ganeshaRules wrote:
hellraiser_xes wrote:
Speaking of countries that are less mentioned.......do any of you know where Malaysia is?
South of Indochinese peninsula, between Thailandia and Indonesia. Not sure about the size, or which island (apart the big ones, that are indonesian) belong to Malaysia.
I also know that all malaysian are pirates and Sandokan is their hero. XD
One question: Malaysian is mainly islamic, like Indonesia, or mainly budist, like the north of the peninsula?
Well Malaysia is actually east of Indonesia, and Peninsular Malaysia between Thailand and Singapore. Borneo which is east to us and the south of The Philipines is shared by three countries. Kalimantan (the largest portion of the Borneo isle) belongs to Indonesia while Sabah and Sarawak belongs to Malaysia. Brunei, who is stuck in between Sabah and Sarawak is a nation on its' own.
Sandokan is fictitious character my friend, he doesn't exist. Haha
. And not all of us are pirates, only the largely Bugis clan, which makes up nearly 75% of the Malays in the southern Peninsular. The Achehnese were warriors while the Minangkabau's were artisans. The rest of the Malays belong to the Javanese and Sumatran clans. Yeah I know what you're thinking. All the clans I mentioned come from Sumatra and Java (hence being Indonesian). But these people migrated to Malaysia (then known as Tanah Melayu) centuries ago.
Malays make up 70% of our population, while the Chinese hold 20% and the remaining 10% is shared between the Indians and the Sabah/Sarawakian indigenous tribes.
Basically Malaysians are divided into 2 major groups, the Bumiputeras (natives) and the non Bumiputeras (non natives). Bumiputeras enjoy certain privileges like lower property prices and accessibility in joining public institutions and services. The Bumiputeras comprise of the Malays, peninsular indigenous tribes, Sabah/Sarawakian indigenous tribes, Baba Nyonyas, Indian Chettis and the Portuguese.
Baba Nyoyas are the Chinese who have settled here since the 15th century, hence being more Malay than Chinese. They speak Malay, wear Malay traditional costumes and have a mixed culture of Malay and Chinese. The only thing Chinese about them is their names, which is typical Chinese names. The Indian Chettis are Indians who have been around the same time with the Baba Nyonyas. And the culture, language and tradition is very much Malay, except they're Hindus and have Indian names. The Portuguese are actually bastards of the Portuguese seamen under the leadership of Francesco d'Albuquerque who colonised us in the 15th century. When they left, they left our local women pregnant with their bastards. The Portuguese sadly are very poor people, living in Portuguese settlements in Malacca. Very few of them succeed to become professionals and remain as mainly fishermen, mechanics and odd labourers. But I must say, they're very pretty people. The Portuguese are very strict in their family tradition, allowing their young only to marry a person of Portuguese descent, which led to a lot of in breeding and marriages among close family friends. The only 'outsiders' they marry are the Indians, since most of the Portuguese are of Indian descent as well.
The non Bumiputeras are the Indians and Chinese who only arrived in our country about 150 to 200 years ago. I belong to this group.
Malaysia is an Islamic country, mind you, Indonesia is not. Indonesia has a majority population of Muslims with Hindus and Christians holding a large share as well. They are not an Islamic state at all. And as you mentioned, Thailand is largely Buddhist.
