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Malay Peninsula

 
Dictionary: Malay Peninsula  Ma·la·ya (mə-lā'ə, mā-) pronunciation
also
A peninsula of southeast Asia comprising southwest Thailand, western Malaysia, and the island of Singapore.

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Malay Peninsula
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Peninsula, Southeast Asia. Comprising the mainland portion of Malaysia and southwestern Thailand, it occupies an area of 70,000 sq mi (181,300 sq km), has a width of 200 mi (322 km), and extends south for 700 mi (1,127 km) to Cape Balai, the southernmost point of the Asian continent; the island country of Singapore lies just south across the Johore Strait. Its central mountain range, rising to 7,175 ft (2,187 m) at Mount Tahan, divides the peninsula lengthwise and is the source of many rivers. Both its western and eastern coasts are exposed to monsoons. It has large tracts of tropical rainforest and is a major producer of rubber and tin.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Malay Peninsula
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Malay Peninsula (məlā', mā'), southern extremity (c.70,000 sq mi/181,300 sq km) of the continent of Asia, lying between the Andaman Sea of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca on the west and the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea on the east. It stretches south for c.700 mi (1,100 km) from the Isthmus of Kra, where it is narrowest, to Singapore. The northern part of the peninsula forms a part of Thailand; the southern part constitutes West Malaysia, the Malayan part of Malaysia. The peninsula forms a physical and cultural link between the mainland of Asia and the islands of Indonesia (often included in the Malay Archipelago).

A mountain range (the highest point of which is Gunong Tahan, 7,186 ft/2,190 m, in Malaysia) forms the backbone of the peninsula; from it numerous short, swift rivers flow east and west. More than half of the land surface is covered with tropical rain forest; the only open areas, aside from clearings made for settlement and agriculture, are the alluvial plains of the west-central portion of the peninsula and stretches along the rivers. The region is one of the richest of the world in the production of tin and rubber; other products include timber, copra and coconut oil, palm oil, tapioca, peanuts, pineapples, and bananas. Rice is the chief foodstuff.

People

The Malays, historically the dominant cultural group, probably came originally from S China (c.2,000 B.C.), but marriages with other peoples have modified their ethnic characteristics. The Chinese are now nearly as numerous as the Malays; Indians and Thais form important minority groups. Small tribes of aborigines, descendants of pre-Malay immigrants, are found in the hills and jungles.

History

The Malay Peninsula was visited near the beginning of the Christian era by traders from India and in the succeeding centuries received, like Indonesia and Indochina, Buddhist and Brahman missionaries and Hindu colonists. Small Hinduized states sprang up, like Langkasuka in the area of modern Kedah. In the second half of the 8th cent. the peninsula fell under the domination of the Sailendra rulers of Sri Vijaya (from Sumatra), who adopted Mahayana Buddhism. Their cities in Kedah and Pattani rivaled the importance of their capital at Palembang.

The peninsula was overrun in the 11th cent. by the Cholas from the Coromandel Coast of India; after about 50 years, the Sailendras, somewhat weakened, resumed their sway. Sailendra rule ended in the late 13th cent., when Sumatra and some southern areas of the Malay Peninsula fell to a Javan invasion and when the Thai king of Sukhothai swept over the peninsula from the north. The Sumatran kingdom of Melayu next ruled over the south of the peninsula, to be followed in turn (late 14th cent.) by Madjapahit, which was the last Hindu empire of Java, and by the Thai king of Ayutthaya. The fall of Madjapahit opened the way for the primacy of a Malay state, Malacca (see Melaka). In the 15th cent., the Malays, beginning with the Malaccans, were converted to Islam (which remains the religion of most Malays).

The 16th cent. brought the first Europeans. The Portuguese seized Malacca (1511), and soon afterward Dutch traders appeared in Malayan waters. Malacca fell to the Dutch in 1641. The important British role on the peninsula began with the founding of settlements at Pinang (1786) and Singapore (1819). The coming of the Portuguese had plunged the peninsula into anarchy. The last sultan of Malacca, in flight from the Portuguese, founded a kingdom based on the Riau Archipelago and Johor, but the rulers of the petty states in the south gradually achieved independence, while the rising power of Siam and an increasingly imperial Britain became rivals. The British established protectorates over several Malay states, and in 1909 the boundary between Siam and Malaya was fixed by Siam's transfer to Great Britain of suzerainty over Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu.

See Malaysia and Thailand for the later history of the peninsula.


Wikipedia: Malay Peninsula
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Locator map

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula (Malay: Semenanjung Tanah Melayu, Thai: คาบสมุทรมลายู) is a major peninsula located in Southeast Asia, with its narrowest point at the Isthmus of Kra. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its teminus, is the most southern point of the Asian mainland. The Straits of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra while the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by the Straits of Johor.

The area is currently divided politically and contains territory affiliated with the following countries:

The Malay term Tanah Melayu, literally meaning 'Malay Soil' is generally used by the local Malays and occasionally used in political discourse to describe uniting all Malay people on the peninsula under one Malay nation, although this ambition was largely realized with the creation of Malaysia. There is also a Malay minority in Singapore, an island city-state with a Chinese majority that immigrated to the island during the British colonial era.


See also


Translations: Malaya
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Malaya

Deutsch (German)
n. - Malaya

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מלאיה‬


 
 

 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Malay Peninsula" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more