timeline malaysia

obmar · timeline malaysia

The Early Centuries

40000 BC Earliest known habitation at Niah Caves, Sarawak. Remains of a palaeolithic stone-tool workshop at Kota Tampan, Perak, could be even older.

2500 BC Proto-Malays spread south from Yunan area in China.

300 BC Earliest signs of Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Malaysia.

200 BC Start of trade with India and China.

100 BC-AD 200 Emergence of trading kingdoms in the Isthmus of Kra

AD 500-1000 Development of Hindu-Buddhist trading kingdoms in Kedah's Bujang Valley, northern Perak and Santubong, Sarawak.

1303 Terengganu Stone records introduction of Islam to the Malay Peninsula.

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The Rise of Malacca

1400 Founding of Malacca by Parameswara.

1409 Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho arrives in Malacca.

1411 Parameswara converts to Islam and meets Ming Emperor of China.

1446 Malacca expands under Sultan Muzaffar Shah.

1456-98 Tun Perak serves as prime minister under four sultans and Malacca becomes biggest empire in Southeast Asia.

1511 Malacca falls to the Portuguese.

1512 Malacca's deposed sultan sets up new capital in Riau-Lingga which later becomes Sultanate of Johor.

1528 Sultan Muzaffar Shah starts the Perak Kingdom.

1641 The Dutch take Malacca from the Portuguese; start of Dutch dominance in the area.

1699 Assassination of Sultan Mahmud of Johor.

1699-1819 Empire of Johor, mostly at Riau, under Bendahara line.

1699-1784 Period of Minangkabau-Bugis struggle for domination of the Straits of Malacca.

1726 First sultan of Terengganu Kingdom installed.

1784 Death of Raja Haji at Malacca; Dutch break Bugis power in area.

1786 The British occupy Penang.

1812 Death of Sultan Mahmud Shah, last ruler of united Johor-Riau Kingdom.

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Colonial Malaya

1819 British occupy Singapore.

1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty carves up Malay world into colonial spheres: Dutch cede Malacca to British and keeps Riau.

1826 Singapore, Malacca Penang and Province Wellesley become Straits Settlements under British control.

1831-32 Malacca Malays rebel against British in Naning War.

1840s The importance of tin increases, bringing an influx of Chinese tin miners to the western coast.

1841 James Brooke established as Rajah of Sarawak.

1846 British annex the island of Labuan.

1858-68 Civil war in Pahang.

1867-74 Selangor civil war.

1874 Pangkor Treaty signals start of British intervention in Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

1875-76 Perak War signals uprising against British after introduction of controversial tax and subsequent murder of British Resident.

1881 British North Borneo Chartered Company establishes a centre in North Borneo, now Sabah.

1891-95 Pahang Rebellion.

1895-1905 Mat Salleh Rebellion. The introduction of new taxes had earlier created general discontent, and Mat Salleh gathers many supporters in his revolt against the North Borneo Company.

1896 Federated Malay States (FMS) are created.

1909 Treaty of Bangkok transfers four northern Malay states from Thai sovereignty to British control.

1914 Johor brought under British control.

1914-18 World War I.

1920-41 British adopt decentralisation policy in FMS; early signs of a Malay nationalism against British rule begin to surface.

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Malaya, Merdeka Malaysia

1941-45 Japanese conquest and occupation.

1945 British reoccupy Malaya.

1946 Malayan Union scheme introduced but is opposed, formation of United Malay National Organisation (Umno); Sarawak and British North Borneo become Crown colonies.

1948 Malayan Union scheme abandoned; Federation of Malaya inaugurated.

1948-60 Communist uprising - The Emergency.

1952 Municipal elections in Kuala Lumpur; Umno and Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) parties cooperate.

1953 Alliance coalition comprising Umno, MCA and Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) formed.

1955 First general elections in the peninsula; landslide win for the Alliance.

1956 Tunku Abdul Rahman leads Merdeka Mission to London to negotiate for independence.

1957 Malaya becomes independent, and the Union Jack is lowered for the last time. The Tunku, named the Father of Independence, becomes the first prime minister of the Federation of Malaya.

1960 The state of emergency ends.

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Post-Independence

1961 The Tunku proposes a political association called Malaysia that would include Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei.

1963 Creation of Malaysia without Brunei.

1963-66 Confrontation with Indonesia. In 1966, Indonesia's Sukarno is ousted; new Indonesian Government led by Suharto ends confrontation. The Philippines drops its claim on Sabah and recognises Malaysia.

1965 Singapore leaves Malaysia and becomes an independent nation.

1969 Riots on May 13 in the wake of the general elections.

1970 Tun Abdul Razak takes office as the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, succeeding Abdul Rahman.

1971 New Economic Policy (NEP) established to encourage fairer distribution of wealth among races.

1973 Abdul Razak sets up the National Front on Jan 1 to replace the ruling Alliance Party.

1976 Tun Hussein Onn appointed as the third Prime Minister of Malaysia on Jan 15, a day after the passing of Abdul Razak.

1981 Hussein Onn launches the National Unit Trust (Amanah Saham Nasional) Scheme. Due to ill health, he relinquishes the premiership to his deputy, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on July 15.

1983 Constitutional crisis involving the position of Malaysia's hereditary rulers.

1985 Roll-out of first national car, Proton Saga. The project was mooted to serve as a catalyst to transform Malaysia into a fully developed nation.

1987 Umno racked by power struggle between Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah; "Operation Lalang" carried out by the Mahathir administration results in detention of prominent opposition politicians, trade unionists, educators and community leaders.

1988 Umno Baru (New Umno) is formed by Mahathir after Umno is declared "an unlawful society".
1989 Semangat '46, led by Tengku Razaleigh, registered as a new political party. The Communist Party of Malaya abandons its 41-year armed struggle to overthrow the Malaysian Government.

1990 General elections - the ruling coalition retains its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

1997 Petronas Towers, the world's tallest twin buildings, open. Economic downturn as ringgit plummets in regional currency crisis.

1998 Govt imposes currency control laws on Sept 1 to stop free fall of the Ringgit. Kuala Lumpur becomes the first Asian city to host the Commonwealth Games. Dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim from office and his subsequent arrest creates a political crisis. Reformasi movement begins with mass demonstrations in support of Anwar.

1999 Snap general elections sees ruling coalition retain two-thirds majority, but some northern states see an opposition swing with PAS (Islamic Party) winning Terengganu and Kelantan.
2003 Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister Dr Mahathir retires. He is succeeded by his deputy Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

2004 In a ringing endorsement for the moderate and consensus-seeking Abdullah, the ruling coalition wins the general election by a landslide victory, with PAS-controlled Terengganu returning to the Barisan Nasional.

2006 Malaysia celebrates its 49th year of independence, with a keen eye on the 50th.

Reference: Insight Guides: Malaysia (18th Edition, Langenscheidt Publishing Group)

obmar · Using this to collect my net finds

Review: [Untitled]
Reviewed Work(s):

* The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC-1300 AD) by Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h, Victoria Hobson

Author(s) of Review: Mary Somers Heidhues
The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 62, No. 2 (May, 2003), pp. 706-708
doi:10.2307/3096336
This article consists of 3 page(s).

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9118(200305)62%3A2%3C706%3ATMPCOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R

obmar

http://www.myfareast.org/Malaysia/history.html

The Brief History of Malaysia.

obmar

http://sylvester.acl.arts.usyd.ed...ocoon/heurist/69/reftype_renderer

26th June 2007, 4.00 pm - 5.30 pm
Illumination: The art of the Malay letter - Dr S. T. Lee Lecture in Asian Art & Archaeology
Dr Annabel Teh Gallop
Refectory (off Lobby G), Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney
The art of the Islamic book in Southeast Asia is anchored to manuscripts of the Qur’an. The reverence accorded to the Holy Book and its enduring text exercised a conservatizing influence on Malay book art. Thus while the study of Islamic illumination in Southeast Asia has succeeded in identifying a number of distinctive regional artistic schools, there has been less success in tracing chronological development. On the other hand, the art of the Malay letter, evolved relatively quickly in constant response to external stimuli. Nearly one hundred illuminated royal Malay epistles have survived, spanning a period of nearly four centuries, originating from courts as far-flung as Ternate, Aceh and Madura, and these letters can be studied alongside a similar number in Malay sent from European officials to Indonesian and Malay rulers. This evidence enables us to begin to identify the various influences and cross-currents that shaped Malay letter illumination, and to arrive at a preliminary mapping of the evolution of the art of the Malay letter.

