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Peoples of Malaysia
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Largely because of its pivotal position on the maritime trade routes between the Middle East, India and China, present-day Malaysia has always been a cultural melting-pot, attracting Malays from what is now Sumatra, Indians, and Chinese. But the region already contained many indigenous tribes,
Orang Asli
("the first people"), thought to have migrated here around 50,000 years ago from the Philippines, which was then connected by a land bridge to Borneo and Southeast Asia.
On the Peninsula, the Malays still form just over fifty percent of the population, the Chinese number nearly 38 percent, Indians ten percent and the Orang Asli around one percent; in Sarawak and Sabah, on the other hand, the indigenous tribes account for around fifty percent of the population, the Chinese 28 percent, with the other 22 percent divided amongst Malays, Indians and Eurasians Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Malaysia |