Malay people, southeast Asia. Meaning of the word Malay Medieval Malay literature
MALAYS are a people inhabiting Southeast Asia. They live in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei.
Malays - numerous people, distributed almost everywhere in the world. They are also found in Europe, Canada, South Africa, in the Arabian Peninsula, Australia and the Pacific Islands. The number of people in all world states is about 28 million. Malaysia has a core population of approximately 15 million.
Also quite numerous in Indonesia and Thailand. In other countries, the number of Malays does not exceed 1 million. The language is part of the Western Austronesian group, the Austronesian language family. In the past, Indian and Arabic scripts were used, but now the Latin script is also used. The Indonesian language traces its origins to Malay. According to religious beliefs, the Malays are Sunni Muslims. There are also adherents of Christianity.
There are several sub ethnic groups Malays. In fact, the Malays of each Asian country are a separate group with their own characteristics, sometimes assimilating the local population or at least influencing it. This settlement is explained by the history of the Malay people. They come from the island of Kalimantan.
The 1st millennium BC was characterized by the growth of maritime trade, exchange between different territories. The Malays involved in this trade quickly spread throughout the Southeast Asian region. They began to create their own states after the beginning of our era. First state entities originated in Sumatra. Gradually their strength grew.
After unification into the Srivijaya Empire (7th-8th century), the main routes of maritime trade in the region were under the control of the Malays. The 2nd millennium AD was characterized by a change in religious views. The Malays, who had previously been Buddhists, converted to Islam, which penetrated into Southeast Asia from the west. Islam as a powerful unifying factor contributed to the consolidation of the people. In the 15th century, the more powerful Malacca Sultanate was formed. 17-20 centuries - a period of colonial dependence on the Dutch. At the same time, the people created smaller sultanate states. Their borders broke the unity of the Malays and allowed modern ethnic groups to form.
The Malays are traditionally an agricultural people. Two varieties of rice are cultivated (dry and flooded in special fields covered with water). They grow coconuts, hevea, and coffee. Livestock farming is also important in the economy. The main crafts are jewelry making, weaving, and boat building. The Malays are good sailors, but in former times they had a bad reputation due to piracy. Due to the high level of development, there are many industrial workers, entrepreneurs, service sector workers, and managers among the Malays. City dwellers make up a considerable part of the people.
In Malay villages, a linear layout is adopted. The buildings are bamboo, rectangular in shape, and placed on stilts. There is a veranda outside. National clothing for men and women includes the sarong. In addition to this, women wear open sweaters, and men wear jackets. It should be noted that Malay men are now switching to European-style clothing; they can be seen less and less often in traditional costume. The Malays eat boiled rice with a side dish of vegetables, fish or meat (you might be interested in the recipes for some of these dishes). Festive dishes - pilaf, small kebab of goat or chicken meat.
Malay families continue to observe ancient traditions (especially for rural residents). At the same time, parallel to them there are feudal forms and relations in the modern capitalist spirit. In religion, Islam also coexists with elements of animism. Folk art includes dance (menari), humorous songs and compositions with a special vocal style called keronchong. There is a puppet theater in which the puppets are flat-shaped and made of parchment. Among the Malays there are professional writers and figures in other forms of art.
In ancient times, the Malays used the South Indian script, from the 14th-15th centuries. - Arabic alphabet. Regions with significant Malay populations: Brunei, Timor, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Pattani (in Thailand). Other regions where Malays live: Australia, Canada, Comoros, Germany, Japan, Myanmar, Netherlands, Palau, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hainan, Hong Kong, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Reunion.
Etymology
According to the History of Jambi, the word "Malay" comes from the name of the Melayu River, which flows next to the Batang Hari River, or now Muara Jambi, in the Jambi province of Sumatra. The founder of Malacca, Parameshwara, was the prince of Palembang, which belonged to the Malayu people. I Ching (635-713) indicates in his diary that a people called “ma-la-yu” already existed then. According to archaeological research in Jambi, many ancient artifacts and architecture of Malaya have been found there. The word "Malay" came into English and Dutch via Portuguese in the form "Malayo", and was derived from the native "Melayu". According to popular theory, it means “fugitives” or “migrants”, due to the great mobility of this people.