obmar · The Banjar People

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjar_people

Banjar people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Banjar
Sasanggan, a bronze bowl used by the Banjarese during a traditional ceremony.
Total population

4,5 million
Regions with significant populations
South Kalimantan (Indonesia): 2,271,586
East Kalimantan (Indonesia): 500,000
Central Kalimantan (Indonesia): 500,00
Indragiri Hilir: 175,000
Malaysia: 538,826
Languages
Banjar, Indonesian and Malay.
Religions
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Malays, Kutai, Javanese, Dayak (Dayak Bukit, Bakumpai, Ngaju, Maanyan, Lawangan)

Banjar (or Banjarese) is the name of an interior and coastal native ethnic group which settled in the Banjar region and in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, the biggest city on the island of Borneo. A few hundred years ago, some of them had travelled to many places in the Malay archipelago. They set up pockets of settlement in those areas, namely in Perak mostly in Parit Buntar and Teluk Intan region, Selangor around Sabak Bernam and Sungai Besar and Batu Pahat, Johor in Malaysia, in Medan, Sumatra in Indonesia and many other places. Banjarese people is a melting pot of the native Dayaks, Malay ethnicity from Sumatra and the Javanese courts.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Sub-ethnicities
* 3 Language
* 4 Relations with Dayaks
* 5 References
* 6 See also

[edit] History

Proto Malay people migrated to Kalimantan/Borneo in 2500 BC. These are the ancestors of Dayak people (Ot Danum). In 2500 BC, the Deutero Malay migrated to Kalimantan/Borneo. Malay people from Sumatra brought their culture to Kalimantan/Borneo in 400 AD, which fused the birth of Banjar Hulu language. Later on 520 AD, the Malay formed the Buddhist Kingdom of Tanjungpuri in the present-day Tanjung, Tabalong.

In 1200 AD, Empu Jatmika built the Hindu Kingdom of Negara Dipa by the rivers of Tapin. This was the start of the Javanese-style courts in South Kalimantan. The Hindu era in South Kalimantan remained the most remembered time in South Kalimantan history. The glory of Negara Dipa is succeeded by the Hindu Kingdom of Negara Daha in 1400 AD.

Pangeran Samudera, the rightful heir was forced to flee the court of Negara Daha because of his uncle's revolt against him. He was accepted by the people of the Bandar Masih (Bandar=port, Masih=Malay people). Supported by the Sultanate of Demak, he formed a new Islamic Banjar Kingdom in 1526 with Bandar Masih as its capital. Later on, the name of Bandar Masih slowly changed into Banjarmasin.

[edit] Sub-ethnicities

The division of Banjar people into 3 ethnicities is based on the locations of the fusions between Malay, local Dayaks (Dayak Bukit, Dayak Maanyan, Dayak Lawangan, Dayak Ngaju, Dayak Barangas, and Bakumpai), and Javanese.

1. Banjar Pahuluan, who lives in the valleys by the upriver of Meratus mountain ranges. They live on agriculture.
2. Banjar Batang Banyu, who lives in the valleys by the river of Negara. They take pride of their position as the people of the ancient capital. They are also prominent merchants.
3. Banjar Kuala, who lives in Banjarmasin and Martapura. These people are the people of the new capital.

[edit] Language

The Banjar language (bjn) reflects the history of people. It is basically the Malay language brought from Sumatra, with some words are taken from Javanese and native Dayaks.

[edit] Relations with Dayaks

The relationship between Banjar people and the neighboring Dayaks are always in a good term. As some of the Dayaks who converted to Islam fuse themselves into the Banjar culture and call themselves Banjar, the sorrounding Dayaks think of the Banjars as their brothers and sisters. This is further strengthened by the fact there are many inter-marriages between the Banjars and the Dayaks, even in the level of royalty. For example: Biang Lawai, a wife of a Banjar king was of Dayak Ngaju ethnicity. This means that the Banjarese Kings and Queens have Dayaks lineage in their blood.

This relationship grew strong when both ethnicities faced colonization. They became comrades in the age of war. Some of the warriors involved in Banjar War are of Dayak ethnicities or have Dayaks lineage in their blood. For example:

1. Panglima Batur, of Dayak Siang Murung ethnicity,
2. Panglima Wangkang, his father was a Dayak Bakumpai and his mother was a Banjar,
3. Panglima Batu Balot (Tumenggung Marha Lahew), a female warrior who attacked Fort Muara Teweh in 1864-1865.

[edit] References

1. de Bruyn, W.K.H.F.; Bijdrage tot de kennis van de Afdeeling Hoeloe Soengai, (Zuider a Ooster Afdeeling van Borneo), 19--.
2. Broersma, R.;Handel en Bedrijf in Zuiz Oost Borneo, S'Gravenhage, G. Naeff, 1927.
3. Eisenberger, J.; Kroniek de Zuider en Ooster Afdeeling van Borneo, Bandjermasin, Drukkerij Lim Hwat Sing, 1936.
4. Bondan, A.H.K.; Suluh Sedjarah Kalimantan, Padjar, Banjarmasin, 1953.
5. Ras, J.J.; Hikajat Bandjar, A study in Malay Histiography, N.V. de Ned. Boeken, Steen Drukkerij van het H.L. Smits S'Graven hage, 1968.
6. Heekeren, C. van.; Helen, Hazen en Honden Zuid Borneo 1942, Den Haag, 1969.
7. Riwut, Tjilik; Kalimantan Memamnggil, Penerbit Endang, Djakarta.
8. Saleh, Idwar; SEJARAH DAERAH TEMATIS Zaman Kebangkitan Nasional (1900-1942) di Kalimantan Selatan, Depdikbud, Jakarta, 1986.

obmar

http://www.geocities.com/malayculture/history.htm

The history of The Malays, a race of peoples inhabiting the Malay peninsula and parts of Southeast Asia is not very ancient. Most studies link the development of the Malays to several waves of movement down the Malay peninsula from Yunnan in China, with the date 2000 B.C. marking the arrival of the modern Malays. Yet, there are several definitions, cultural and political, by which the Malays are defined and redefined as a community.

Influences from various parts of the world—South Asia, China, the Middle East (Islam) and the West--have been instrumental in shaping Malay culture and identity. Early kingdoms, mostly Hindu or Buddhist in character, and later empires came into being at the beginning of the Christian era.

With the arrival of Parameswara from present-day Indonesia another era begins, made infinitely significant with the conversion of the Malays into Islam. Various kingdoms rose and fall, and the present sultanates began to take shape. The important of these, in historical and cultural terms, were the kingdoms of Malacca and Patani.

With the destruction of the Malacca Sultanate by the Portuguese, and following them the establishment of a foothold in Malacca by the Dutch and their successors, the British, who spread their influence to the rest of the Malay peninsula, yet another major cultural shift took place. The colonial era had begun. In a sense traditional Malay history ends at this point.

The Malays

The Malays belong to the broader Malayo-Polynesian group of races, the origins of which have been traced to Yunnan in China through the Proto-Malays and Deutero-Malays.

According to anthropologists these early aboriginal groups, now collectively known as Orang Asli (meanining original or indigenous people), consisting of some eighteen groups, but officially classified into Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay, first reached the peninsula around 2000 B.C. In the peninsula their numbers are small, making up in total around 120,000 or 0.5 percent of Malaysia’s total population.

Sub-groups of the Malayo-Polynesian race live in modern-day Southeast Asia and in the Polynesian islands, linked by a common base language manifested in many sub-languages and dialects, as well as certain basic beliefs and ritual practices. Both the languages and the beliefs are shared with those of the aboriginal peoples of the region.

From earliest times diverse conditions in different localities as well as influences from the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, China and the West have served to considerably shape and reshape their cultures, so that each group has developed its own religious and social identity. The Malays now constitute the largest group of people in the Malay peninsula and in certain neighbouring territories on and off the island of Sumatra.

As far as Malaysia is concerned, many of those today identified as Malays have, in fact, come from these sub-groups, such as the Buginese, the Achehnese, the Javanese or the Minangkabau. Alternatively, the Malays are the product of a mixture of Malays and one or more of these sub-groups, many of which still maintain their racial identities as well as customs. The most prominent of these are the Minangkabau of Negeri Sembilan and the Javanese in Johore.

The term Malay in such situations is no more than a convenient label to refer to such communities, and is not always acceptable to the communities themselves. Apart from the ethnic links the religion of Islam is a major qualifying factor for one to be considered a Malay.

