Malaysiakini.com（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
(1) Origins of the 'Malays' - Final Conclusion (Pt 1), 2 February 2009
by Michael Chick
Let us begin this with a simple analogy. We start with one cup of pure black coffee. And we have a cup of pure white milk. Add the two of equal amounts, and we have a nice brown concoction.
If we continue to add milk, this coffee will turn lighter and lighter. However, if we continue to add coffee, this cup will become darker and darker.
But regardless of how much milk we keep adding, this cup will always smell of coffee. And even with a thousand cups of milk added, we will always continue to detect a whiff of the wonderful aroma of this coffee.
So too with people. Let's take a negroid, and a caucasoid. Let's assume these two individuals mate. You will end up with someone who looks pretty much like Mariah Carey. Now, the look of her offspring would be determined by whom she mates with. And so too, will her offsprings’ offspring, and so on.
If Mariah Carey's future descendants skew towards marrying caucasoids, then they will continue to look fairer and fairer, while if they skew towards marrying negroids, then they will begin to look darker and darker.
But no matter how many generations down, we will always be able to trace their ancestral genetic makeup back to Mariah Carey. This would be known as the mitochondrial genetic trail. It is conclusive. It is wonderful. Just like the graceful hint of the aromatic coffee.
Hold those happy thoughts of Mariah and step back into history. Actually, pre-history. In fact, let's take a huge step, all the way back in time, until the days of Pangaea. This is the time of the dinosaurs.
There was no mankind. No homo sapien-sapien. No homo sapiens, No homo hablis, No homo neanderthalis, and not even the homo erectus. The entire homo family tree simply did not exist. Yet. This is 65 million years into the past. Way before even whales existed.
When dinosaurs roam the earth Africa and America were joined together, and dinosaurs roamed the earth. As the world started to split up, these dinosaurs were left stranded on tiny bits of floating land continents. One of the ways, to know if the land was fertile or otherwise, would be to see if there were dinosaur fossils in the area.
Remember that the earth was still pretty unstable, and entire dinosaur clans were wiped out by often violent volcanic eruptions. Some of these dinosaurs roamed in Asia.. Their fossils are still actively excavated in China, Korea and Thailand. This simply tells us that Asia was already fertile land from 65 million years ago.
Ice ages came, and ice ages went. Global warming came, and global warming went. Pleistocene, holocene, paleolithic, neolithic. Yes, we all watched Jurrasic Park. Fast forward till the homo erectus. The date? 120,000 years ago. The location? Laetoli, East Africa. Here, descendants of Lucy, and the Taung Girl, left distinct footprints in rock.
The Africa of today looks different from the Africa of before. It had scores of volcanoes, and spewed hot gases and ash into the air. This ash landed on the ground and man stepped on it. The high calcium carbonate content of this ash quickly hardened, thus preserving those footprints in rock, forever.
We also find such footprints in rock at Lake Mungo, West Australia. But these footprints would be of a different time period. They are from 50,000 years ago. So, sometime, between 120,000 years and 50,000 years ago, the Australo Melanesians (Africans) walked out of East Africa, through the Middle East, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and into Australia.
Today, these Africans are known as the aboriginals in Australia. Their close cousins would be the Papuans, Fijians and the Negritos of Malaysia. Were there any other people living in the area at that time? Probably not. Not of the Homo Sapien-Sapien stock anyway.
We do know that these Australo Melanesians (orang asli’s) made their way into the Malayan peninsula circa 60,000 years ago. Proof of which is in Niah Caves. That skull of an Australo Melanesian woman is 40,000 years old.
No South China Sea then
And how did they “swim” across the South China Sea from the Malayan peninsula? They didn't. Because there was no sea back then. At 60,000 years ago, there was no South China Sea. It was simply just one huge land mass called the Sunda Lands.
You could in fact walk from Hanoi till Kuching over land. And it would have been very easy walking too. Because this land would have been pure savannah grassland. So you see, these “Africans” never realised that they left Africa. The entire Asia, had a climate, flora, and fauna exactly identical to their motherland. Volcanoes and all too.
