Multicultural Dynamics: A Study of Malaysia

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Cultures have been meeting and mixing in Malaysia since the very beginning of its history. More than fifteen hundred years ago a Malay kingdom in Bujang Valley welcomed traders from China and India. With the arrival of gold and silks, Buddhism and Hinduism also came to Malaysia. A thousand years later, Arab traders arrived in Malacca and brought with them the principles and practices of Islam. By the time the Portuguese arrived in Malaysia, the empire that they encountered was more cosmopolitan than their own. According to the researcher in 2006, in term of culture as we all know Malaysia become a multi culture society of living many groups and people are different background for actually Chinese and Indian. There are 15% of Indian of Malaysia’s total population and 20% of Chinese lining in this …show more content…

In the feature time after colonization the Malay tradition cloth have been changed become more modern as compared in period time. Although baju kurung is the name for the attire for both male and female, in Malaysia, the female dress is referred to as baju kurung, while the male dress is referred to as baju melayu. Two versions of the costumes are popular. One is the baju kurung teluk belanga and the other is the baju kurung cekak musang. The main difference between this two fashion styles is the cutting style at the neck, where the teluk belanga style has no collar and the neckline is stitched in the style known as tulang belut ("eel's spines or bones"). The baju kurung teluk belanga originated, as its name implies, from Teluk Belanga, in the island of Singapore, which was previously the capital of the state of Johor. On the other hand the cekak musang style has a standing collar with holes for five buttons including two buttons for the collar. (Online interpretation of malay culture,

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