The history of the peninsula since about the 15th century, as well as recent cultural, social and political developments in Malaysia have, additionally, resulted in many non-Malays, particularly the Tamil- or Malayali-speaking Indian Muslims as well as converts from other religions into Islam being regarded as Malays. Non-Muslim groups, such as the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, who also belong to the broader Malay-Polynesian races, are strictly speaking not considered to be Malays under this definition. To encompass all such peoples as well as the Malays a new and broader term, “Bumiputera,” came into use in the early 1970’s. Taken from the Sanskrit, this term literally means “Son-of-the Soil.”

Consequently in the context of Malay culture, the term “Malay” has two distinct applications:

(a) the Malay race as such, that is a broad term indicating ethnicity, and

(b) the Malay race as defined by the Malaysian constitution.

The Constitution, in fact, allows at the far extreme, converts to Islam to be defined as “Malay”, thus obliterating, as least on the popular level, the distinction between race and Islam. While some members of these latter groups may speak the Malay language and observe some of the social customs of the Malays, most of them retain their own languages and cultural practices, and have not been able to accept a wide range of traditional Malay beliefs.

Influences

The Malays have an animistic and Hindu heritage, strong influences of both being still evident in many of the traditional beliefs, customs and rituals, as well as in manifestations of artistic expression. Traditional practices and customary law (adat) remain important in ceremonial situations. The two best known systems of adat are the Adat Temenggong and the Adat Perpatih, the latter observed amongst the Minangkabau in Sumatra as well as, in the case of Malaysia, in the state of Negeri Sembilan.

The early history of the Malays remains obscure. The main centre of Malay power appears to have been on the island of Sumatra, where Srivijaya, a powerful kingdom was based with its capital at Palembang. The name Srivijaya is Sanskrit in origin and the culture of the population was Hindu-based. By the 9th century Srivijaya dominated the Malay Peninsula, and in the 13th century a separate kingdom, that of Tumasek was established on the island later renamed Singapore. In the 14th century Srivijaya as well as Tumasik were conquered by a Javanese empire, and the dispossessed ruler of Tumasik then founded a Malay kingdom in Malacca. With the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese in the 16th century, the fugitive Malay Sultan founded the kingdom of Johor. (Rhiau-Johor). In due course other sultanates came to be established on the peninsula.

Islam reached the Malay archipelago in the 13th century, gaining its first foothold in the northern tip of Sumatra. Earliest evidence for Islam in the Malay peninsula comes in the form of the 14th century Trengganu stone. However, the extent of Islam in Trengganu at this early date has not been adequately established. Parameswara, the Hindu founder and first ruler of Malacca, was converted into Islam in the 15th century. From that date the Malay population of the peninsula was converted from Hinduism and Buddhism to Islam, and by the 17th century Islam had become the dominant religion of the peninsula. The Malays are Sunni Muslims belonging to the School of Shafii.

The impact of the various religious traditions of the Malays may be seen in their everyday beliefs and practices as well as in their festivals.

obmar

http://www.best-of-langkawi.com/CULTURE-ancient-malaysia.php

Ancient Malaysia: 35,000 BC - 100 BC
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.

obmar

http://www.ualberta.ca/~vmitchel/rev3.html

Austronesian Expansion - Taiwan 4,000 BC

By 5,000 BC an especially potent and versatile culture combining fishing and gardening had developed on the south coast of China. As well as growing their food on land, these maritime gardeners were accomplished at fishing the waters in the Straits of Taiwan from boats with hooks and nets. Between 4,000 and 3,000 BC, these fishermen-farmers crossed the 150 km of the Straits and settled on Taiwan.

It is important to note that the fishermen-farmers who crossed the straits to Taiwan were not the Sino-Tibetan speaking Han Chinese who today make up the great majority of the Chinese population. Linguistic evidence from Taiwan suggests that they spoke an Austronesian language closely related to the Tai-Kadai language family that is the dominant language group today in Laos, Thailand and the north and east of Burma.

On Taiwan, the Austronesian speaking fishermen-farmers honed their sea-faring skills. They soon embarked on one of the most astonishing and extensive colonizations in human history known as the Austronesian expansion. By about 2,500 BC, one group, and just one group of Austronesian speakers from Taiwan had ventured to northern Luzon in the Philippines and settled there. The archaeological record from the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon shows that they brought with them the same set of stone tools and pottery they had in Taiwan. The descendants of this group spread their language and culture through the Indo-Malayan archipelago as far west as Madagascar off the east coast of Africa and as far east as Hawaii and Easter Island in the central Pacific Ocean.

For the most part, the Austronesians encountered unoccupied coasts and islands. Where they met hunting and gathering cultures, their horticultural productivity and population growth soon overwhelmed the aboriginal occupants. All the surviving Aeta populations in the Philippines speak Austronesian languages. Where they met established agrarian cultures, such as along the coasts of Vietnam (Champa) and Indo-China, their incursions were limited.

The speed of the Austronesian expansion was also a consequence of their maritime culture. Under the pressure of an expanding population, adventurous colonizers would prefer to settle new lands on coasts and islands before pressing inland and away from the sea. Furthermore, the Austronesian kinship system gave higher status, prestige and authority to the lineages most closely related to the society's founder. Austronesian culture put a premium on founding new colonies that gave an additional incentive to continued expansion. As it was, there were many new coasts and islands available for occupation and settlement.

Over the next thousand years to 1,500 BC, the Austronesians spread south through the Philippines to the Celebes, the Moluccas, northern Borneo and eastern Java. One branch went east from the Moluccan Island of Halmahera about 1,600 BC to colonize eastern Melanesia (1,200 BC) and Micronesia (500 BC). The migration had continued well into Polynesia by 0 AD and on to Hawaii and Easter Island by 500 AD. The Austronesians finally reached the last uninhabited land on earth, New Zealand, sometime around 1,300 AD.

Other Austronesians continued west through Borneo and Java to Sumatra and settled the coasts of the Malay peninsula and southern Vietnam by 500 BC. From Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, they learned to master the semi-annual winds of the Indian Ocean monsoons. Around 100 AD, they crossed the Bay of Bengal and made contacts with Sri Lanka and southern India. The western branch of the Austronesian expansion reached its furthest extent by 500 AD plying the monsoons to colonize Madagascar.

From Taiwan to New Zealand and Madagascar to Easter Island, the Austronesian language family is made up of more than a thousand languages and dialects. (Estimates vary from 900-1200 according to how dialects are distinguished from languages.) Measured by geographical extent, number of languages or number of speakers it is one of the world's largest language groups. In the Philippines there are some 87 Austronesian languages. The five largest, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon and Bicolano account for three-quarters of the population.

obmar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Malaysia

Prehistoric Malaysia may be traced back as far as 200,000 years ago from stone tools found at Kota Tampan archaeological site in Lenggong Perak. The earliest human skeleton, Perak Man, dating back 11,000 years and Perak Woman aged 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. From East Malaysia, Sarawak's Niah Caves, there is evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia, dating back some 40,000 years.

obmar

http://www.kiat.net/malaysia/history.html

PRE-HISTORIC MALAYSIA
Scientists have found archaeological evidence of human inhabitants in the Niah Caves in Sarawak from about 40,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of inhabitants on the Malay Peninsula that has been found is from about 10,000 years ago. Neolithic culture was well established by 2500-1500 BC. Most scholars believe the earliest settlers on the Malay Peninsula came overland from southern China in small groups over a period of thousands of years. These early inhabitants became the ancestors of the Orang Asli.

During the 1000's B.C., new groups of migrants who spoke a language related to Malay came to Malaysia. The ancestors of these people had traveled by sea from south China to Taiwan, and later from Taiwan to Borneo and the Philippines. These people became the ancestors of the Malays and the Orang Laut. The newcomers settled mainly in the coastal areas of the peninsula.

Small Malayan kingdoms existed in the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, when adventurers from India arrived and initiated more than 1,000 years of Indian influence. About A.D. 1400, a group of Malay-speaking migrants came to the Malay Peninsula from Srivijaya, a trading kingdom on the island of Sumatra (now part of Indonesia). Led by a Sumatran prince called Paramesvara, these newly arrived immigrants established a commercial kingdom called Malacca and secured Chinese protection for the city-state.

