdom.

The biggest mistake of most Malay nationalists is to assume that all the earliest kingdoms in the Malay Peninsular (such as Langkasuka & Pan-Pan) must be ethnic Malay as well just because ethnic Malays are staying there nowadays. That would the same as saying that all the earliest kingdoms in Thailand must be ethnic Tai just because Tai is staying there nowadays.

Remember that the natives of Peninsular Malaysia are the Austro-Asiatic people such as Mon and Senoic. The Mon could have established those states before the Austronesians invaded those areas. So unless we have more evidence, we cannot assume that they are ethnic Malay states/kingdoms.

Some Malay nationalists have proposed a much earlier date (2nd century AD) for the Kedah subgroup instead of 7th century AD. The researcher Geoffrey Benjamin stated that when the Malays first came to Kedah, they met the Austro-Asiatic Mon people; these Mon people in Kedah did not get assimilated into the Malay language and culture until the 12th century AD. Evidence for this is the presence of Mon words such as Bendang (rice fields) and Klong (irrigation canals) in the Kedah language.

Langkasuka linked to the Pattani-Kelantan region was initially another Mon state (and not Malay state as stated by Malay nationalists). This is evidenced by the fact that the Mon language was spoken in the Pattani-Kelantan region until around 1200 AD before they switched to speaking Southern Thai language sometimes during the Sukhothai or Ayutthaya period. The other evidence is that the Mon were Buddhists and Langkasuka was a Buddhist state.

The Mon, Malay and Tai are three different ethnic groups living in the same region that are often confused with each other. The Mon are the earliest natives in the Pattani-Kelantan region, then came the Malays during the Sri Vijaya expansion, then only the Tai people who came during the Sukhothai or Ayutthaya period.

The Malay annals or Sejarah Melayu, the earliest Malay history text of Peninsular Malaysia, was only written in 1612 AD from the Malaccan people so it is not a reliable text for what happened 2000 years ago when these earliest kingdoms in Peninsular Malaysia were established. Other records such as Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or Kedah annals sound too mythical and were also written much later in 18th century AD. Furthermore, when Malay nationalism is strong, real history can be distorted.

In other words, more research and evidence need to be done to determine the true ethnicity of the earliest kingdoms in Malay Peninsular.

Conclusion

The ethnic Malays originated from the proto-Malay people in southern Sumatra before migrating to the Malay Peninsular in two waves of migration; most came during the third wave (when considered from Borneo).

The Malays are the natives of Sumatra but not the natives of Malay Peninsular as commonly mistaken.

Ethnic Malays joget dance

Part two of this article explains the difference between the Malay and Malayic so that the readers are not confused between these two terms.

Sources

The Muslim Malay Community in Southern Thailand: A “Small People” Facing Existential Uncertainty. By Otto VON FEIGENBLATT. Nova Southeastern University
Ghosts of the past in Southern Thailand: Essays on the History of Patani. National University of Singapore Press (January 1, 2013). By Patrick Jory
The Kingdom of Patani: Between Thai and Malay Mandala. By Wayne Bougas.
Where does Malay come from? By Alexander Adelaar.
Malay: its history, role and spread. Compiled by Alexander Adelaar & D. J. Prentice
The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires: an account of the East, from the Red Sea to China, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515.
The search for the 'Origins' of Melayu. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Oct. 2001. By Prof Leonard Andaya of University of Hawaii.
Arsyad al-Banjari: Chapter 4 A Banjarese Shafi (the origin of Banjar Malay) by By Muhammad Iqba
Empires of the Sea: Maritime Power Networks in World History. By Rolf Strootman
Urak Lawoi language and social history. By Jacob Groot
The "Sair Kin Tambuan"; A Banjarese Versified Version of a Well-known Panji Story
Concise Encyclopedia Of World History. By Carlos Ramirez-Faria
A shadowy state in Borneo: where was Tanjungpura? 2011 Borneo Research Bulletin (Vol. 42). By Andrew Smith and Hilary Smith.
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