Prehistoric Malaysia
Encyclopedia
Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 200,000 years ago from stone tools found at Bukit Jawa, an archaeological site in Lenggong
Lenggong
Lenggong is a town in Perak, Malaysia. It is situated 100 km north of Ipoh.-Introduction:The Lenggong valley in Ulu Perak is one of Peninsular Malaysia's most important areas for archaeology, as excavations have revealed many traces of Malaysia's prehistory. It is the site of the oldest known place...
Perak. The earliest human skeleton in Peninsular Malaysia, Perak Man, dates back 11,000 years and Perak Woman dating back 8,000 years, were also discovered in Lenggong. The site has an undisturbed stone tool production area, created using equipment such as anvils and hammer stones. The Tambun Cave paintings are also situated in Perak
Perak
Perak , one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in the Peninsular Malaysia bordering Kedah and Yala Province of Thailand to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, Selangor the Strait of Malacca to the south and west.Perak means silver in Malay...
. From East Malaysia, Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
's Niah Caves
Niah Caves
Niah Caves is located within the district of Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia. Part of Niah National Park, the main cave, Niah Great Cave, is located in Gunung Subis and is made up of several voluminous, high-ceilinged chambers...
, there is evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia, dating back 40,000 years.
60,000-35,000 years ago- Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)
Early peoples, probably from the first wave humans as postulated in the 'Out of Africa' theory, lived a simple lifestyle of hunting-gathering. PaleolithicPaleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
Malaysia had no defined border or countries, no known government, religion, money, etc. Descendants of these early inhabitants still live in the hills of Malaysia, some of their villages are accessible, they are known as Orang Asli
Orang Asli
Orang Asli , is a generic Malaysian term used for people indigenous to Peninsular Malaysia...
, meaning 'the original people' or aborigines. Today the Orang Asli, together with the Malays
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...
and indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, are known as Bumiputera ('the sons of the soil'). The Bumiputera make up 65% of the population.
35,000-10,000 years ago - Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
Anthropologists traced a group of newcomers Proto MalayProto Malay
The term Proto-Malay which translates to Melayu asli or Melayu purba , are the Mongoloids and Austronesian speakers from mainland Asia who moved to the Malay peninsular and Malay archipelago in a long series of migration between 2500 and 1500 BC.The Proto-Malays are believed to be seafarers...
seafarers
Seafarers
Seafarers can refer to ethnic groups living by the sea in Southeast Asia, and also other sea-living ethnic groups in the world. The ethnic group name refers to a large distribution area, reaching from the islands of Indonesia to Burma...
who migrated from Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
to Malaysia. Negrito
Negrito
The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....
and other Aborigines were forced by late comers into the hills. In this period, people learned to dress, to cook, to hunt with advanced stone weapons. Communication techniques also improved.
10,000-5,000 years ago- Neolithic (New Stone Age)
Archaeological finds from the Lenggong valley in Perak show that people were making stone tools and using jewellery.2,500 years ago - Bronze Age
More people arrived, including new tribes and seafarers. The Malay Peninsula became the crossroads in maritime trades of the ancient age. Seafarers who came to Malaysia's shores included Indians, Egyptians, peoples of the Middle East, Javanese and Chinese. Ptolemy named the Malay Peninsula the Golden ChersoneseGolden Chersonese
Golden Khersonese, Chersonesus Aurea, is the ancient name to refer to the Malay Peninsula by Claudius Ptolemy or Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy, he was a Greek geographer, astronomer, and astrologer...
.
Mekong River Migration
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
province of China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. Anthropologists traced the migration of Proto Malay
Proto Malay
The term Proto-Malay which translates to Melayu asli or Melayu purba , are the Mongoloids and Austronesian speakers from mainland Asia who moved to the Malay peninsular and Malay archipelago in a long series of migration between 2500 and 1500 BC.The Proto-Malays are believed to be seafarers...
s, who were seafarers, to some 10,000 years ago when they sailed by boat (canoe or perahu) along the Mekong River from Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
to the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
and eventually settled down at various places.
Yunnan
Inhabitants of early YunnanYunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
may be traced back into prehistory from a homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
fossil, 'Yuanmou Man
Yuanmou Man
Yuanmou Man , Homo erectus yuanmouensis, refers to a member of the homo genus whose remnants, two incisors, were discovered near Danawu Village in Yuanmou County in southwestern province of Yunnan, China. Later, stone artifacts, pieces of animal bone showing signs of human work and ash from...