Europeans arrived in what is now Malaysia during the 1500's. Malacca entered a golden age as a commercial and Islamic religious centre but in 1511 it was captured by the Portuguese. When the Dutch captured Malacca in 1641, the port was no longer an important trading center.

obmar

http://www.tabacofamily.com/jtabaco/picivili.asp

Ancient Philippine Civilization

based on the work of the Vatican Scholar, Fr. Josemaria S. Luengo, Ph.D.*

Period

Governmental System

State Religion

250,000 - 323 BC Unrecorded
Dawn Man (cousin to the Java Man or Peking Man) 250,000BC-15,000BC
Protophilippinus 15,000 BC
Pigmy Negroid, Negritos, Aetas, Atis 15,000-3000 BC
Pacific Armenoids 3000-1000 BC

Semitico-Phoenicians 621 BC
Sabaeanism**
Malay-Armenoids 621 BC-1276 AD
356 - 100 BC Alexander the Great-Helenico-Armenia Empire
Armeno-Medan-Persian-Aryan Pacific Armenoids 326-100 BC

Sabaeanism**
100 BC - 638 AD Pallavas (Pallahvi)-Indo-Persian Empire Zoroasterianism ***
638 - 1372 AD Sri-Vishayas (Palembang)-Indo-Malayan Empire
Eskayas (Mabansagon ug Hamiling mga Lumadnong Tomindok sa Balangay sa...) 726 AD-present in Bohol

Hinduism
Sabaeanism**
1372 - 1389 AD Madjapahit (Menangkabao)-Indo-Malayan Empire Hinduism
1389 - 1424 AD Shi-Tsu (Kubli Khan) - Yuan-Ming Dynasties Buddhism
1424 - 1450 AD Malacca (Brunei)-Arab-Malayan Empire Islam
1450 - 1478 AD Sulu Sultanate-Arab-Malayan Islam
1478 - 1500 AD Pulangi Gomotanate (Cotabato)-Sri Vishayas Maharlikas Hinduism
1500 - 1565 AD Sugbu-Maynilad Baranganate-Indigenous Barangay System Hinduism
1565 - Present The Philippines
Spanish Colonial Regime 1565-1898
United States Of America-Democratic Government 1898-1935
American Commonwealth Government 1935-1942
Japanese Occupation-Kalibapi 1942-1946
Philippine Republic-Old Society 1946-1972
Republic of the Philippines-New Society 1972-1986
Republic of the Philippines-New Republic 1986-present

Christianity

* Luengo, Josemaria S., A History of the Philippines: A Focus on the Christianization of BOHOL (1521-1991), Copiague, NY: Mater Dei Publications, Tubigon, Bohol, Oct 1991, 2nd Ed, Nov 1992, IMPRIMATUR, NIHIL OBSTAT, CENSOR LIBRORUM

** Sabaeanism - Terminology used in the Bahá'í Faith for the post-Adamic, pre-Abraham/pre-Jewish religions based on One God, from the ancient Semitic people who inhabited SW Arabia in the kingdom of Saba circa 800 BC to 600 AD.

*** Zoroastrianism is one of the nine living religions which Bahá'ís regard as founded by a Manifestation of God. Certain Zoroastrian scriptures record that "a descendent of the Iranian kings" named Sháh-Bahrám will arise and bring peace to the world.

Factoid: While 11 million blacks from the entire continent of Africa were enslaved and sent mainly to the new world,
from 1565 to 1815, the Spanish Empire, with the blessings of Holy Mother Church, sent 4 million Filipinos to the four corners of the earth!
For more info: read the Manila-Acapulco Slave Trade by Rev. Josemaria Luengo.

Fr. Josemaria Salutan Luengo is the self-appointed and co-adopted chaplain of the Tabaco Family. It is to him and his established Mater Dei College, Formation Center and Mission House, and the Salus Institute of Technology in Tubigon, Bohol, Philippines 6329, that this page is dedicated. Fr. Luengo recommends that his books can be bought on-line at http://www.museeks.com/books/.

The purpose of this page is to inform the users of the TabacoFamily.com website of the heritage of their ancestors and to enlighten their knowledge that richly extends way before the Americans, Spaniards and Christianity.

obmar

http://www.vacationsinmalaysia.com/history.htm

Ancient Malaysia: 35,000 BC - 100 BC
Historians often speak of Malaysia's ancient past as something "shrouded in mystery," a kind of black hole in Asian history. The truth is that there is not much archeological evidence or written records from ancient Malaysia; but it is likely that this situation will change. Many suspect that there are more prehistoric archeological sites along the coasts and in the jungles and hills, but given Malaysia's riotous vegetation it will take time to find them. 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. In the Bujang Valley in Kedah is Malaysia's most extensive archeological site -- the sprawling ruins of an ancient Hindu kingdom dating back to 300 AD. Over 50 tomb temples dot the site, and hundreds of relics are on display in the nearby Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum

Go to Top!Hindu Kingdoms: 100 BC - 1400 AD
Early writings from India speak of a place called Savarnadvipa -- the Land of Gold. This mystical, fantastically wealthy kingdom was said to lie in a far away and unknown land, and legend holds that it was on an odyssey in search of Savarnadvipa that the first Indians were lured to the Malay Peninsula. Blown across the Bay of Bengal by the reliable winds of the southwest monsoon, they arrived in Kedah sometime around 100 BC. Whether or not the civilization they encountered there was the one from the ancient chronicles will probably never be known, but it is certain that the sailors considered the trip lucrative. From that point on, and ever-growing stream of Indian traders arrived in search of gold, aromatic wood, and spices. Goods were not the only items exchanged in the peninsula's ports: the Indians also brought a pervasive culture. Hinduism and Buddhism swept through the land, bringing temples and Indian cultural traditions. Local kings, who sent emissaries to the subcontinent, were impressed by the efficiency of the Hindu courts, and soon began to refer to themselves as "rajahs." They integrated what they considered the best Indian governmental traditions with the existing structure, and historians typically refer to these kingdoms as "Indianised kingdoms." Today, the most visible example of the early Indian influence is in the Malay wedding ceremony, which is very similar that of the subcontinent.

Go to Top!Islam and the Golden Age of Malacca: 1400 AD - 1511 AD
Until the 15th century, the Hindu kingdoms of peninsular Malaysia were largely overshadowed by neighboring kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia. The strongest of these kingdoms was called Srivijaya, and the records of Chinese, Indian, and Arab traders laud it as the best trading port in the region. It was the first great maritime kingdom in the Malay Archipelago, and other ports quickly emulated its success. At some time around the 13th century, as other entrepots emerged, Srivijaya's influence declined. The lack of a strong central power, coupled with the ever-present nuisance of pirates, amplified the need for secure, well-equipped port in the region. Fate would make this port the city of Malacca. According to the Malay Annals, Malacca was founded in 1400 by a fleeing Palembang prince named Parameswara. It's rise from a village of royal refugees to a wealthy kingdom was swift. Perfectly located for trade, within 50 years it was the most influential port in Southeast Asia. At any one time, ships from a dozen kingdoms great and small could be seen in the harbor. With these traders came Islam, and Malacca's rulers now referred to themselves as "sultans." The sultans were the heads of a highly organized municipal government, whose main purpose was to facilitate trade. Every incoming ship was met by a multilingual harbor captain, whose staff would see to all the vessel's needs. There were also guarded storehouses where goods from the interior and abroad could be stored until traders arrived. Most importantly, Malacca was able to control what had always been the bane of trade in the Straits area - pirates. By building alliances with outlying tribes and ports, Malacca established a kind of regional "navy" that policed the local waters and escorted friendly vessels. With the success and power it enjoyed, Malacca came to control the entire west coast of the Malay Peninsula, the kingdom of Pahang, and much of Sumatra. At the height of its power, however, fate would ruin the city as quickly as it built it up. In 1511, the Portuguese arrived, beginning a colonial legacy that would last well into the 20th century.

