Malaysia Tourist Guides — Culture

Malaysia is a multicultural society, with a mix population of Malays, Chinese and Indian population. The Malays are basically Muslims and speak Bahasa. They are the largest community and run the government. One-third of the population is Chinese, mostly indulged into business community, follow Buddhists and Taoists religion and speak Hokkein, Hakka and Cantonese. Only 10% of the population is occupied by the Hindu Tamils from South India. They speak Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and live on the west coast of the peninsula. Sikh community, Eurasians and indigenous tribes occupy the remaining part. Malay is the official language, but English is their main communicating language. Iban of Sarawak occupying 395000 in numbers is the main native tribe living in the eastern coast. The Bidayuh, with 107000 populations are concentrated mainly on Sarawak's Skrang River, small tribes Orang Asli, nomadic agriculturalists with 80000 populations are scattered in Peninsular Malaysia.

Dances
The dance in Malaysia is strongly influenced by the neighboring countries Indonesia and Thailand. Court dance and folk dance in West and East Malaysia are a major tourist attraction. Former British colony has left an impact of ballet and other modern dances. The Joget is the most popular, lively and fast dance performed by couples and has its origin from Portuguese folk dance. Another favourite native dance in Sabah and Sarawak is the bamboo dance where the dancers jump in-between back and forth moving bamboo poles. Mak Yong, a traditional and ancient dance-drama, is performed in the courts of the Sultans. Bangara, a Punjabi folk dance is also seen here with colorful costumes and lively music.

Music
Malaysian music is strongly influenced by Chinese and Islamic forms and follow a persistent tone and rhythm that comes from diverse drumming instruments like gendang i.e. drum, geduk, gedombak. Flutes, trumpets and gongs are also played. Rebana, a huge drum made of a hollowed-out log was traditionally used to communicate with the neighborhood village.

Malay Art
Malay arts and crafts include batik, silk weaving, silver filigree, brasswork, wayang kulit (shadow-puppets), silat (a stylised martial art). Batik is a traditional technique for dyeing fabric, using wax to make designs. The designs are either hand-painted or printed with carved wooden blocks. Silver filigree jewelry is created with delicate silver wires that are tightly rolled by hand and soldered onto frames. Sabah and Sarawak is famed for traditional woodcarvings, beadwork and Iban pua kumbu i.e., intricately woven ceremonial hangings featuring stylized birds, animals or plants and motifs representing spiritual significance. The Chinese community in Malaysia creates lovely huge blue and green glazed dragon jars made of porcelain.

Cuisine
Satays made out of meat kebabs in spicy peanut sauce are a specialty in Malaysian cuisine. Being a multi cultural country, one can taste a mix of Chinese and Malay food called Nyonya made with Chinese ingredients and local spices. Indian, Indonesian and Western dishes like fried soybean curd in peanut sauce, sour tamarind fish curry, fiery curry prawns and spiced curried meat in coconut marinade are the delicacies. Muslim Indian dishes have developed a distinctly Malaysian style.

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