', which was unearthed in the 1960s. In year 221 BC, Qin Shihuang conquered Yunnan and unified China. Yunnan has since become a province of China. They were the ancestors of rice eating peoples, with their culture of cultivating rice spread throughout the entire region. The native name of the Mekong River peoples' home in Yunnan is Xishuangbanna (Sipsongpanna) which literally means "twelve thousand rice fields", it is the home of the Dai
Dai people
The Dai peoples is one of several ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture , but by extension can apply to groups in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Burma when Dai is used to mean specifically Tai Lue, Chinese Shan or even...
minority. Xishuangbanna sits at a lower altitude than most of the Yunnan mountainous ranges.
Yunnan migration theory
The theory of Proto Malay originating from YunnanYunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
is supported by R.H Geldern, J.H.C Kern, J.R Foster, J.R Logen, Slametmuljana and Asmah Haji Omar. The Proto Malay (Melayu asli) who first arrived possessed agricultural skills while the second wave Deutero Malay (mixed blood) who joined in around 1500 BC and dwelled along the coastlines have advanced fishery skills. During the migration, both groups intermarried with peoples of the southern islands, such as those from Java (Indonesian), and also with aboriginal peoples of Australoid
Australoid
The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept originated with a typological method of racial classification. They were described as having dark skin with wavy hair, in the case of Veddoids from South Asia and Aboriginal Australians, or hair ranging from straight to kinky in the...
, Negrito
Negrito
The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....
and Melanesoid origin.
Other evidences that support this theory include:
- Stone tools found at Malay archipelago are analogous to Central Asian tools.
- Similarity of Malay customs and AssamAssamAssam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
customs. - Malay language & Cambodian language are kindred languages because the ancestral home of Cambodians originated from the source of Mekong River.
Kedah and Melaka
According to Kedah AnnalsHikayat Merong Mahawangsa
Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or The Kedah Annals is an ancient Malay literature that chronicles the bloodline of Merong Mahawangsa and the foundation of the Kedah, a state in Malaysia. Though there are historical accuracies, there are many incredible assertions...
, Kadaram (Kedah Kingdom 630-1136) was founded by Maharaja Derbar Raja of Gemeron
Bandar Abbas
Bandar-Abbas or Bandar-e ‘Abbās , also Romanized as Bandar ‘Abbās, Bandar ‘Abbāsī, and Bandar-e ‘Abbās; formerly known as Cambarão and Port Comorão to Portuguese traders, as Gombroon to English traders and as Gamrun or Gumrun to Dutch merchants) is a port city and capital of Hormozgān Province on...
, Persia around 630 CE, and also alleged that the bloodline of Kedah royalties coming from Alexander The Great. The other Malay literature, Sejarah Melayu
Sejarah Melayu
Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals is a Malay literary work which covers a period of over 600 years that chronicles the, then and now, Genealogies of Rulers in the Malay Archipelago...
too alleged that they were the descendants of Alexander The Great.
Deutero Malays
Combination of the colonial Kambujas of HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
-Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
faith, the Indo-Persian royalties and traders as well as traders from southern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and elsewhere along the ancient trade routes
Trade route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...
, these peoples together with the aborigine Negrito
Negrito
The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....
Orang Asli
Orang Asli
Orang Asli , is a generic Malaysian term used for people indigenous to Peninsular Malaysia...
and native seafarers and Proto Malays intermarried each others and thus a new group of peoples was formed and became to be known as the Deutero Malays, today they are commonly known as the Malays
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...
.
Mekong Delta
Khmer people
Khmer people are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.8 million people in the country. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Mon–Khmer language family found throughout Southeast Asia...
culture of Funan, in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
. The Khmer empire of Angkor
Angkor
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara , meaning "city"...
was the last before the kingdom fled to various places seeking refuge. Palembang
Palembang
Palembang is the capital city of the South Sumatra province in Indonesia. Palembang is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia, and has a history of being a capital of a maritime empire. Located on the Musi River banks on the east coast of southern Sumatra island, it has an area of 400.61 square...
and later Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
were among the places. Archeological evidences found that inhabitants of early Cambodia were peoples of Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
culture. They possessed good technical skills while the more advanced groups, who lived near the coast and in the lower delta of Mekong, cultivated irrigated rice. It is believed that they were the ancestors of the people living in insular Southeast Asia and islands of Pacific Ocean. They were also knowledgeable in iron and bronze works as well as possessing good navigational skills. (Source: Based on information from John F. Cady, Southeast Asia: Its Historical Development, New York, 1964.)