CGo to Top!olonial Malaysia: 1511 AD - 1957 AD
At the beginning of the 16th century, the eastern spice trade was routed through Egypt, and no non-Muslim vessel was permitted to dock in Arabian ports. The competing European powers, painfully aware of the need for an open trade route to India and the Far East, sought to establish their own trading ports at the source. In 1511, a Portuguese fleet led by Alfonso de Albuquerque sailed into Malacca's harbor, opened fire with cannon, and captured the city. Malacca's golden age had come to an end. The Portuguese constructed a massive fort in Malacca - a Famosa - which the Dutch captured in turn in 1641. This would give the Dutch an almost exclusive lock on the spice trade until 1785, when the British East India Company convinced the Sultan of Kedah to allow them to build a fort on the island of Penang. The British were mainly interested in having a safe port for ships on their way to China, but when France captured the Netherlands in 1795, England's role in the region would amplify. Rather than hand Malacca over to the French, the Dutch government in exile agreed to let England temporarily oversee the port. The British returned the city to the Dutch in 1808, but it was soon handed back to the British once again in a trade for Bencoleen, Sumatra. The Dutch still largely controlled the region, however, and in 1819 Britain sent Sir William Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore. These three British colonies - Penang, Malacca, and Singapore - came to be known as the Straits Settlements. While the European powers played their regional chess game, the local Malay sultanates continued on their own affairs. After Malacca was captured, the new Muslim trading center became Johor, then later on Perak. Both the Minangkabau Immigrants from Sumatra and the Bugi people from Celebes immigrated to the peninsula in large numbers, leaving lasting cultural contributions. In the late 1860's, a number of Malay kingdoms began fighting each other for control of the throne of Perak, causing enough of a disturbance in the region to inspire Britain to intervene and essentially force the Malay rulers to sign a peace treaty known as the Pangkor Agreement in 1874. The treaty, unsurprisingly, gave Britain a much greater role in the region - a role it would need in order to maintain its monopoly on the vast amount of tin being mined in the peninsula. Coupled with the power of the White Rajas in Borneo, Britain ruled over what was then called Malaya until the Japanese invaded and ousted them in 1942. During this time, large numbers of Chinese fled to the jungle and established an armed resistance which, after war's end, would become the basis for an infamous communist insurgency. In 1945, when WW II ended, Britain resumed control again, but Malaya's independence movement had matured and organized itself in an alliance under Tunku Abdul Rahman. When the British flag was finally lowered in Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka Square in 1957, Tunku became the first prime minister of Malaya.

obmar

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.co...and-Oceania/Malaysia-HISTORY.html

he ancestors of the Malays came down from South China and settled in the Malay Peninsula about 2000 BC. Sri Vijaya, a strong Indo-Malay empire with headquarters at Palembang in southern Sumatra, rose about AD 600 and came to dominate both sides of the Strait of Malacca, levying tribute and tolls on the ships faring between China and India. In the 14th century, however, Sri Vijaya fell, and Malaysia became part of the Majapahit Empire centered in Java. About 1400, a fugitive ruler from Temasik (now Singapore) founded a principality at Malacca (now Melaka) and embraced Islam. It was at Malacca that the West obtained its first foothold on the peninsula. At the height of glory and power, the Malacca principality fell to Portugal in 1511. In their turn, the Portuguese were driven out by the Dutch in 1641. The British East India Company laid the groundwork for British control of Malaya in 1786 by leasing from the sultan of Kedah the island of Pinang, off the west coast of Malaya, about 800 km (500 mi) north of Singapore. Fourteen years later, it obtained from him a small area on the mainland opposite Pinang. In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles obtained permission to establish a settlement at Singapore; in 1824, by agreement and financial settlement, the island was ceded to the British East India Company. In the following year, the Dutch settlement at Malacca was ceded to Great Britain. Pinang, Singapore, and Malacca were combined under British rule in 1829 to form the Straits Settlements. The states of Perak and Selangor in 1874 secured treaties of protection from the British. Similar treaties were subsequently made with the sultans of Negri Sembilan (1874–89) and Pahang (1888). In 1895, these four states became a federation (the Federated Malay States), with a British resident-general and a system of centralized government. In 1909, under the Bangkok Treaty, Siam (now Thailand) ceded to British control the four northern states of Kelantan, Trengganu, Perlis, and Kedah. These four, together with Johor, which in 1914 was made a British protectorate, became known as the Unfederated Malay States. Separate British control was extended to Sabah, then known as North Borneo, in 1882. Six years later, North Borneo and Sarawak each became separate British protectorates. Tin mining and rubber grew rapidly under British rule, and large numbers of Chinese and Indian laborers were imported, respectively, for these industries.

obmar

http://www.irja.org/anthro/malmel1.htm

obmar

http://moneymuseum.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=16&ac=12

History of Money in Malaysia : Early Money

* Early Money in the Country
* Early Money in Borneo
* Early Money in the Malay States
* View The Collection for these items
* Take a Virtual Tour of this Gallery

Early Money in the Malay States

During the Han Dynasty (206 BC-221AD), the merchants of China and India discovered that the best alternative to the overland caravan trade route between East and West Asia was by way of the Isthmus of Kra, the narrow neck of land that separates the South China Sea from the Indian Ocean. The Chinese traders would land their goods in the region of Patani on the east Coast of the Isthmus of Kra, while the Indian merchants and later, the Arab from the Middle East, established their trading centres in the region of present day Kedah in the West Coast.

During this period, the local people used cowrie shells imported from the Maldive Islands or Borneo as currency for minor market purchases. For a long time, these shells were valued as amulets to ensure safe childbirth and as fertility charms. They could be strung together to facilitate easy transportation, or to form higher denominations when necessary.

From the eighth century onwards, merchants from China introduced copper cash in bulk into the Malay States and there formed the chief, and at times the sole, currency of the majority of the States of the Eastern Archipelago.

The first native coinage of the Malay States developed from this copper cash. Owing to the monsoons and the shortage of ships to carry out trading, the shortage of the copper cash led local chiefs and merchants to cast imitations of the cash for their own needs. In the east coast states, this copper cash in due course developed into a truly native coinage.

obmar

http://www.geocities.com/webunicorns/history.htm

Humans lived in the area of present-day Malaysia as long as 40,000 years ago. The ancient history of the area is obscure because there are few local documents and almost no archaeological remains, especially any with inscriptions. According to Chinese sources, however, early contacts were made with China. Traders also spread Hindu influences from India, which affected people's customs and the rituals of local rulers. Peninsular Malaysia was not unified politically but was split into small kingdoms and subdivided into chiefdoms defined by river valleys. Political rule of Borneo was even more fragmented. Some of the mainland kingdoms may have been subject to a degree of control by larger empires centered in Cambodia or Java, such as Majapahit.
ANCIENT MALAYSIA: 35,000BC - 100BC

The spectacular Niah Caves in Sarawak are the site of the oldest known human remains in Malaysia.
Ancient Malaysia: 35,000 BC - 100 BC

Historians often speak of Malaysia's ancient past as something "shrouded in mystery," a kind of black hole in Asian history. The truth is that there is not much archeological evidence or written records from ancient Malaysia; but it is likely that this situation will change. Many suspect that there are more prehistoric archeological sites along the coasts and in the jungles and hills, but given Malaysia's riotous vegetation it will take time to find them.

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.

Stone Age tools such as this hand axe have been found on the peninsula. Archeologists believe they were left by the predecessors of the Negrito aborigines.

Back to Top

obmar

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/malaysia/pro-history.htm

Ancient Malaysia - Negrito aborigines are considered to be one of the first groups of people to inhabit the Malaysian peninsula. When the Proto-Malays, made up of seafarers and farmers, came to the peninsula they sent the Negritos into the jungles and hills. The Proto-Malays came from China and were technologically advanced, especially in comparison to the Negritos. After the Proto-Malays came the Deutero-Malays, which were made up of many different people - Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Proto-Malays, and Siamese. The Deutero-Malays were proficient in their use of iron and when they united with Indonesians, they combined to make up the people known today as the Malay.

Hindu Kingdom - 100 BC - 1400 AD - During this period, Malaysia's culture changed dramatically with the arrival of Indians. Indians initially went to the Malaysian peninsula in search of a mystical place known as the "Land of Gold." Although the places in Malaysia may not have been what they were looking for, they didn't leave, but continued to arrive in search of gold, spices and aromatic wood. In addition to trade (with goods), the Indians introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to the peninsula, thus bringing temples and other cultural traditions from India. As a result, local kings in Malaysia combined what they considered to be the best aspects of India's government with their own structure, thus resulting in "Indianised kingdoms." Today, the Indian influences can best be seen in a traditional Malay wedding ceremony, which is similar to those in India.

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ubudiah_mosque.jpg (18132 bytes)Islam and the Golden Age of Malacca - 1400 AD - 1511 AD - Chinese, Indian and Arab records show that Srivijaya to be the best trading area in the region. After seeing its great success, other areas quickly copied it thus causing a decline in Srivijava's influence. Since the Hindu kingdoms of Malaysia weren't very strong and didn't have a central power, this caused a big problem for the region. Pirates were another problem that needed to be taken care of in order for there to be a safe, secure port. This problem was taken care of with the emergence of Malacca, which was in an ideal location, thus attributing to its great success. It was founded in 1400 and within 50 years it was a major port, actually the most influential in Southeast Asia and with alliances being built with other tribes and ports, Malacca was able to "police" the waters and provide an escort for vessels that needed it. With this success, Malacca quickly became the power in control of all of Malaysia's west coast.

