Pahang Malays
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1.1 million) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Pahang | |
| Languages | |
| Pahang Malay, Malaysian | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Malaysian Malay (in particular Kelantanese Malays and Terengganuan Malays) |
Pahang Malays (Malaysian: Melayu Pahang, Pahang Malay: Oghang Pahang, Jawi: أورڠ ڤهڠ) are a sub-group of Malay people native to the state of Pahang, in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. With population of approximately 1.08 million people, they constitutes 70% of Pahang state's population, making them the dominant ethnic group in the state. Their language, Pahang Malay is one of many Malayan languages spoken in the region that belong to the Malayo-Polynesian group of Austronesian family.
Although their history goes back more than one millennia, the community came to prominence when the old Pahang Sultanate was established in 1470. The sultanate was merged with Johor in 1623, but later revived in 1881 and incorporated as protectorate of the British Empire. In 1948, it formed Federation of Malaya together with other Malay Sultanates in the peninsular, that later reconstituted as Malaysia.
The Pahang Malays, along with Terengganuan Malays and Kelantanese Malays (and sometimes Thai Malays and the Malays of Anambas islands and Natuna islands in Indonesia) are collectively referred to as the Orang Pantai Timur (People of the East Coast) due to their closely related history, cultures and languages.
The Tembeling Valley which constitutes the upper reaches of the Pahang River is an area of great historical significance to Pahang. There yielded many archeological relics of Paleolithic, Hoabinhian, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age cultures. Ancient Pahang sits astride the 'Austric marchland'- the territory where the Mon-Khmer-speaking (Austroasiatic) cultures meet up with the Malayic and pre-Malayic-speaking (Austronesian) cultures. The early settlers lived by mining gold, tin and iron and planting rice. They left many traces; irrigation works, mine workings, remains of brick buildings, and probably the pottery industry at Kuala Tembeling. Ancient settlements can be traced from Tembeling to as far south as Merchong. Their tracks can also be found in deep hinterland of Jelai, along the Lake Chini, and up to the head-waters of the Rompin. One such settlement was identified as Koli from Geographia (2nd century CE), a thriving port located on the estuary of Kuantan River, where foreign ships stopped to barter and resupply.
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