These orang asli’s then lived quietly, and alone, in Malaysia, and the rest of Southeast Asia, for at least 54,000 years. Slowly, they migrated their way into Borneo, Australia, Papua, New Zealand, and the entire Oceanic regions, right through Tahiti, Hawaii, and eastward all the way until Easter Island. They might even have reached America and became “re-labeled” as the Olmecs of the south.
The trip from Indonesia till Australia would also have been relatively easy, as they only had to raft from Bali, till Lombok. You see, Lombok used to be joined with Australia, on another tectonic plate called the Sahul Lands.
The pointed eastern tip of Bali (just across from Java) is still full of such archaeological evidence of this early migrational Australo Melanesians (orang asli/aboriginals) from the period. Yes. The Negrito in Malaysia are the ancestors of all of the Oceanic tribes (known as the Polynesian or Oceanic Islands today).
About 60,000 years ago, the first waves of the Dravidic race of India started moving eastward. Along the southern ridge of the Himalayas today, through the northern belt of Burma, into the golden triangle, into Thailand, past Laos, Hanoi, and skirted around the northern Hainanese peninsula, and managed to reach as far as the Amoy coast in China, across the channel from Formosa, today known as Taiwan. There is no further archaeological evidence of them moving further north.
This is the parallel journey also made by their African cousins, who made the journey from Africa on the other side of the Himalayas, on the northern ridge, via the Khyber Pass. These Africans settled in a place today known as southern Mongolia.
Skin whitens due to lack of sunshine
Over the next 60,000 years, they would lose their epidural melanin content and their skin would start to pale. Probably due to the frigid cold weather and lack of tropical sunshine. Today, they are called the Mongoloids.
As the Dravidic Indians walked towards Taiwan, only three races existed on the globe. The Negroids, the Mongoloids, and the Dravidics. The Caucasoids would not surface for another 30,000 years, originating from Uzbekistan.
By the time the Dravidics reached the Amoy coast, they would have met with the Mongoloids, who were already well-camped there. These Mongoloids would have migrated first eastward, from Mongolia, and then southward from Beijing eventually till Hainan and into the Indochine regions.
Some other Mongoloids however, would have made bee-lines from Mongolia directly towards the Himalayan mountains and the China coastal regions, and a little beyond.
The time is now 4,000 BC. As history shows time and again, the exchange of daughters, and sons, avoided the exchange of blows, fists, stones and wars. On the coast of Amoy in China, we would have witnessed many cross-breeding of the Dravidics and the Mongoloids.
The simple example we still see today, of this Dravidic-Mongoloid early inter-breeding would be the Nepalese. Even their music reflects this. They continue to use the Chinese “Pei Pa” stringed instrument, and the Indian tabla drums to create the hypnotic Nepalese music. All Nepalese look part Dravidic, and part Mongoloid.
Abour 35,000 years ago, the Caucasoids would have moved into Europe from Uzbekistan, the Neanderthals would have either died out, or became fully integrated with the Caucasoids, and migrated into the Nordic regions 30,000 years before the first Austronesian was born on the Amoy Coast.
And 15,000 years ago, the Ainu of Japan would have traversed the Bering Straits, become the Eskimos, and moved southward to become the Red Indians, Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, Peruvians and Bolivians. The entire world was now populated.
The Aryans invaded India
Six thousand years ago, this new Austronesian race, as a result of the successful Dravidic-Mongoloid cross-breeding in southern China, started migrating towards Taiwan. Today, the leftover tribe of this earliest migration is known as the Alisan.
From Taiwan, they crossed the sea into the Philippines. They then split into two groups. One moving into the Celebes Islands (Sulawesi), and the other into Borneo. While this was happening, the Austronesians who were left behind on the Amoy Coast decided to start migrating again.
But this time, south-westward. These brown skinned Austronesians walked right past Hanoi, and settled on the entire central Vietnamese coast. Proof of this lies in the archaeological sites of Hoa Binhian, Sah Hyun, and Dong Song. The artefacts will include uni-facial and bi-facial stone tools, curved axes, pottery, and the detail-etched copper drums of the Dong Song.
These Austronesians would be known today as the Cham people, of the Champa Kingdom. At this same moment, their Austronesian cousins (who travelled from Taiwan, to the Philippines, via the Celebes, into Java, Sumatera,) would have arrived on the Malayan peninsula on the very same day.