Colonial Malaysia - 1511 AD - 1957 AD - Malacca's power and success was quickly extinguished with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1511. Since the Arabians weren't allowing vessels piloted by non-Muslims into their harbors, the Europeans realized they needed a trading port of their own. Thus bringing about capture of Malacca and it's harbor. After conquering Malacca, the Portuguese built an immense fort which in turn was captured by the Dutch in 1641. In 1785, the British, who needed a port for their ships to dock while in route to China, persuaded the Sultan of Kedah to let them build a fort on Penang. After the French conquered the Netherlands in 1795, the Dutch allowed England to oversee the port of Malacca rather than turn it over the the French. This was the first in a series of "swaps" to and from each country regarding this area. Eventually, although it was finally given to Britain in a trade, the Dutch were the main controllers of the region. With the establishment of a port in Singapore, the British colonies (Malacca, Penang, and Singapore) came to be known as the Straits Settlements.

England's monopoly on tin mining was tremendously helped with the Pangkor Agreement in 1874. This Agreement was the result of internal fighting among the Malay kingdoms over control of the Perak throne. The commotion that ensued prompted Britain to basically force the Malay rulers into signing the peace treaty. A result of this treaty was that England had greater control, which greatly helped them in maintaining their monopoly in tin mining. Britain's control continued until the Japanese invasion in 1942, although they tried to regain control after the end of World War II in 1945. This attempt was foiled by Malaya's independence movement under the guidance of Tunku Abdul Rahman. The British flag was lowered for good in 1957 in Merdeka Square (Kuala Lumpur).

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Independence to the Present: 1957- Now - Malaya's independence brought about new decisions that needed to be made, the first decision being to ascertain which territories to include in the new state. "Malaysia" was a term brought up in 1961, when Tunku persuaded Singapore, Sabak and Sarawak to combine with Malaya in a federal union. This didn't go over well with Indonesian president, Sukharno, who feared the impact of such a union on his plans to expand. He initiated several unsuccessful attacks against Malaysia.

Since Malaysia is comprised of such a diverse mix of people, another problem the country faced with independence was determining their (Malaysia's) national identity. Although the majority of the population was Malay and as such they were given permanent positions in government and other perks, the Chinese were dominate in business and trade. Since most Malaysian's were not doing well economically, the government imposed some quotas that were designed to help the Malays improve their chances economically. The Chinese didn't like this and formed a political party that won a good number of seats in the next election (1969). The Malays protested this political win by erupting into riots throughout Kuala Lumpur, which for the next couple of years put Malaysia in a state of emergency.

Malaysia has made tremendous strides in their growth and wealth. Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammed, who has led Malaysia since 1981, is felt to be responsible for Malaysia's success.

obmar

http://countrystudies.us/thailand/3.htm

On the narrow isthmus to the southwest of Funan, Malay citystates controlled the portage routes that were traversed by traders and travelers journeying between India and Indochina. By the tenth century A.D. the strongest of them, Tambralinga (present-day Nakhon Si Thammarat), had gained control of all routes across the isthmus. Along with other city-states on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, it had become part of the Srivijaya Empire, a maritime confederation that between the seventh and thirteenth centuries dominated trade on the South China Sea and exacted tolls from all traffic through the Strait of Malacca. Tambralinga adopted Buddhism, but farther south many of the Malay city-states converted to Islam, and by the fifteenth century an enduring religious boundary had been established on the isthmus between Buddhist mainland Southeast Asia and Muslim Malaya.

obmar

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/145165/history/

Malaysia - History

Peninsular Malaysia: In prehistoric times, the region was inhabited by aboriginal people. In the second century BC settlers arrived from south China. Around the beginning of the first century AD, Indian traders began settling in Kedah and along the west coast of the peninsula. Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced during this early period; the Indian kingdom of Kunan was founded in the first century AD and Buddhist states developed to the east. The Javanese controlled the peninsula around 1330-50. The port of Malacca was founded in the 15th century; its rulers converted to Islam and traded with Muslim merchants, and Islam replaced Buddhism across present-day Malaysia.

The Sultanate of Malacca was seized by the Portuguese in 1511 but, a century later, they were driven out by the Dutch in alliance with the Sultan of Johor. The peninsula then became a Malay kingdom ruled by Johor. In 1786 the Sultan of Kedah granted the island of Penang to the British East India Company for use as a trading post; less than a decade later, the British took Malacca from the Dutch. In 1819 the British also acquired Singapore. Penang, Malacca and Singapore were ruled directly by Britain as the Straits Settlements.

By a series of treaties between 1873 and 1930, the British colonial administrators took control of the foreign affairs of the nine Malay sultanates on the peninsula. In 1896 the Federated Malay Sates (Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang) came into existence, with Kuala Lumpur as the capital. The sultanates of northern Borneo - Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak - also became British protectorates.

Immigrants from southern China and southern India came to work in tin mines and on the plantations, facilitating the peninsula's transition from a trading outpost to a commodity producer. The British introduced rubber farming towards the end of the 19th century.

Reaction to colonial rule began in the early 20th century. In 1915, Indian sepoys rebelled and came close to taking control of Singapore. In 1931, the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was established. It had links with developing communism in China and drew most of its support from the Chinese community. By 1937-38, anti-colonial nationalism began among the Malay community, with the formation of the Union of Young Malays.

The Japanese occupied the country from 1941-45. Resistance, mainly from the Chinese, was led by MCP guerrillas. British rule was reintroduced after the war, but met active resistance from the MCP. Malay nationalists also campaigned for independence. The United Malays' National Organisation (UMNO, the principal Malay party) was formed in 1946.

The Federation of Malaya, comprising 11 peninsular states, was established in 1948. A communist-led insurrection in that year was suppressed by the UK (although guerrilla warfare continued in the north of the peninsula and Borneo and the last insurgents only surrendered in 1989).

A delayed general election took place in 1955. This was won by the Alliance Party, formed out of UMNO, the Malayan Chinese Association and the Malayan Indian Congress.

Sabah: Formerly North Borneo, Sabah may have been inhabited since 7000 BC. From the seventh century, the region traded in pottery with China. In the early 15th century the state was ruled mainly by the Sultan of Brunei. In 1847, Britain persuaded the Sultan of Brunei to cede Labuan Island. In 1882 the British North Borneo Chartered Company was established and began administering territory ceded by the Sultan of Brunei and the Sultan of Sulu. In 1888 the territory was made a British Protectorate, still administered by the Company, which also administered Labuan until 1905, when it was joined to the Straits Settlements. From 1942 until 1945 the territory was occupied by the Japanese army. In July 1946 it became the Crown colony of North Borneo.

Sarawak: Archaeological evidence suggests that Sarawak was inhabited from about 5000 BC. From the 15th century, it was ruled by the Sultan of Brunei who, in 1839, ennobled James Brooke, a British adventurer, as Rajah of Sarawak, a reward for his help in calming a rebellion in Brunei. Brooke waged a vigorous campaign against piracy. Sarawak was gradually enlarged with additional grants of land from the Sultan, and the river Lawas area bought from the North Borneo Chartered Company in 1905. Sarawak prospered under Rajah Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (reigned 1917-46), who attempted to set up an elected government in 1941, but the territory was occupied by the Japanese army in the following year. During the Japanese occupation, sickness and malnutrition spread throughout Sarawak. The Rajah, resuming control in 1946, decided that in the interests of Sarawak, he should make a gift of it to the UK Crown. Sarawak became a UK colony in July 1946.

The Federation of Malaysia: Early in 1956, the governments of the Federation of Malaya and the UK and the Heads of the Malay States agreed that the Federation should achieve independence by the end of August 1957 if possible. On 31 August 1957 the Federation of Malaya became an independent nation and joined the Commonwealth. Penang and Malacca became states of the Federation. Tengku (prince) Abdul Rahman, leader of the independence movement, became prime minister.

The Malaysia Agreement, under which North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore (but not Brunei) would become states in the new Federation of Malaysia, was signed in 1963 by the UK, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. The Federation of Malaysia came into being on 16 September 1963. In 1965, by mutual agreement, Singapore left the Federation and became an independent state.

In the 1969 elections, the Alliance Party lost many seats to the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party. Amid violent ethnic clashes, the government suspended parliament and the national operations council ruled by decree for two years. On the resignation of Tengku Abdul Rahman in 1970, Tun Abdul Razak became prime minister.

