Chinese
The Chinese first arrived in Malaysia in the 15th century, when the Ming Princess Hang Li Po and her entourage arrived in Malacca, to establish a thriving community which gave rise to the Babas and Nyonyas of today. But it was not until the 19th century that the Chinese had the biggest impact on the social and religious landscape of this nation, as migrants from southern China came in droves to seek their fortune in the tin mines of Perak and Selangor. Initially, the Chinese immigrants made their livelihood as labourers, but soon many ventured into trade and industry, thriving in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, showing an almost natural head for business. But the settlement of the Chinese migrants wasn't all smooth sailing. In 1948 a Communist insurrection, known as the Emergency period, began. The Communist guerrillas largely recruited from among the Chinese population, employing terrorist tactics, which prompted the resettlement of nearly half a million Chinese by the British. The insurgency eventually failed, and the Emergency was declared over in 1960. Ironically, the Emergency spurred the movement for Independence which, through the efforts of leaders from all the major ethnic communities in Malaysia, was realised in 1957. The first government was a loose coalition of Malay, Chinese and Indian parties called the Alliance party. This successful multiethnic political collaboration continues till today. Today, the Chinese form about 35% of the total population. Many still retain ties with their ancestral homeland, but ask any one of them, and they will tell you that they are Malaysians first. Festivals and special occasions that the community celebrates include the Lantern Festival, Cheng Beng and of course, Chinese New Year, the time when the streets come alive with spectacular sights like the lion dance.
The Chinese first arrived in Malaysia in the 15th century, when the Ming Princess Hang Li Po and her entourage arrived in Malacca, to establish a thriving community which gave rise to the Babas and Nyonyas of today. But it was not until the 19th century that the Chinese had the biggest impact on the social and religious landscape of this nation, as migrants from southern China came in droves to seek their fortune in the tin mines of Perak and Selangor. Initially, the Chinese immigrants made their livelihood as labourers, but soon many ventured into trade and industry, thriving in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, showing an almost natural head for business. But the settlement of the Chinese migrants wasn't all smooth sailing. In 1948 a Communist insurrection, known as the Emergency period, began. The Communist guerrillas largely recruited from among the Chinese population, employing terrorist tactics, which prompted the resettlement of nearly half a million Chinese by the British. The insurgency eventually failed, and the Emergency was declared over in 1960. Ironically, the Emergency spurred the movement for Independence which, through the efforts of leaders from all the major ethnic communities in Malaysia, was realised in 1957. The first government was a loose coalition of Malay, Chinese and Indian parties called the Alliance party. This successful multiethnic political collaboration continues till today. Today, the Chinese form about 35% of the total population. Many still retain ties with their ancestral homeland, but ask any one of them, and they will tell you that they are Malaysians first. Festivals and special occasions that the community celebrates include the Lantern Festival, Cheng Beng and of course, Chinese New Year, the time when the streets come alive with spectacular sights like the lion dance.
Indian
The Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups, accounting for about 10% of the country population. Tamils, Malayalees and Telegu-speaking people make up over 85% of the people of Indian origin in the country.
The Punjabis (mostly Sikhs) are also substantial in number and the people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan origin are included in the ndian? category for statistical purposes.
Indians first came to Malaya for barter trade, especially in the former Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang.
However, when India came under British rule, Indian labourers were sent to Malaya to work on sugar cane and coffee plantations and later in the rubber and oil palm estates. Some of them also came to work on the construction of buildings, roads and bridges.
These labourers were mostly Hindu Tamils from Southern India and they were supervised by kanganis (overseers) and mandurs (foreman) who were from the upper caste Tamils.
Sri Lankan Tamils came to Malaya as white-collar workers, holding jobs like clerks and hospital assistants. As for the Punjabis from Punjab (North India), most of them joined the army in Malaya while some handled the bullock-cart services in the country.
One of the main reasons the Indians willingly left their homeland for Malaya was because of the caste system being practiced in their country. Under the system, those who are born into the lower castes can never improve their standing in society.
The Indians who came to Malaysia brought with them the Hindu culture ? its unique temples, delicious cuisine and colourful garments. Hindu tradition remains strong until today in the Indian community of Malaysia.
There also the Chitty community in Malacca ? similar to the Babas and Nyonyas, it is the result of the assimilation between the Indian immigrants and local culture. Though they remain Hindu, the Chitties speak Bahasa Malaysia and their women dress in sarong kebayas instead of sarees.
However other Indian Hindus retain their vernacular languages and dialects. The community celebrates two main festivals ? Deepavali and Thaipusam ? and many other smaller religious events each year. Indians in Malaysia mainly speak Tamil, Malayalam, Telegu and some Hindi.
The Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups, accounting for about 10% of the country population. Tamils, Malayalees and Telegu-speaking people make up over 85% of the people of Indian origin in the country.
The Punjabis (mostly Sikhs) are also substantial in number and the people of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan origin are included in the ndian? category for statistical purposes.
Indians first came to Malaya for barter trade, especially in the former Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang.
However, when India came under British rule, Indian labourers were sent to Malaya to work on sugar cane and coffee plantations and later in the rubber and oil palm estates. Some of them also came to work on the construction of buildings, roads and bridges.
These labourers were mostly Hindu Tamils from Southern India and they were supervised by kanganis (overseers) and mandurs (foreman) who were from the upper caste Tamils.
Sri Lankan Tamils came to Malaya as white-collar workers, holding jobs like clerks and hospital assistants. As for the Punjabis from Punjab (North India), most of them joined the army in Malaya while some handled the bullock-cart services in the country.
One of the main reasons the Indians willingly left their homeland for Malaya was because of the caste system being practiced in their country. Under the system, those who are born into the lower castes can never improve their standing in society.
The Indians who came to Malaysia brought with them the Hindu culture ? its unique temples, delicious cuisine and colourful garments. Hindu tradition remains strong until today in the Indian community of Malaysia.
There also the Chitty community in Malacca ? similar to the Babas and Nyonyas, it is the result of the assimilation between the Indian immigrants and local culture. Though they remain Hindu, the Chitties speak Bahasa Malaysia and their women dress in sarong kebayas instead of sarees.
However other Indian Hindus retain their vernacular languages and dialects. The community celebrates two main festivals ? Deepavali and Thaipusam ? and many other smaller religious events each year. Indians in Malaysia mainly speak Tamil, Malayalam, Telegu and some Hindi.
2 comments:
က်ေနာ္လည္း ျမန္မာျပည္က တ႐ုတ္ေတြ အေၾကာင္း အခ်က္အလက္ေတြ ရသေလာက္ စုေနတယ္၊ အဆင္သင့္သလို ဘေလာ့ဂ္မွာ ထည့္ေရးသြားဖို႔ စိတ္ကူးထားပါတယ္။
ေကာင္းပါ့..အစ္ကုိ...အားေပးတယ္..က်ေနာ္..လည္း..မဟုတ္တရုတ္ဘဲ..ခင္ဗ်...ဟဲ..ဟဲ...
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