In 1775 doctoral dissertation anthropologist I.F. Blumenbach distinguishes four races based on skin color; Caucasian (white), Ethiopian (black), American (red), Mongoloid (yellow). In 1795, he introduced another concept: the Malay race, as a subspecies of the Mongoloid. He described her as "brown". He applied this term to the inhabitants of the Mariana, Philippine, Moluccas, Sunda, Tahiti and other islands of the Pacific Ocean. Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have followed the same classification.
The term "Malays" is perceived by many Filipinos, referring it to the indigenous population of the country, as well as to the peoples neighboring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. American anthropologist H. Otley Bayer theorized that Filipinos were descended from Malays who migrated from Indonesia and Malaysia. This idea was adopted by Philippine historians and introduced into school curriculum. However, a number of anthropologists believe that, on the contrary, the Malays migrated south from the Philippines to Indonesia and Malaysia - Peter Bellwood, Robert Blust, Malcom Ross, Andrew Pawley, Lawrence Reid.
Settlement area
In a broad sense, the term "Malay" is used for all peoples inhabiting the Malay Archipelago. These are the Aceh, Minangkabau, Batak, Mandailings living in Sumatra, Javanese and Sunda in Java, Banjars, Ibans, Adazans and Melanau in Borneo, Bugis and Toraja in Sulawesi, ethnic groups in the Philippines such as Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Ifugaos on the island. Luzon, Visayas in the central Philippines, Maguindanao, Tausug and Bajau in Mindanao, peoples of the Sulu Archipelago and East Timor. In a narrow sense, this name belongs to the people who migrated from the east of Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula or the Riau Archipelago, they are called the “Riau Malays”. In a narrow sense, the Malay settlement zone is Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, Malays are those whose ancestors are Malay, who speak Malay, practice Islam and belong to the Malay culture. Other groups classified as Malays living outside the Malay Archipelago are the Chams (in Cambodia and Vietnam), the Ugsuls living on the island. Hainan. Descendants of the Malays live today in Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and Madagascar.
Languages
The language of the Malays proper is Malay, official language Malaysia. It was also adopted as a state language in Indonesia, and in 1945 it received the name Indonesian there. It is used as a language of interethnic communication, since the peoples of Indonesia have their own languages.
Other languages related to Malay are classified as a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language branch, which is part of the Austronesian language branch language family. This includes languages such as Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog, other languages of the Philippines, Tetum (East Timor), and the Malagasy language of Madagascar. This also includes the Polynesian branch, which includes Samoan, Hawaiian, Rapanui and Maori in New Zealand.
Cloth
Traditional clothing for men consists of a long shirt and trousers (Baju Melayu) and a sarong, which is wrapped around the waist and hangs over the trousers. Headdress - songkok cap, worn on the biggest occasions in a special way folded headscarf - tanjak or tengkolok. Women wear a sarong and a long, loose blouse (baju kurung) or a short, tight-fitting blouse (baju kebaya) with the sarong.
Arts and culture
In ancient times, the Malays used the South Indian alphabet, from the 14th-15th centuries. - Arabic, now the Malay language uses Latin script in writing.
The most ancient examples of literature are pantuns (quatrains), sedjars (genealogy chronicles), hikayats (knightly novels), fairy tales, for example, about Kanchila, the dwarf deer. Abdullah bin Abdulkadir Munshi (1796-1854) stood at the origins of new literature. In 1956, the National Writers' Union was created in Kuala Lumpur.
In music, there is a unique singing style called keronchong. The national orchestra is called nobat, consists of 3 drums, 2 flutes, gongs. The leading part is played by the serunai flute.
National theater - wayang kulit (leather puppet theater). National dances are developed. There is another type of theater - the Malay opera bangsawan, which travels to villages and holds performances in the meeting house. In the 20th century it was supplanted by cinema, but a little later it was revived.