Oldest Malay text
The Kedukan Bukit InscriptionKedukan Bukit Inscription
The Kedukan Bukit Inscription was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi. It is the oldest surviving specimen of the Malay language, in a form known as Old Malay. It is a small...
of 682 CE found at Palembang
Palembang
Palembang is the capital city of the South Sumatra province in Indonesia. Palembang is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia, and has a history of being a capital of a maritime empire. Located on the Musi River banks on the east coast of southern Sumatra island, it has an area of 400.61 square...
and the modern Yunnan Dai
Dai
Dai can mean:* Dai people, one of the 56 recognized ethnic minorities of China* Dai , ethnic tribe of Chin, Myanmar* Dai County, in Shanxi, China* Dai , a state during the Spring and Autumn Period...
minority's traditional writings belong to the same script family, Pallava
Pallava
The Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region with their capital at Kanchipuram...
, also known as Pallava Grantha. Dai ethnic (or Dai minority) of Yunnan is one of the aboriginal inhabitants of modern Yunnan province of China. (Picture) is taken from Jinghong
Jinghong
Jinghong romanised as chiang rung, chiang hung, chengrung, cheng hung, jinghung, keng hung and muangjinghung) is the capital of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China, and the historic capital of the former Tai kingdom of Sipsongpanna.-Location:Located between 100°25' -...
city of Yunnan, a modern doorframe with Dai minority texts & Chinese, at right is the ancient Kedukan Bukit inscription.
Cham-Malay relation
Cham language
Cham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia . There are also...
and the Malay language
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
can be found in names of places such as Kampong Cham
Kampong Cham (city)
Kampong Cham is the capital city of the Kampong Cham Province in eastern Cambodia. It is the third largest city in Cambodia with a population of 63,771 people and is located on the Mekong River. Kampong Cham is 124 kilometers northeast from Phnom Penh and can be reached by either boat or by...
, Kambujadesa, Kampong Chhnang, etc. and Sejarah Melayu
Sejarah Melayu
Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals is a Malay literary work which covers a period of over 600 years that chronicles the, then and now, Genealogies of Rulers in the Malay Archipelago...
clearly mentioned a Cham community in Parameswara's Malacca around 15th century. Cham is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Philippines. In mid 15th century, when Cham was heavily defeated by the Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese, some 120,000 were killed and in the 17th century the Champa king converted to Islam. In 18th century the last Champa Muslim king Pô Chien gathered his people and migrated south to Cambodia while those along the coastline migrated to the nearest peninsula state Terengganu
Terengganu
Terengganu is a sultanate and constitutive state of federal Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Iman...
, approximately 500 km or less by boat, and Kelantan. Malaysian constitution recognises the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputera status. Now that the history is interlinked, there is a possibility that Parameswara's family were Cham refugees who fled to Palembang before he fled to Tumasik and finally to Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
. Interestingly, one of the last Kings of Angkor of the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
had the name Paramesvarapada.
See also
- Kampong ChamKampong Cham (city)Kampong Cham is the capital city of the Kampong Cham Province in eastern Cambodia. It is the third largest city in Cambodia with a population of 63,771 people and is located on the Mekong River. Kampong Cham is 124 kilometers northeast from Phnom Penh and can be reached by either boat or by...
of Cambodia. - History of Southeast AsiaHistory of Southeast AsiaThe history of Southeast Asia has been characterized as interaction between regional players and foreign powers. Each country is intertwined with all the others. For instance, the Malay empires of Srivijaya and Malacca covered modern day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore while the Burmese, Thai,...
- PallavaPallavaThe Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region with their capital at Kanchipuram...
- Origin of PallavaOrigin of PallavaThe Pallava were a Tamil dynasty who ruled the Northern Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with their capital at Kanchipuram for a period of about six hundred years from the early 4th century CE until the end of the 9th century.Kambar mentions Pallava King in Silaiezhupathu. Silaiezhubadhu tells that...
- KambojaKambojasThe Kambojas were a kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.They were an Indo-Iranian tribe situated at the boundary of the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time.The Kambojas...
- Migration of Kambojas
- Kambojas and KambodiaKambojas and KambodiaThe name of Cambodia, in Khmer "Kampuchea" , derives from Sanskrit . It is not unique to the modern kingdom of Cambodia: the same name is also found in Burmese and Thai chronicles referring to regions within those kingdoms...
- Cham languageCham languageCham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia . There are also...
- Cham people
- Pahang RiverPahang RiverPahang River or is a river in the state of Pahang, Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula. With 459 km in length, it is the longest river on the Malay Peninsula...
External links
- http://www.malaysia.or.kr/history.htm
- http://sejarahmalaysia.pnm.my/portalBI/detail.php?section=sm01&spesifik_id=2&ttl_id=1
- Khmer Language of Cambodia.