GLIMPSE OF MALAY ETHNIC

Malays or  Orang Melayu is an ethnic groups that have many long history and unique traits in Asia. This ethnic group actually is a nation native to the coast of Borneo, eastern Sumatra of Indonesia and, Malay Peninsula including the smaller islands which located along these locations is known as the region of the Malay world. Among the locations that been mentioned are known as part of the current nations such as Malaysia. The unique culture of Malay is reflected in the food, festivals and the customs. As one of the majority races in the country, the topic to cover will never run dry and exhaust. It is same for the food that available. Due to the fact of having long history, there are many different type of food can be found. However, each of it sometime only appears during certain festival or celebration ,

For example, nasi lemak, gulai tempoyak, asam laksa, belacan, nasi dagang, nasi kerabu, and many more. Food is eaten using finger of the right hand by Malay custom. They never use the left one due to the fact they used it to clean themselves and personal ablution. Thus majority of Malay will eating food using delicately finger while rarely using spoon and fork in the process.

Greeting is a norm during social and communicates with each other.  It is a social ethnicity that will have different movement set but delivering the same message. It is the same with Malay culture but with slight different when it comes to which gender we greet to. Same gender can easily shake hand with each other’s while not the vice versa. It is true when man will bow instead and put their hand on their heart as greeting.The crucial point in the most meeting and greeting is to introduce and get to know the person we meet no matter what objective we have.   It is more toward creating a network and communication among each other. It is actually general tendency to introduce important figure to lower rank peoples, older to younger, and woman to man as a true path of Malay custom in communication and social.

Throughout history, Malay has been shown that they are a community with fluid culture characteristics. They evolve through time and shared experience with others and maintain that status quote. Thus, the tradition and custom been keep safe until today and shall be pass down for future generation.

 Author: Mohd Imran Tashiron