Melayu Myanmar/Melayu Burma/ملايو ميانمار ပသျှူးလူမျိုး พม่าเชื้อสายมลายู | |
|---|---|
 A group of Burmese Malays in the 1950s. | |
| Total population | |
| 27,000 in Myanmar (excluding the number of diaspora in Thailand and return migration to Malaysia) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Tanintharyi (mostly in Kawthaung District); Ranong, Thailand; Langkawi, Malaysia | |
| Languages | |
| Kedah Malay · Southern Thai · Burmese | |
| Religion | |
Predominantly Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Malays (especially Kedahan Malays and Satun Malays), Moken |
Burmese Malays (Malay: Melayu Myanmar/Melayu Burma, Jawi: ملايو ميانمار, Burmese: ပသျှူးလူမျိုး, Pashu),[1] primarily live in Tanintharyi Region in the southern part of Myanmar. There are some dispersed Malay from the northernmost states of Malaysia and from southern Thailand. They are believed to be of Kedahan Malay descent. Some of the Moken people in the Mergui Archipelago speak a dialect of Malay.[citation needed]
In 1865, an Arab-Malay group led by Nayuda Ahmed, traveling and collecting sea products around Mergui Archipelago settled down in Victoria Point Bay, now located in modern-day Kawthaung, which commenced the first wave of migration from Kedah. The Burmese Malays mainly live in Bokpyin Township and a few islands in the southern part of the Mergui Archipelago.
The Malay influence is clearly visible in the names of certain settlements near Kawthaung - the words Kampong, Ulu, Telok, Tengah and Pulau (Malay words for village, remote, bay, central and island respectively) appear in a handful of settlement names.
In the 1917 Ethnological Survey of Burma, there are 6,368 individuals identified as Malays.[2]
- ^ Malays of Myanmar
- ^ Christian, John L. “Burma.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 226, 1943, pp. 120–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1024343. Accessed 20 Apr. 2020.