Malayan

-         Malayan or Malays are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Eastern Sumatra of Indonesia, Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand, and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands which lie between these locations  -- areas that are collectively known as the Malay world.There is considerable genetic, linguistic, cultural, artistic and social diversity among the many Malay subgroups, mainly due to hundreds of years of immigration and assimilation of various regional ethnicity and tribes within Maritime Southeast Asia. Historically, the Malay population is descended primarily from the earlier Malayic-speaking Austronesians and Austroasiatic tribes who founded several ancient maritime trading states and kingdoms, notably Brunei, Kedah, Langkasuka, Gangga Negara, Chi Tu, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pahang, Melayu and Srivijaya.

Throughout their history, the Malays have been known as a coastal-trading community with fluid cultural characteristics. They absorbed, shared and transmitted numerous cultural features of other local ethnic groups, such as those of Minang and Acehnese. Ethnic Malays are also the major source of the ethnocultural development of the related Betawi, Banjar, Cape Malay, Cocos Malays and Sri Lankan Malay cultures, as well as the development of Malay trade and creole languages like Ambonese Malay, Baba Malay, the Betawi language and Manado Malay.