Before the sun set, the Aryans would have invaded India, from Mohenjo Dara and Harrapa, bringing along with them the Sanskrit language.
And who exactly are the Aryans? They would have been of the Caucasoid stock, who migrated from the Middle East circa 6,000 BC.
Around that same time, Hinduism was born. Hinduism slightly predates the Egyptian civilisation. The Hindu caste system prevented the Aryan-Dravidic inter-breeding on a large scale.
Back to the Malayan peninsula. When these Austronesians first arrived from Sumatera on boats and rafts circa 1,000 BC, they were greeted by the Australo Melanesians (read Africans or orang asli) who were already living on this Malayan peninsula for the past 54,000 years.
These orang asli's lived to see the savannah-like Malayan peninsular change into the lush tropical forest we see today, but not before having survived an Ice Age 10,000 years ago.
The Perak Man would have been of that time period. Being of smaller stature, these Negritos (“mini Negros” in Spanish) were easily forcefully driven, by the relatively larger Austronesians into the forests, where they remain living till this very day.
・MICHAEL CHICK is pursuing his Masters in history at the National University of Singapore.
(2) Origins of the 'Malays' - Final Conclusion (Pt 2), 3 February 2009
by Michael Chick
Meanwhile, the Dravidics ventured eastward again. They took the same path taken by their ancestors, married the local Mongoloids and settled in the mountainous regions of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Tamils called these ‘medium-brown’ people ‘Malai’, which translates to ‘hill people’. It is no surprise that when the Dravidics arrived at Lembah Bujang in Malaya in the second century, they would have insisted on calling the Malayan Austronesians ‘Malai’ as well.
You see, set against the backdrop of Lembah Bujang is a mountain called Gunung Jerai, and just behind it, the Titiwangsa mountain range. It is smaller but not unlike the Great Himalayas of India.
Back to the hill tribes of Indochine. More familiar names would be the Karen (pronounced Kayen), Karenni (pronounced Kayeni), Mon, Mon Khmer, Khmer Mon, Hmong, Huong, Chin, Lat, Shan, Tai, and so on so forth. Physical anthropology will immediately show that these are relatively identical people, a result of Dravidic and Mongoloid cross-breeding.
It is now time to recall the coffee and milk mix illustration by which I began this narrative. Whichever skew the present day tribe has, their skin colour and telling facial features would immediately indicate whether the individual was more Dravidic or Mongoloid.
Interestingly, the Mon Khmer, the Khmer Mon, the Mon and the Thais are identical people. Separated only by years of pledging allegiance to different royalties and distinct languages.
However, their writing gives it away. All Indochine forms of writing come from Sanskrit origins (but then again, so is Arabic). The Vietnamese however, since being occupied by China for over one thousand years, thus, were forced to use Chinese characters of the Imperial Mandarin court, until the French took over in the 19th Century.
Then, the Vietnamese adopted the modern day romanised form of writing. Phonetically, however, they still sound very similar to their Cambodian, Thai and Burmese cousins. There is a heavy overlap of grammatical words.
The two linguistic groups of Southeast Asia would be the Astro-Asiatic and the Austronesian. But that is simply because one group traveled via Taiwan, and thus had a more Mongoloid linguistic infusion, while the other group traveled over land via Indochine and retained a different set of linguistic traits.
Legend of the Khmer
Khmer legend speaks specifically that the Khmer people started when a local princes married a tall, dark, handsome ‘stranger’ from India. This legend has been confirmed with the benefit of DNA testing.
Scientists today believe that the Austronesians of today are a direct cross-breed of the Dravidic Indians and the Mongoloids. However, it is also important to note, that since the Austronesians moved into the Australo Melanesian territories, they had also inter-bred with these ‘ex-Africans’.
The people of Bali look distinctly different from the Javanese, with the new inclusion of African-like physical traits like larger lower-lips and so on. So too, would the Jakun, and the Temiah tribe in Malaysia with their African facial features and short frizzy hair.
Interestingly, the tribes of Sabah and Sarawak, continue to look remarkably similar to their Burmese cousins. Almost like identical twins, the Kayan, of the upper Baram River near Mulu, share the exact same physical features and identical tribal name with the Karen. Coincidence? Probably not.
