Prehistoric Malaysia

Prehistoric Malaysia can be traced back as early as 200,000 years ago from stone tools found at Kota Tampan, Lenggong archeological site. The earliest human skeleton, Perak Man, dating back 11,000 years was also discovered in Lenggong. The site has an undisturbed stone tool production area, created using equipment such as anvils and hammer stones. Also in Perak are the Tambun Cave paintings. From East Malaysia, Sarawak's Niah Caves, there is evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia, dating back some 40,000 years ago.

Chronology

40,000-35,000 years ago- Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)

Early peoples lived a simple lifestyle of hunting-gathering. Paleolithic Malaysia had no defined border or countries, no known government, religion, money, etc. These early inhabitants still live in the hills of Malaysia, some of their villages are accessible, they are known as Orang Asli, meaning 'natural people' or aborigines. Today the Orang Asli together with the Malays and indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak are known as bumiputra ('the sons of the soil') and they make up 65% of the population.

35,000-10,000 years ago - Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)

Anthropologists traced a group of newcomers Proto Malay seafarers who migrated from Yunnan to Malaysia. Negrito and other Aborigines were forced by late comers into the hills. In this period, people learnt to dress, to cook, to hunt with advance stone weapons. Communication techniques also improved.

10,000-5,000 years ago- Neolithic (New Stone Age)

People learnt to build simple houses and to have families. Simple moral and simple society concept germinated.

2,500 years ago - Bronze Age

More people arrived, including new tribes and seafarers. The Malay Peninsula became the crossroads in maritime trades of the ancient age. Seafarers who came to Malaysia's shores included Indians, Egyptians, peoples of the Middle East, Javanese and Chinese. Ptolemy named the Malay Peninsula, Golden Chersonese.

Early Hindus Settlers

Hindu traders began to settle down and built their cultures, architectures, languages, writings, words, foods, costumes, religions, government system, moral education and many more to set up the first local Malay Kingdom, also known as Srivijaya, which lasted 1400 years.

Mekong River Migration

Mekong River, approximately 4180km in length, originated from Tibet and runs through Yunnan province of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Anthropologists traced the migration of Proto Malays, who were seafarers, to some 10,000 years ago when they sailed by boat (canoe or perahu) along the Mekong River from Yunnan to the South China Sea and eventually settled down at various places.

Yunnan

Inhabitants of early Yunnan can be traced back in history to nearly 170 million years ago from a homo erectus fossil, 'Yuanmou Man', which was unearthed in the 1960s. In year 221 BC, Qin Shihuang conquered Yunnan and unified China which has since become a province of China. They were the ancestors of rice eating peoples, with their culture of cultivating rice spread throughout the entire region. The native name of the Mekong River peoples' home in Yunnan is Xishuangbanna (Sipsongpanna) which literally means "twelve thousand rice fields", it is the home of the Dai minority. Xishuangbanna sits at a lower altitude than most of the Yunnan mountainous ranges.

Yunnan migration theory

The theory of Proto Malay originated from Yunnan is supported by R.H Geldern, J.H.C Kern, J.R Foster, J.R Logen, Slametmuljana and Asmah Haji Omar. The Proto Malay (Melayu asli) who first arrived possessed agricultural skills while the second wave Deutero Malay (mixed blood) who joined in around 1500 BC and dwelled along the coastlines have advanced fishery skills. During the migration, both groups intermarried with peoples of southern islands such as those from Java (Indonesian), and also with aboriginal peoples of Australoid, Negrito and Melanesoid origin.

Other evidences that support this theory include:

Stone tools found at Malay archipelago analogy to Central Asian tools.
Similarity of Malay customs and Assam customs.
Malay language & Cambodian language are kindred languages because the ancestral home of Cambodians originated from the source of Mekong River.

Mekong Delta

According to history of Khmer, the earliest known civilisation was the 1st century Indianised-Khmer culture of Funan, in the Mekong Delta. The Khmer empire of Angkor was the last before the kingdom fled to various places seeking refuge. Palembang and later Malacca were among the places. Archeological evidences found that inhabitants of early Cambodia were peoples of Neolithic culture. They possessed good technical skills while the more advanced groups who lived near the coast and in the lower delta of Mekong, cultivated irrigated rice. It is believed they were ancestors of inhabtants of insular Southeast Asia and islands of Pacific Ocean. They were also knowledged in iron, bronze works and possessed good navigational skills. (Source: Based on information from John F. Cady, Southeast Asia: Its Historical Development, New York, 1964.)

Oldest Malay text

The Kedukan Bukit inscription of 682 CE found at Palembang and the modern Yunnan Dai minority's traditional writings were of the same language family of Pallava, also known as Pallava Grantha. Dai ethnic (or Dai minority) of Yunnan is one of the aboriginal inhabitants of modern Yunnan province of China. (Picture) is taken from Jinghong city of Yunnan, a modern doorframe with Dai minority texts & Chinese, at right is the ancient Kedukan Bukit inscription.

Cham-Malay relation

The similarity of Cambodian Cham language and Malay language can be found in names of places such as Kampong Cham, Kambujadesa, Kampong Chhnang, etc and Sejarah Melayu clearly mentioned a Cham community in Parameswara's Malacca around 1400s. Cham is related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Philippines. In mid 1400s, when Cham was heavily defeated by the Vietnamese, some 120,000 were killed and in the 1600s the Champa king converted to Islam. In 1700s the last Champa Muslim king Pô Chien gather his people and migrated south to Cambodia while those along the coastline migrated to the nearest peninsula state Terengganu, approximately 500km or less by boat, some to Kelantan. Malaysian constitution recognises the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status. Read Cham people. Now that the history is interlinked, there is a big possibility that Parameswara's family was Cham refugee who fled to Palembang before he fled to Tumasik and last to Malacca. Interestingly, one of the last Kings of Angkor of the Khmer Empire had the name Paramesvarapada.

References

The ENCYCLOPEDIA of Malaysia : early history, Volume 4 / edited by Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman http://wildasia.net/main/product.cfm?productID=427
The ENCYCLOPEDIA of Malaysia : languages and literature, Volume 9 / edited by Prof. Dato' Dr. Asmah Haji Omar
Crawford’s 1822 Malay of Champa
The Book of Anushirwan, The Cham Muslims of Southeast Asia: A Historical Note.

External links

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Tajikistan-to-Zimbabwe/Cham.html
http://www.malaysia.or.kr/history.htm
http://sejarahmalaysia.pnm.my/portalBI/detail.php?section=sm01&spesifik_id=2&ttl_id=1
http://cambodja.starttips.com/ Cambodia history
Khmer Language of Cambodia.
http://nabataea.net/festrade.html
http://www.kambojsociety.com/history.asp#KAMBOJAS...AN_IRANIAN_TRIBE
http://islamonline.net/English/ArtCulture/2005/10/article01.shtml
http://www.iranchamber.com/culture/articles/iranian_cultural_impact_southeastasia.php

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