Malay Indonesians

Malay Indonesians (Malay: orang Melayu Indonesia; Jawi: اورڠ ملايو ايندونيسيا) are ethnic Malays living throughout Indonesia as one of the indigenous peoples of the island nation. Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, is a standardized form of Riau Malay.[4][5] There were numerous Malay kingdoms in Indonesia that covered the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, such as Srivijaya, Melayu Kingdom, Dharmasraya, Sultanate of Deli, Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura, Riau-Lingga Sultanate, Sultanate of Bulungan, Pontianak Sultanate, and the Sultanate of Sambas.

Malay Indonesians
Melayu Indonesia
ملايو ايندونيسيا
A Riau Malay couple enjoying the traditional Gambus. The background panel incorporated the palettes of Malay tricolour.
Total population
8,753,791 (2010)[1][lower-alpha 1]
Regions with significant populations
 Indonesia:
South Sumatra2,139,000
Riau1,880,240
West Kalimantan1,259,890[3]
Bangka-Belitung936,000
Jambi914,660
Riau Islands600,108
North Sumatra582,100
Lampung269,240
Jakarta165,039
Bengkulu125,120
Central Kalimantan87,222
Languages
Malay (local), Indonesian
Religion
Sunni Islam (predominantly)
Related ethnic groups
Malaysian Malays, Malay Singaporeans, Minangkabau, Acehnese, Banjarese, Betawi, Thai Malays

History

Sumatra

There have been various Malay kingdoms based on the island of Sumatra: the Melayu Kingdom, Srivijaya, Dharmasraya Sultanate of Deli, Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura and the Riau-Lingga Sultanate .

Kalimantan

In the Pontianak incidents during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese massacred most of the Malay elite and beheaded all of the Malay Sultans in Kalimantan.

During the Fall of Suharto, there was a resurgence in Malay nationalism and identity in Kalimantan and ethnic Malays and Dayaks in Sambas massacred Madurese during the Sambas riots.

Language
A Palembangese Malay girl clad in the Gending Sriwijaya costume
Main articles: Malay language, Malayan languages, and History of the Malay language

Sumatra is the homeland of the Malay languages, which today spans all corners of Southeast Asia. The Indonesian language, which is the country's official language and lingua franca, was based on Riau Malay. The Malay language has a long history, which has a literary record as far back as the 7th century AD. A famous early Malay inscription, the Kedukan Bukit Inscription, was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920, at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the Tatang river, a tributary of the Musi River. It is a small stone of 45 by 80 cm. It is written in Old Malay, a possible ancestor of today's Malay language and its variants. Most Malay languages and dialects spoken in Indonesia are mutually unintelligible with Standard Indonesian. The most widely spoken are Palembangese (3.2 million), Jambi Malay (1 million), Bengkulu Malay (1.6 million) and Banjarese (4 million) (although not considered to be a dialect of Malay by its speakers; its minor dialect is typically called Bukit Malay). Besides the proper Malay languages, there are several languages closely related to Malay such as Minangkabau, Kerinci, Kubu and others. These languages are closely related to Malay, but their speakers do not consider their languages to be Malay. There are many Malay-based creoles spoken in the country especially in eastern Indonesia due to contacts from the western part of Indonesia and during colonial rule where Malay replaced Dutch as a lingua franca. The most well-known Malay creoles in Indonesia are Ambonese Malay, Betawi, Manado Malay and Papuan Malay.

Sub-ethnic groups of Indonesian Malays

Malay ethnic groups in Indonesia
A Palembangese Malay woman in the traditional wedding costume from South Sumatera, Indonesia, known as Aesan Gede

The Malay people in Indonesia fall into various sub-ethnicities with each having its own distinct linguistic variety, history, clothing, traditions, and a sense of common identity. According to 2000 census, Malay Indonesians include:

and various other smaller sub-groups.

Besides Malays proper, there are various ethnic groups throughout Sumatra, Java and Borneo which share close cultural, linguistic and historical ties with Malays but are classified separately by the Indonesian census, these are;

  • Betawi people (Jakarta)
  • Banjarese people (South Kalimantan, classified as Malays until 2000 census)
  • Kutai people (East Kalimantan)
  • Kerinci people (Jambi)
  • Minangkabau people (West Sumatra, some still consider themselves Malays)
  • Aneuk Jamee people (Aceh)
  • Pesisir people (North Sumatra)
  • Penghulu people (Jambi)
  • Mukomuko people (Bengkulu)
  • Duano' (Riau)
  • Lom people (Bangka-Belitung)
  • Senganan people (various Dayak ethnic groups who converted to Islam and adopted Malay culture)
  • Bulungan people (North Kalimantan, Kayan group that adopted Malay culture and Islamic identity)
  • Orang Laut (Riau Islands)
  • Tonyoy-Benuaq people
  • Talang Mamak people (Riau)
  • Pekal people (Bengkulu)
  • Kaur people (Bengkulu, mostly identified themselves as Malays but classified as a separate ethnic group)
  • Lembak people (Bengkulu and South Sumatra, many considered themselves as Malays or Lubuklinggau Malays)
  • Serawai people (Bengkulu, also known as Serawai Malays)
  • Kubu people (Jambi and South Sumatra)
  • Lubai people
  • Rambang people
A Kutainese Malay lady in Residency of South and East Kalimantan, Dutch East Indies. Lithography to an original watercolour c.1879–1880.

Notable Malay Indonesians

Literature

Royalty
Malay princes of East Sumatra from the Royal Houses of Deli, Langkat and Serdang

Politics

Entertainment

See also

References

Notes
  1. The figure is based on the ethnic classification presented in Ananta et al. 2015, which includes figures for every groups with "Malay" in their names as well as Jambi, Bengkulu, Serawai, Semendo peoples, but excludes figures for Palembang, Bangka, and Belitung peoples.[2]

Citations
  1. Ananta et al. 2015, p. 119.
  2. Ananta et al. 2015, pp. 35–36, 42–43.
  3. "Propinsi Kalimantan Barat - Dayakologi". Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  4. Sneddon 2003, The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern Society, p. 69–70
  5. Kamus Saku Bahasa Indonesia, p. 272, PT Mizan Publika, ISBN 9789791227834
  6. Tedjasukmana, Jason (June 25, 2010). "Sex Video Scandal and Indonesia's Porn Obsession". TIME magazine. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2010.

Bibliography
  • Ananta, Aris; Arifin, Evi Nurvidya; Hasbullah, M Sairi; Handayani, Nur Budi; Pramono, Agus (2015). Demography of Indonesia's Ethnicity. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-981-4519-87-8.
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