You see, Borneo was known to have been visited by Cham trading vessels and warships ever since the Champa kingdom was established. Chinese ships were also known to have landed at the Niah caves to partake in the legendary bird’s nest trade nearly three thousand years ago.
This establishes the mobility possibilities of the Karen (Burma) and the Kayan (Sarawak). And only because of the numerous and continuous Indochine wars that the Kayen, retreated into the Vietnamese and Laos jungles.
You will still see some of them living around the Dalat highlands. But today, the majority would have moved well into Laos and Cambodian territory and the mountainous regions northwest of Hanoi because of multiple wars.
One peculiarity of the Cham people from the Champa kingdom, (from which most Kelantanese swear to originate from), is their distinctive looks: a mesh of the Cambodians (and people from the Chao Doc border town in Vietnam) and the central Vietnamese Cham.
The central Cham look much more Dravidic and Austronesian, whereas the Chau Doc and Cambodain Cham are much fairer. The clue lies in the fact that the Champa kingdom was on a continuous retreat, being viciously attacked by the northern Vietnamese.
The Cham retreated southward and westward into the hills, over a duration of 1,300 years. Those retreating into the hills had, over time, inter-bred with the hill tribes of Laos and Burma. Thus, with the interjection of Tibetan blood, they tend to be fairer, and look more Mongoloid than their darker skinned Austronesian cousins in central Vietnam.
These Cham-Tibetan people slowly moved southward, and ended up in Kampong Cham, Kampong Chnnang and Chau Doc respectively. It is no rocket science then, to say that the Cambodian and Chau Doc Cham have just as much affinity with the Dalai Lama as they do with the Majapahit royalty of Java. Why?
War, interbreeding and trade
The Kingdom of Champa was also at war with Java. Not to mention that the Cham were also at war with the kingdom of Angkor. It was not a religious war, because all of them were either Hindu or Buddhist at some point or another, but more a territorial war, which ended up in slavery, rape, and death.
Cross-breeding thus continuously occurred over time, all throughout the thousand-odd years when all these three kingdoms waged war against each other. So, we inevitably observe extreme similarities between this long-drawn three-cornered war.
Po Klong Rame (a Cham ‘God-King’) was said to have had four wives. One was Javanese, the second was Vietnamese, and the other two were Hindu Cham and Cham Bani.
From My Son (pronounced ‘mee sern’) in Vietnam, to Borrobudor in Java, and Angkor in Cambodia, there was literally no peace during the one thousand years of continuos bloodshed. The end effect is, that people from these three kingdoms started to inter-breed on a massive scale. Thus, the relative homogeneity of the three said kingdoms.
The Campa kingdom was also having trade lines with Aceh, via Pattani. With Kelantan just slightly to the south, we can easily understand how some Cham would have settled in present day Kelantan, if nothing else, to escape the continuos wars in the Champa kingdom.
In short, it would be relatively safe to deduce that the Austronesians are a thorough mix of Mongoloid, Dravidic and African (Australo Melanesian) blood. This would be toward the end of the classical Angkorian period.
During the birth of Jesus Christ, came another influx of Arab and Persian blood. Initially, the Arabs arrived as pirates, and pillaged their way right up to Peking. They then retreated and settled in Celebes, only to inter-breed with a band of fleeing Mongols who were ostracised from their land. The end result are the Bugis people.
And from them, came the Suluks in southern Mindanao. Both the Bugis and the Suluks were known to be ruthless pirates until recent times. Fortunately, the later waves of Arab arrivals were much less violent as they were mostly traders who came in peace.
The Bugis were such fearsome seamen, that Parameswara did not hesitate to use them as the core navy of his ‘Royal Sampan Armada’.
(3) Origins of the 'Malays' - Final Conclusion (Pt 3)
Michael Chick | Feb 4, 09 11:46am
Ironically, it was not the Arabs or Persians who brought Islam into the region. In the second century, all Arabs would have either been Christian, Judaic, Animistic Pagans or Hindu. Prophet Muhammad was only born 500 years later. And Mohenjo Daro and Harrapa were just next door.
MCPX
However, it was the Gujerati traders (India) who brought Islam to southeast Asia. The very same people who brought Hinduism to Malaya at the location called Lembah Bujang in the second century.