Among the most popular entertainments are cock and buffalo fights (now prohibited), kite flying (wow), playing sepak takraw (Malay volleyball), top launching (gasing), boat racing, national types of wrestling (silat) such as karate).
Life Cycle Rites
Among the life cycle rites are ceremonies at the birth of a child, ear piercing for girls aged 5-10 years and circumcision for boys, engagement, wedding ceremony, which are accompanied by refreshments and prayers in Arabic. The wedding is conducted in accordance with Muslim laws, but the wedding ceremony itself contains many elements of pre-Muslim beliefs. The funeral ceremony is also in line with Islamic practice: the body is wrapped in a white shroud and buried with its head towards Mecca.
Malay cuisine
The basis of the food is rice with various ingredients: meat, vegetables, fish. An important element of many dishes is coconut milk (santan) and various spices. It is prohibited to eat pork, meat of predatory animals and birds, rodents, reptiles, worms, dead or
, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei. They live on the Malacca Peninsula, including the Thai-owned areas of the Kra Isthmus, in the coastal strip of Sumatra and Kalimantan and on the Indonesian islands of the South China Sea, and make up the majority of the population of the Australian possessions of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. They also live in South Africa, Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia and other countries. IN XIX-XX centuries Malay immigration to other countries increased. In older literature, Malays often referred to the ethnically diverse population or inhabitants of the coastal regions of Malaya and the Malay Archipelago. The population in Malaysia is 7.8 million people, in Indonesia 10.8 million, Thailand 2.1 million, Singapore 450 thousand, South Africa 190 thousand, Brunei 125 thousand people. The total number is 21.3 million people.
Malay is spoken by the Western Austronesian group of the Austronesian family. The first monuments - mid-1st millennium AD - used a script of South Indian origin; from the XIV-XV centuries. The Arabic alphabet spread, partially supplanted by the Latin alphabet in the 19th century. The Malay language has rich folklore, epic, historical works, medieval novels, since the 19th century - professional literature. In the 20th century, based on the Riau dialect, the Indonesian and Malaysian literary languages were created - the official languages of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Believers are Sunni Muslims. Islam is viewed in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei as hallmark Malays. A small number profess Christianity of various denominations.
The Malays are divided into a number of large groups. The most significant of them are the following: The Malays of Malaysia (Malaysians) are divided into 2 groups. The Malays of West Malaysia are settled on the Malay Peninsula (most compactly in the northeastern states of Kelantan and Terengganu) among the numerically and economically dominant Chinese and Indian populations. Despite the government's policy of creating a unified Malaysian nation, relations between ethnic groups often become antagonistic. Consolidating with the Malays of Western Malaysia are immigrants from Indonesia (Malays of Indonesia, Javanese, Minangkabau, Bugis) and aborigines of Malaysia (Semang, Senoi, Jakun). Malay rulers head the sultanates within Western Malaysia and are alternately elected to the post of head of state. The Malays of East Malaysia (numbering 300 thousand people) are ethnically related to the Malays of Indonesia living in the Indonesian part of Kalimantan, integrated with the numerically predominant Dayaks: the Ibans in Sarawak and the Kadazans in Sabah.
The ancestral home of the Malays is obviously West Kalimantan; their settlement along the coast of the South China Sea (Sumatra, Malacca, etc.) occurred in the 1st millennium BC and was associated with the development of international trade in Southeast Asia. By the middle of the 1st millennium AD, the first Malay states arose in Sumatra, united by the 7th-8th centuries. to the Buddhist Srivijaya Empire, which controlled the main sea routes of Western Indonesia. Many peoples of Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula participated in the ethnogenesis of the Malays. From the XIII-XIV centuries. the Malays of Indonesia fell into the sphere of influence of the Javanese Majapahit Empire; Javanese cultural influence is significant. Adoption in the XIV-XV centuries. Islam contributed to the consolidation of the Malays. The Malacca Sultanate, which emerged in the 15th century, controlled trade routes in the island part of Southeast Asia. The Malays assimilated other ethnic groups involved in trade, and the Malay language became an intermediary language in the Malay Archipelago. During the period of Dutch colonial rule (XVII - first half of XX centuries), numerous sultanates arose: Palembang, Jambi, Siak, Linga, Indragiri (Inderagiri), Kutei, Kota-Waringin, etc., within which modern groups of Malays were formed. In the 19th century, the ethnic integrity of the Malays was finally violated by colonial borders.
