WHO ARE THE PENDATANGS OF MALAYSIA?

History Of Malaysia

13 Sept, 2008

• Malay, a people of southeast Asia and adjacent islands. It is thought that the neolithic ancestors of the Malays (proto-Austronesians, proto-Malays, Mongoloid Indonesians or Malaysians) descended from Yunnan province, southern China, between 2500 B.C. and 1500 B.C., down the valley of the Mekong river to the Malay peninsula, thence to Indonesia and on to Madagasca and Easter Island. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

• Indian influence in the region dates back to at least the 3rd century BCE. Indian traders came to the archipelago for abundant forest and marine products, and to trade with merchants from China. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were well established in the Malay Peninsula by the beginning of the 1st century AD, and from there spread across the archipelago.(Wikipedia)

• The ancestors of the people that now inhabit the Malaysian peninsula first migrated to the area between 2500 and 1500 B.C. Those living in the coastal regions had early contact with Chinese and Indians; seafaring traders from India brought with them Hinduism, which was blended with the local animist beliefs. As Muslims conquered India, they spread the religion of Islam to Malaysia. In the 15th century A.D., Islam acquired a firm hold on the region when the Hindu ruler of the powerful city-state of Malacca, Parameswara Dewa Shah, converted to Islam. (Infoplease)

• Malaysia's recorded history dates back to the first century BC. Located strategically at the crossroads between the East and West, Peninsula Malaysia had attracted early travellers from different parts of the world. Evidence of ancient civilisations such as tomb stones can be found in Bujang Valley and Merbok Valley in the state of Kedah, as well as Hindu-Buddhist influences from India and China. Islamic influence came during the Melaka Sultanate in the 1400s with traders from the Middle East and India. (ExpatKL)

• Malaysia was one of the earliest homes of Man. Stone implements found at Lenggong in Perak and the remarkable finds in the Niah Cave of Sarawak provide evidence of this. The earliest of the present day inhabitants of Malaysia are the Orang Asli of the Peninsula and people such as the Penan of Sarawak and the Rungus of Sabah. Their presence in the country probably dates back to over 5,000 years. These early settlers were probably the pioneers of the movement of people southwards from China and Tibet through mainland Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula to the Indonesian Archipelago. The first Malay settlers or the Proto-Malays had probably established themselves here by 1the year 1000. They represented the second and third wave of this movement. This movement was followed by other waves of immigrants such as the Deutero-Malays over the next few centuries.(Sejarah Malaysia)

• 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. (Geographia)

Depending on how far back in history you want to go, all Malaysians may be called Pendatangs!!!

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...I am not sure whether the mainstream media in Bolehland carried it too but yesterday the Singapore Straits Times printed these quotes...

Marina Mahathir ... "I'd like to ask everyone, especially those categorised as 'Malays ', to list their family histories. And see how many of us can really go back further than three generations born in this land. I know I can't."

Syed Imrani, former Bernama journalist ... "Ahmad Ismail cannot deny the fact that his grandparents were immigrants from India who were looking for a better and comfortable life in this fortunate land."

Read The Rest HERE