From then, it was the local Austronesians who brought Hinduism to the Cham kingdom in the fourth century, then into Java, in the sixth century, and later to Angkor in the eight. Hinduism stayed in southeast Asia for a full 15 centuries, and is known as the Golden Hindu Era.
Prior to Hinduism, all of southeast Asia was either Animistic or Pagan. The Austronesians worshiped the sun, moon, stars, rocks, trees, seas and so on.
The southeast Asians are also known to be pragmatic. They are known to combine religions. In Vietnam, you have CaoDai-ism, which is a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confusianism, Catholism, and Islam.
The Balinese practice a mix of Animism and Hinduism. Most Javanese practice Kejawen, which is a mix of Animism and Islam, while the Cham practice what is known as Cham Bani, which is a combination of Hinduism and Islam.
I guess, when in doubt, these Austronesians decided to choose a cocktail of religions, just to be on the ‘safe side’. This is parallel to the Sai Baba concept, whereby "all religions lead to the same righteous path".
As mentioned earlier, Islam was first brought to Asia at Pasai (Banda Acheh region), by the Gujeratis. Most famous religious schools were centered in Pasai, and the religion spread throughout the Nusantara.
For Malaysia, it was Parameswara's son who first converted to Islam, but only because he wanted to marry this Pasai lady, who was then a Muslim. He allegedly said, "What is this strange new religion?"
He then became a Muslim, and married his Pasai wife. Were there three more wives after her? Or was she the second wife? Due to inaccurate local records, perhaps we will never know.
However, we do know that Pasai was the epicentre for the spread of Islam in southeast Asia, and with the arrival of this new religion, came the Arab traders. The Arabs had cargo that was deemed exotic to the east, and vice-versa.
Exotic mix of spices, people
With the arrival of foreigners came inter-breeding again. In fact Aceh, is actually an acronym for Arab, Cina, Eropah, and Hindia (in the local Indonesian language). A visit to Aceh will attest to the enticing Persian eyes which trail your every move amidst the scents of foreign spices and jingle-jangle of an exotic atmosphere.
When the colonial masters showed up at their doorstep, this feverish pitch was brought to even greater heights. But always to the financial advantage of the bigger, stronger, and well-armed Dutch East India Company.
These colonial masters went deep into Autronesian territory. From the spice islands of Molukas, to the swanky ports of Hoi An in Vietnam, and eventually, up into China.
Malacca would have been a side-show in comparison with these huge ports of Pasai, Batavia, Bancoolen, Phan Tiet, Hoi An, and even Macau. Each of the river mouths at these ports can fit at least 15 small barges, while the Malacca river can barely fit 3 side by side (at the Jongker Street bridge).
Even the Singapore River can fit at least 8 where the Cavanaugh Bridge stands today. Huge modern day container vessels can also go directly up-river in Qui Nhon in Vietnam and berth, without the use of any barges at all, and was once the bastion of the Champa kingdom.
Genetically speaking, the Austronesians would have been a ‘superior race’, as they were a mix of Dravidic, Mongoloid, African, Arab, Persian, Hindi, Gujerati, Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and other blood.
However, incest brought degenerate descendants. And the more varied the bloodline, the healthier the offspring. Perhaps this is what ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ is all about. This is the only superiority one can think of.
Genetic superiority because of having bloodlines from around the globe. This by the way, is reflected in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia. Circa 15 percent of these languages is Portuguese, Dutch, and the rest, Sanskrit, Tamil, Arab, Persian, Hindi, Tamil, Chinese, and so on.
All these word origins are explicitly described and detailed in the third edition of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka dictionary. These references were completely removed from the fourth edition onwards.
The conclusion? The people Malaysians call ‘Malay’, are actually only a tiny sub-component of the much larger Austronesian group. And all Austronesians are the end-product of extensive inter-breeding between the Taiwanese and Dravidic Indians.
All this has finally been irrefutably proven by independent DNA testings from world-class faculties.
My tour of southeast Asia has been extremely enlightening. Every day was a new and fresh learning experience. Every moment, an illuminating and exhilarating one.
It is hoped that by detailing who the Austronesian race really are, the rest of the world will no longer view them as outsiders, strangers, or barbaric savages. Every race in the world has direct or indirect blood-lines with the Austronesians. And that the entire world is much more integrated than people think.
（End）