The main occupations are agriculture (the main crops are flooded and dry rice, hevea, coconut palms, coffee) and fishing. Many Malays, especially in northern Kalimantan, northern Sumatra, Singapore, and the western Malay Peninsula, are employed in industry, trade, service and management. There is a significant layer of urban population (Singapore, Indonesia). Crafts are developed - jewelry, weaving, and in some areas - batik production, weaving, boat and ship building. Characterized by navigation and piracy (in the past).
The Malays of Malaysia are predominantly a rural population. Rural settlements (kampung) have a linear, less often cumulus, layout. A traditional bamboo dwelling, piled, post-frame, single-chamber, rectangular, surrounded by an open veranda.
Traditional clothing - the sarong and kebaya - is retained among women; among men, the sarong and baju jacket are replaced by European clothing.
The main food is boiled rice (nasa) seasoned with vegetables, meat, and fish. Festive food - pilaf (nasi goreng) with a lot of spices, small kebabs of goat or chicken (sate).
Social relations are multi-structured: community traditions that regulate life rural population, are combined with feudal forms and capitalist relations.
Belief in spirits and folklore are preserved: ditties (pantuns); Menari dances, the unique singing style of keronchong, the wayang theater of flat parchment dolls (in Kelantan), etc. Professional literature and art are developed.
Malays - 1 The Malays themselves are an Austronesian Muslim people in Southeast Asia who speak the Malay language of the Austronesian family of languages. In ancient times, the Malays used the South Indian script, from the 14th-15th centuries. - Arabic alphabet. Regions with significant Malay populations: Brunei, Timor, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Pattani (in Thailand). Other regions where Malays live: Australia, Canada, Comoros, Germany, Japan, Myanmar, Netherlands, Palau, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hainan, Hong Kong, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Reunion.
2 . Peoples of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of languages related to the Malays. Sometimes this term is used in this broader sense. Languages: Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, Javanese, Tetum and hundreds of other languages. Religion: Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, tribal religions. This also includes ethnic groups such as Chams , Jarai, aborigines of Taiwan, Polynesia, Micronesia and other peoples of the Austronesian language family. In general, these inhabit a large group of islands called the Malay Archipelago and other neighboring territories. In ancient times they founded a number of Islamic sultanates, the kingdom of Pattani, the kingdom of Champa (Champa) in Vietnam. The Malays are related to the Polynesians and Micronesians who inhabit the Pacific Islands. Malay skin color ranges from light bronze to dark brown.
Etymology of "Malays"
According to the History of Jambi, the word "Malay" comes from the name of the Melayu River, which flows next to the Batang Hari River, or now Muara Jambi, in the Jambi Province of Sumatra. The founder of Malacca, Parameshwara, was the prince of Palembang, which belonged to the Malayu people. I Ching (635-713) indicates in his diary that a people called “ma-la-yu” already existed then. According to archaeological research in Jambi, many ancient artifacts and architecture of Malaya have been found there. The word "Malay" came into English and Dutch via Portuguese in the form "Malayo", and was derived from the native "Melayu". According to popular theory, it means “fugitives” or “migrants”, in view of the great mobility of this people. In 1775, the doctoral dissertation of anthropologist I. F. Blumenbach distinguishes four races based on skin color; Caucasian (white), Ethiopian (black), American (red), Mongoloid (yellow). In 1795, he introduced another concept: the Malay race, as a subspecies of the Mongoloid. He described it as “brown.” He applied this term to the inhabitants of the Mariana, Philippine, Moluccas, Sunda, Tahiti and other islands of the Pacific Ocean. Beginning with Blumenbach, many anthropologists adhere to the same classification. The term "Malays" is perceived by many Filipinos to refer to the indigenous population of the country, as well as to the peoples of neighboring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. American anthropologist H. Otley Bayer theorized that Filipinos were descended from Malays who migrated from Indonesia and Malaysia. This idea was adopted by Philippine historians and introduced into the school curriculum. However, a number of anthropologists believe that, on the contrary, the Malays migrated south from the Philippines to Indonesia and Malaysia. This is Peter Bellwood, Robert Blust. Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Lawrence Reid.