Although Malays formed over half the population, in 1970 they accounted for about 1% of national income. A 'new economic policy' introduced positive discrimination - in education, civil service, armed services and business - designed to increase the share of the Malay and other bumiputera (sons of the soil) groups to 30% of national income within twenty years. After the parliamentary system was restored, the National Front (Barisan Nasional) - a multiethnic alliance led by UMNO - won over two-thirds of seats at all elections of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (and this continued into the 2000s). In 1981 Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister.

Malays have dominated the political system since independence, and support in the Malay-dominated rural areas is crucial for political success at the national level. However, to command a parliamentary majority and in the interests of national stability, UMNO has formed coalitions with parties representing other racial groups. Intercommunal relations, particularly between the Malays and the Chinese, have preoccupied governments since independence.

obmar

http://nabataea.net/festrade.html

Trade in the Far East

In 1027 BC the Chou came to power in northern China. Their dynasty lasted more than 800 years until 221 BC. During this time, Chinese rule was extended and there was increased trade with other nations. The Chou Dynasty was replaced by the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), which is sometimes referred to as the greatest of all Chinese Dynasties. By 200 BC the Chinese culture had produced excellent craftsmen whose products were prized because of their beauty and speciality. Chief among these were products made of silk. During this period only China produced silk, which was exported to places as far away as Rome. Other Chinese exports included spices such as cassia and ginger, iron and jade.

From the earliest times, China conducted trade with Korea, both on land and by sea. From 140 BC regular trade fairs were held on the northern Chinese frontier, where furs and other valuable merchandise from Korea could be bought. Korean ships traveled along the coast, around the northern coast of the Yellow Sea to ports along the Shantung Peninsula, while others crossed the open sea to Nagasaki (Japan).

Farther south, China conducted trade using Chinese ships known as junks. These carried cargoes along the coast from Canton to to Haiphong (today northern Vietnam). Junks left Haiphong and Foochow to travel via the Philippines to the Moluccas (Spice Islands) and to east Java. The journey took several months, and trade was mostly in cloves, nutmeg and mace.

From as early as 200 BC Chinese junks sailed to the Malay Peninsula and through the Strait of Malacca. There they met and traded with the Indonesian people and with merchants from east India.

It is interesting to note that the Han Dynasty conducted distant trade at the same time that the Nabataeans conducted sea trade. Both of these civilizations rose to power about the same time, and both of them waned at the same time.Interestingly enough, Son culture in North Vietnam (150 BC - 50 AD) corresponds to roughly the same time, which rose to prominence because of international trade of goods and ideas.

obmar

Malacca Port
250 BC - 250 AD

During the period between 250 BC and 250 AD, a maritime sea route existed between Alexandra in Northern Africa and China. As trade took place along this route, a number of kingdoms rose to power, flush with finances from trade. These kingdoms all came into being around the same time, and all waned around the same time. The map below illustrates the route. Arab and Indian Dhows sailed down the Red Sea to Palk Bay in Sri Lanka. Indian Dhows traveled from India as far as Malacca where they met Chinese junks. Some Chinese Junks traveled as far as Sri Lanka where they met Arabs. Individual sections of this ancient maritime trade route are dealt with in detail through the menus below. To visit the various kingdoms, click on their location on the map.

obmar

http://www.usj.com.my/bulletin/up...d.php?t=5080&page=2&pp=40

obmar

http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/lostworlds/timeline/lwstory17.htm

From 40,000BC to 20,000BC

20,000BC: Some scientists believe that ancient people from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge about this time and began their southward migration into the Americas.

20,000 years ago: New Guinea: An Australia Museum researcher is Dr. Robin Torrence, who works on the 20,000 year-old obsidian trade of New Britain in Papua New Guinea; perhaps the world's oldest-known maritime trade. (Reported by 2 February 2002)

20,000BC: Date for earliest known cooking oven, found in the Ukraine. (Ash-pit style cooking). (By 2500BC: Sumerians were first to develop cooking ranges on which pots and pans could be placed for a variety of cooking purposes from 2500BC.) (James/Thorpe).

0,000BC: Earliest date for garments sewn from animal skins using eyed needles, the needles made from bone. Between 7000BC-6000BC, at Catal Huyuk, men wear animals skins, evidently pink leopard skin, plus hats of the same material.

20,000BC: Date for a bracelet of Mezin, South Russia, carved from a single piece of mammoth ivory. (James/Thorpe).

20,000BC: Earliest mining, flint mines of Australia, at Koonalda.

By 4000BC, when surface-available flint was used up, sub-surface flint-mining began, in Western Europe. But copper mining began at Rudna Glav, in Serbia, by 4500BC. Miners used antler picks. (James/Thorpe). Balkans area became a major source of copper.

About 20,000BC: Paleolithic Man uses the needle for sewing.

20,000BC: Earlier than 20,000BC, Man in Siberia, then to America. In Tasmania, Australia, are the Tasmanian Negritos.

By 20,000BC: Australia is certainly settled, with Tasmania and New Guinea joined by land bridges. Occupation coinciding with later part of past glaciation, lower sea level, cooler climate and less evaporation, less arid country.

20,000BC: Old Melanesia as a continent embraces Australia plus Tasmania and New Guinea, (Salhulland), and Indonesia as a non-archipelago, Sundaland. Most sites re human life about this time in Australia are in southern NSW and in the south west generally.

21,000-18,000BC: Last Glacial Maximum on Earth.

22,000BC: Appearance of "Venus figurines" across Europe, from the Central Russian plain to the Pyrenees - rather like a clay statue from Dolni Vestonice.

23,000 years ago: Evidence arises of human occupation at Cave Bay Cave on present-day Hunter Island off the north-west coast of Tasmania, at a time when Tasmania has just been joined as part of a continuous land bridge connecting it to Wilson's Promontory of today's Victorian coastline.

23,000BC-16,000BC: Northern and Central Europe are frigid and uninhabitable. A glacial maximum forces people into two directions, one to southern France, one to the Central Russian Plain. Life was impossible between the Scandinavian glacier and the Alpine glacier. The ice reached its maximum about 16,000BC. Southwestern France carried mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, horse, bison, aurochs, deer and antelope, as did the river valleys of the Russian Plain. It seems significant that cave art appeared in this part of France, but not in Russia, since there were no caves. The people of Russia do seem to have had different designs for huts made of mammoth tusks, however. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

24,000-30,000 years ago: Archaeology at the Lake Mungo site, Australia, finds evidence of use of stone tools, hearths containing animal bones and shell middens of freshwater mussels. Especially, the skeleton-fragments of a young woman who had been cremated, her bones than smashed and buried in a shallow pit. Evidence for human occupation also arises for about 37,000 years ago in the Willandra and Lower Darling River areas. The same for river terrace areas near today's Perth, Western Australia.

25,000BC, First religious relics and altars in Spain.

25,640BC: In 1986, in Czechoslovakian province of Moravia, near a village named Dolni Vestonice, are found three ancient human teenagers in a common grave. Two seem to be male, and one female. Archaeologists due to the demeanour of the bodies dream up various scenarios about the manner of death. The artefacts anyway belong to a period known as the Gravettian/Upper Paleolithic period, which has its own "industrial style". The areas nearby provide many carved and moulded images of animals and men, strange engravings, personal ornaments and decorated graves, things impossible only a few thousand years before. What has happened in the interim? Representational art seems to arise from nowhere. At a German site, Vogelherd, arises an ivory horse carved about 30,00BC. It seems to be "the first representational horse". Oddly, the Middle East is where such forms of art appears. A grave site near Moscow, named Sunghir, about the same age as Dolni Vsetonice, reveals the bodies of three people with dozens of bracelets, necklaces, painted pendants, and ten thousand ivory beads; each of which took about an hour to make. Similar bead work although of a different style, has been found in France dated about 31,000BC. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

26,000 years ago: Evidence of human occupation arises at Tabon Cave on Palawan in the Philippines.

27,000BP: First appearances of weaving/fabrics.

27,000BC, earliest evidence of shamanistic art, may be first appearance of “spiritual” views?

27,000BC, Gravettian people roam between Southern Russia, and Spain. 22,000 from 29,000, on semi-frozen landscape. Maybe the first weaving about now.

Circa 28,000BC-26,000BC: Possible dwindling of populations of Neandertals to nothing. Leaving just one species of humanity to the rest of the world – ourselves, homo sapiens. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

28,000 years ago: Evidence of human occupation arises at a cave site called Kilu north of the now-island of Bougainville, as part of the North Solomons Islands chain. If so, people had travelled across water about 180km to arrive there, from New Ireland. By about now, or earlier, it is thought that the ancestors of modern Australian Aboriginals were also the ancestors of Papua-New Guineans, of the Melanesian people of West Irian Jaya and of the Solomon Islanders.