Malay settlement area
In a broad sense, the term "Malay" is used for all peoples inhabiting the Malay Archipelago. These are the Aceh, Minangkabau, Batak, Mandailings living in Sumatra, Javanese and Sunda in Java, Banjars, Ibans, Adazans and Melanau in Borneo, Bugis and Toraja in Sulawesi, ethnic groups in the Philippines such as Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Ifugaos on the island. Luzon, Visayas in the central Philippines, Maguindanao, Tausug and Bajau in Mindanao, peoples of the Sulu Archipelago and East Timor. In a narrow sense, this name belongs to the people who migrated from the east of Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula or the Riau Archipelago, they are called the “Riau Malays”. In a narrow sense, the area of settlement of the Malays is Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, the Malays are those whose ancestors are Malays, who speak Malay, profess Islam and belong to the Malay culture. Other groups classified as Malays living outside the Malay Archipelago are - Chams (in Cambodia and Vietnam), Ugsuls living on the island. Hainan. Descendants of the Malays live today in Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and Madagascar.
Languages
The language of the Malays proper is Malay, the official language of Malaysia. It was also adopted as a state language in Indonesia, and in 1945 it received the name Indonesian there. It is used as a language of interethnic communication, since the peoples of Indonesia have their own languages.
Other languages related to Malay are classified as a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language branch, which is part of the Austronesian language family. This includes languages such as Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), Malay (Bahasa Melayu), Tagalog, other languages of the Philippines, Tetum (East Timor), and the Malagasy language of Madagascar. This also includes the Polynesian branch, which includes Samoan, Hawaiian, Rapanui and Maori in New Zealand.
Arts and culture
In ancient times, the Malays used the South Indian alphabet, from the 14th-15th centuries. - Arabic, now the Malay language uses Latin script.
The most ancient examples of literature are pantuns (quatrains), sedjars (genealogy chronicles), hikayats (knightly novels), fairy tales, for example, about Kanchila, the dwarf deer. Abdullah bin Abdulqadir Munshi (1796-1854) stood at the origins of the new literature. In 1956, the National Writers' Union was created in Kuala Lumpur.
In music, there is a unique singing style called keronchong. The national orchestra is called nobat, consists of 3 drums, 2 flutes, gongs. The leading part is played by the serunai flute.
National theater - wayang kulit, puppet theater. National dances are developed. There is another type of theater - bangsawan, which travels around the villages and holds performances in the meeting house. In the 20th century it was supplanted by cinema, but a little later it was revived.
One of the favorite entertainments, cockfighting, is now prohibited.
In Malaysia and Indonesia, the national sport is silat, a karate-type hand-to-hand combat. Competitions in it are now held in a non-contact version. The competition is accompanied by kite flying.
Links and sources
- "Encyclopedia "Peoples and Religions of the World", ed. V. A. Tishkov, M. - 1998.
- S. V. Bychkov. Along the green hills of Malaysia, M.-1979.
- English section of Wikipedia, article “Malays”.
- Pogadaev, V. “Love comes after the wedding” - “Asia and Africa today”, N 4, 1999, pp. 79-80.ak: Malay people
Formation of the Malay nation
Malay language belongs to Indonesian group Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) languages. The Malay language is divided into many local dialects and closely related languages.
The ancestral home of the Malays is obviously West Kalimantan. Their settlement along the coast of the South China Sea (Sumatra, Malacca, etc.) occurred in the 1st millennium BC. and was associated with the development of trade in Southeast Asia.