28,000BC: First human migration into America may have begun by now, due to examination of sites in New Mexico, Chile and Brazil. Some populations (re work with mitochondrial DNA) may even be traced as far as 42,000 or 21,000 years ago. If so, the next wave of migration into the Americas came with Clovis people dating around 9500BC. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

29,000BC: The Chatelperronian surprise: It had been thought that in northern Burgundy, in limestone caves about 100 miles northeast of Paris, by a river named Cure, near the hamlet of Arcy, lived modern humans. The caves are named after discovery in them of the remains of animals now extinct in the area, reindeer, Hyena, Bison, Lion and Bear. The Cave of the Reindeer seemed to be full of artefacts of the Chatelperronian "industrial style", an odd mixture of the flake-based Mousterian tradition and some of the blade-based Aurignacian. These seemed to be the work of early Cro-Magnon Man. But in 1979, in another French cave called Saint-Cesaire, a Neandertal skeleton turned up surrounded by Chatelperronian artefacts. So the Chatelperronian style may not have marked the beginning of a new era, but the end of an old one - the Neandertals. Which would mean that the Neandertals lasted around 10,000 years after the arrival of the first "Aurignacians", who originated in eastern Europe. Chatelperronian and Aurignacian artefacts coincide in French and Spanish caves from from 33,000BC. It appears, the Neandertals and moderns co-existed in France-Spain, as they did in the Levant region. Did the Neandertals last till about 26,000BC? (Shreeve, Neandertal)

30,000, to 20,000BC, more ancestors of Europeans appear in Europe, before the peak of the last major glaciation,

30,000BC, Vela supernova probably visible, would have outshone the moon, from about 1300 light years aqway, did it affect people? As 30,000BC, oldest star map depicts Orion the Hunter, in Ach Valley, Germany. Oldest coal mine at Landek, Czeckoslavakia. Oldest known necklace at Mandu Mandu, Australia.

30,000 years ago: How evolution spurted: Examiners of fossils can now report that about 30,000 years ago, people started living longer. (No explanation why). This fuelled a population explosion. Women could continue reproducing even as their elder daughters reached child-bearing age. As more experienced women lived longer, their contributions to their extended family grew more and more valuable. [The Grandma syndrome] (Reported in world press, 10 July 2004 and derived from recent reports on Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences [US])

30,000BP: Use of so-called fertility figurines.

31,000 years ago: Evidence of human occupation arises at Leang Burung 2 cave on Sulawesi (Celebes) re use of stone tools.

32,000 years ago: Evidence arises of human occupation in south-western Australia at a cave known as Devil's Lair. Stone and bone artefacts, superimposed hearths, smashed or charred bones of hunted kangaroos and wallabies.

Australia is settled, for certain, by 40,000BC-25,000BC. The evidence is, Australia has never had but Homo Sapiens populating it. Australians tended to use wooden, not stone tools.

33,000BC-28,000BC: Signs appear in Europe a new, "explosively" energetic human culture, termed The Upper Paleolithic. Tools are more varied and sophisticated, made of stone, antler or bone. Cave paintings indicate an awareness of symbolism, as do carved figurines of animals. Beads are worn as ornament. The first signs are evident also of modern-looking anatomy; a high vertical forehead, lack of pronounced browbridges, a well-defined chin, a domed braincase, and a more lightly-built frame, certainly more lightly-built than Neandertal anatomy. Such human specimens might be termed, Cro-Magnon Man. Just why this apparent evolutionary spurt occurred about now is still not well understood. (See Shreeve, Neandertal)

36,000BC: In 1972, archaeologists Peter Beaumont and John Vogel announce new findings from radiocarbon dating of artefacts from five South African sites, and turn ideas on their head. They suggest that rather than the Middle Stone Age in Africa beginning around 36,00BC, this is when it ends! Two sites in South Africa so-considered are Border Cave and Klasies River Mouth. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

37,000-40,000 years ago: Date for earliest levels for human occupation in the whole of mainland southeast Asia as at an excavated limestone cave of Lang Rongrien in peninsular Thailand. Stone tools in use were of the Hoabinian type (small retouched flakes and scrapers). Evidence arises also for human occupation of Australia and New Guinea for the very same period.

40,000BC, Ancient footprints found in Mexico,

40,000, 30,000BC, another explosion of sophisticated art activity if an earlier date fails to satisfy. Boats appear about north Australia, humans sail from Eurasia to Australia/New Guinea then a single landmass, otherwise, as seems hard to believe, boats don't appear till 11,000BC in the Mediterranean.

40,000 years ago: In the Sundaland area of the Malay Archipelago there have been found artefacts and evidence of human occupation at Niah Cave of Borneo.

41,000BC: The Aurignacian Industrial period in the Balkans (Upper Paleolithic), where people make "beaked" burins, carved-bone points for projectiles with shafts, large and "unbeautiful" blades. By 38,000BC, this industrial style has reached Spain. In a few thousand years, it has covered Europe, with regional adaptations evident. It's as though "culture" has become an epidemic. Is it related also to greater sophistication of language? Also about 41,000BC, is the earliest-known Aurignacian area, once excavated by Polish archaeologist Janusz Kozlowski. It became famous for its Upper Paleolithic Culture (including fine flint tools), which had supplanted the earlier Mousterian culture in the same area. There has also been trade in different kinds of stone - evidence of some kind of far-flung or distance-crossing cultural contacts between different groups. A big theme is noticeable by now - personal identity. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

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Now return to the Lost Worlds Index
For more, see a timeline website at: http://mirrorh.com/timeline.html/

Stop Press: For late entries

Many notes above are from: Robert Ardrey, The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man. Fontana/Collins, 1976.

Compiler's note: Few of the titles cited here can begin to explain the settlement of Australia's Aboriginal people, which began 40,000-60,000 years ago, if not earlier. Here, Australian history in the present context remains a conundrum for world science.

obmar · History of Perak

he state of Perak has been in existence since the pre historic days. Kota Tampan in Lenggong is the one and only proof that the Palaeolithic Age existed in Malaya. Perak had gone through several evolutions between 400 000 BC and 8000 BC. Hoabinhian Era and the Neolithic Age as well as the Metal Age were experienced by Perak. This was proved with the findings of relevant historical facts. Just like the rest of Malaysia, Perak also experienced the Hindu/Buddhist era soon after.

The history of the state of Perak advanced a step further soon after this period. Territories such as Manjung in the Dinding District came into existence. Beruas was formed soon after Manjung ceased to exist. This process was applicable to a few other territories in the in the Perak Tengah and Hulu Perak. Islam also began to make its presence felt firmly in the state during this time.

The history of Perak can actually be traced when Sultan Muzaffar Shah I, who was a descendent of Sultan Mahmud Shah of Malacca in 1538. However, the Perak Sultanate formed territorial powers were still intact during this time. The administrative method was an extension of the democratic feudal system of Malacca.

The discovery of Tin in Larut, Taiping led to the prominence of Perak. The economy of Perak also boomed with this discovery. More mining areas came in to existence soon after and in addition to tin ore; natural rubber also played an important role and is still being since the rule of the Sultans. This development was significant and resulted in the birth of a multiracial society and the Chinese being interested in tin mining.

The British were interested in Perak for long and invaded Perak through Pangkor Treaty in 1874 after a riot in Larut. The residential system was soon introduced as a result with James W.W Birch as its first Resident. The residential system was supposed to yield positive results. But the residential system deviated from its original cause which led to an uprising under the leadership of Datuk Maharaja Lela. This led to the assassination of James W.W. Birch in 1875. The residential system continued until the arrival of the Japanese in 1941. Perak like most states suffered under Japanese occupation till 1945. Even after the Japanese surrendered, the British still colonized Malaya until the year 1948. Violence was rampant then in Perak, due to Communist terrorism.

Malay states were not stable after Japanese occupation. The British tried their best to maintain their position by introducing new administrative reforms such as the Malayan Union in 1946 despite the people's nationalistic spirit to seek independence. The people of Malay left no stone unturned in their fight for independence against the British. The British finally granted independence in 1957.

Independence of Malaya meant freedom for all its Federal states including Perak. And ever since then, there has been no looking back for Perak. The state has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Rapid development has taken place ever since and the state has grown to become one of the leading tourism destinations in Malaysia. For more information on Perak, Malaysia visit Travour

obmar

http://forum.cari.com.my/viewthre...?tid=285965&extra=&page=1

timeline malaysia

Using this to collect my net finds

The Banjar People

History of Perak