Funan
The trading posts of the Cambodian Hindu state of Funan (Bapnom) were located on the territory of Malacca.
Srivijaya
By the middle of the 1st millennium AD. The first Malay states arose in Sumatra, uniting into the Buddhist empire of Srivijaya, which controlled the main sea routes in southeast Asia.
The so-called Old Malay language (VII - X centuries AD) is represented by epigraphic monuments located mainly in South Sumatra.
The Malay language, widely used there as a language of trade, since the 15th century has become in many areas of the Malay Archipelago the language of culture and the Muslim religion (the adoption of Islam in the 14th-15th centuries).
Majapahit
From the 13th-14th centuries. the Malays fall under the sphere of influence of the Javanese Hindu Majapahit Empire; The Javanese had a significant cultural influence on the Malay ethnicity.
Malacca Sultanate
Established in the 15th century, the Malacca Sultanate came to control trade routes throughout much of Southeast Asia. During this period, the Malays actively assimilated other ethnic groups involved in trade, the Malay language became the language of international communication in the Malay Archipelago.
In XV - 19th centuries Classical national Malay literature was created in Malay (with Arabic script) (its language is conventionally called classical Malay).
Colonial period
During this period, numerous sultanates arose: Palembang, Jambi, Siak, Linga, Indragiri, Kutey and others, within which modern ethnographic groups of the Malays took shape.
Pidginized (the so-called Bazaar Malay or Low Malay) and creolized forms of the language (Jakarta dialect, Ambonese Malay and others) also appeared.
In the 19th century, the ethnic integrity of the Malays was finally disrupted by colonial borders.
From 2nd half of the 19th century century in the Dutch Indies the press was published in the Malay language. As a result of the synthesis of low and so-called high Malay (which was guided by the norms of classical national language) the modern Indonesian language was formed.
Modern literary language Malaysian (also called Malaysian) differs from Indonesian mainly in terminology, partly phonetics and some features of morphology and syntax.
Settlement of the Malays
Currently, the Malays of Malaysia (Malaysians) are divided into 2 territorially distinct groups: the Malays of western Malaysia and the Malays of eastern Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak).
The Malays of western Malaysia are settled on the Malay Peninsula (most compactly in the northeastern states of Kelantan and Terengganu) among the numerically and economically dominant Chinese and Indian populations.
Despite the government's policy of creating a unified Malaysian nation, relations between ethnic groups often become antagonistic.
At the same time, the Malays of western Malaysia are consolidating with immigrants from Indonesia (Malays of Indonesia, Javanese, Minangkabau, Bugis) and the aborigines of Malacca (Semang, Senoi, Jakun).
The Malays of East Malaysia (Kalimantan) - numbering only about 300 thousand people, are ethnically related to the Malays of Indonesia living in the Indonesian part of Kalimantan. They integrate with the numerically dominant Dayaks: the Ibans in Sarawak and the Kadazans in Sabah.
The main occupations are agriculture (growing flooded and dry rice, rubber plants (hevea), coconut palms, coffee) and fishing. Characterized by navigation, in the past piracy.
Currently, many Malays are employed in industry, trade, service and management.
Traditions and culture of the Malays
IN modern world The most stable elements of material culture turned out to be those associated with the main traditional occupations of the Malays - rice cultivation and fishing.
It is in them that the commonality of the material culture of the Malaysian Malays with the inhabitants of the Indonesian part of the Malay Archipelago, who use similar agricultural and fishing tools, is most evident.
Social relations are multi-structured: community traditions that regulate the life of the rural population are combined with feudal forms and commodity-money relations.
Literature
Medieval Malay literature
The most ancient examples of Malay folklore include charms and spells (mantra), rhymed riddles (teka-teki), folk songs, lyrical and didactic pantuns. The main hero of the animal epic is the dwarf deer pelanduk (kanchil), and the main character of the farcical fairy tales is Pak Kadok (Papa Pea Pod), Pak Pandir (Uncle Dunce), Lebey Malang (Klutz the Clerk) and others.