Pahang Malays (Malaysian: Melayu Pahang, Pahang Malay: Oghang Pahang, Jawi: ) are a sub-group of Malay people native to the state of Pahang, in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. With population of approximately 1.08 million people, they constitutes 70% of Pahang state's population, making them the dominant ethnic group in the state. Their language, Pahang Malay is one of many Malayan languages spoken in the region that belong to the Malayo-Polynesian group of Austronesian family.
Although their history goes back more than one millennium, the community came to prominence when the old Pahang Sultanate was established in 1470. The sultanate was merged with Johor in 1623, but later revived in 1881 and incorporated as protectorate of the British Empire. In 1948, it formed Federation of Malaya together with other Malay Sultanates in the peninsula, that later reconstituted as Malaysia.
The Pahang Malays, along with Terengganuan Malays and Kelantanese Malays (and sometimes Thai Malays and the Malays of Anambas islands and Natuna islands in Indonesia) are collectively referred to as the Orang Pantai Timur (People of the East Coast) due to their closely related history, cultures and languages.
History
The Tembeling Valley which constitutes the upper reaches of the Pahang River is an area of great historical significance to Pahang. There yielded many archeological relics of Paleolithic, Hoabinhian, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age cultures. Ancient Pahang sits astride the 'Austric marchland'- the territory where the Mon-Khmer-speaking (Austroasiatic) cultures meet up with the Malayic and pre-Malayic-speaking (Austronesian) cultures. The early settlers lived by mining gold, tin and iron and planting rice. They left many traces; irrigation works, mine workings, remains of brick buildings, and probably the pottery industry at Kuala Tembeling. Ancient settlements can be traced from Tembeling to as far south as Merchong. Their tracks can also be found in deep hinterland of Jelai, along the Lake Chini, and up to the head-waters of the Rompin. One such settlement was identified as Koli from Geographia (2nd century CE), a thriving port located on the estuary of Kuantan River, where foreign ships stopped to barter and resupply.
The oldest known reference to Pahang – as the kingdom of 'Pohuang' (婆皇)- was found in the Book of Song from the 5th century CE. This polity is believed to be the southernmost extension of the federation of city states of Langkasuka-Kadaram, that later incorporated into an even larger federation of Srivijaya from the 7th century. It remains unclear when Islam began to gain its foothold in Pahang, but historian like de Erédia mentioned that Islam already introduced in Pahang before it was accepted by Melaka in the 15th century. Pahang, described by de Erédia as Pan, was one of the two kingdoms of Malayos in the peninsula, in succession to Pattani, that flourished before Melaka. The Pahang ruler then, titled Maharaja, was also the overlord of countries of 'Ujong Tanah' (land's end), the southerly part of the peninsula including ancient Singapore. The old court name was Inderapura, and the capital has always been known as 'the town'. The pre-Melakans calling it by Sanskrit name Pura, the Malays 'Pekan', the Portuguese 'a Cidade', while the people of Rompin and Bebar described the Capital as Pekan Pahang. Pura may have covered a much larger than the town known as Pekan today. In addition to modern Pekan, it appears to have comprised the land on the banks of Pahang river as far as Tanjung Langgar.
The Malayisation of Pahang intensified from the mid 15th century after the state was annexed by Melaka Sultanate. Following a brief period of being a governorate, the state was established as a sultanate in 1470 by a Melakan prince, Muhammad Shah, and remained a vassal of Melaka until the latter's demise in 1511. In 1624, Pahang was nominally merged with Johor, when its 14th Sultan, Abdul Jalil Shah III was also proclaimed as the 7th Sultan of Johor. Pahang remained a constituent dominion ruled by the Bendaharas, until Johor Empire's gradual dismemberment in late 18th century. In 1805, ruler of Pahang, Tun Ali formally proclaimed independence, ending more than two centuries of union with Johor. His son, Tun Ahmad, who won the bitter civil war against his elder brother Tun Mutahir, revived the Pahang Sultanate after proclaiming himself Sultan of Pahang in 1882. Not long after that, the British imperialism manifested itself in Pahang with the appointment of a British Resident to the Sultan of Pahang in 1888.
Like other Malay States, Pahang also suffered during the Japanese occupation of Malaya until the year 1945. Then in 1948, it joined the Federation of Malaya, which gained Independence in 1957. Today, Pahang is a prosperous state with an expanding economy, fuelled by agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.
Language
Pahang Malays are known for their unique spoken language called Pahang Malay, and natively referred as Base Pahang (which means "Pahang language") or Cakak Pahang (which means "Pahang speech"). This form of Malayan language is closely related to Terengganu Malay (Base Tranung) and Kelantan Malay (Baso Kelate) due to their common origin. These east coast dialects demonstrate a number a shared lexical, syntactic, and phonetics innovations and their speakers can easily communicate with each other, although there are still some phonological and vocabulary differences.
The distribution of Pahang Malay is predominantly in the Pahang state, although there are other Malayan language spoken, for example a unique dialect of Tioman Island closely related only to Sarawak Malay spoken across the South China Sea. An east coast dialect, Terengganu Malay is in fact native in certain areas primarily in narrow strip of sometimes discontiguous fishermen villages and towns along the coastline of Pahang. This complicated spatial layering of different Malay variants, often within a few kilometres radius between hamlets of Pahang Malay speakers along the riverine systems and the Terengganu-speaking coastal fishermen villages, is influenced by the historical movement of Terengganu Malays to that area. There are small Pahang-speaking community in the valley of the Lebir River in Kelantan and the upper portions of several rivers near the Perak and Selangor boundaries, descendants of fugitives from the civil war that ravaged their homeland in the 19th century.
There are three main variants of Pahang Malay, spoken along the lining of the three main rivers; Pahang River, Jelai River and Lipis River, which differs between one another in phonological pattern and vocabulary. These variants have been classified further into two main sub-dialects; Hulu Pahang ('Upper Pahang') consisting Lipis and Jelai rivers variants, and Hilir Pahang ('Lower Pahang') consisting Pahang River variant.
Culture
The ancestors of modern Pahang Malays, were a hybrid community of multiple origins and cultures. The early settlers consist primarily from both various Mon-Khmer speaking Austroasiatic tribes and Malayic speaking Austronesians. These early communities, were largely animists, believing in the existence of semangat (spirits) in everything. Around the opening of the common era, Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced by Indian traders to the Malay Archipelago, where they flourished with the establishment of a Hindu-Buddhist state from the 5th century.
The shift into the dominant Malayic cultures with Siamese influence, is believed to have taken place in situ, involving such political processes as the establishment of a late Srivijayan outpost in the isthmus, the fall of Srivijaya, the extension of Thai rule into the area and lastly the arrival of Islam in the region from as early as the 14th century. Malayisation intensified in Pahang after it was established as a Malay-Muslim Sultanate in 1470, and continued until as late as the 19th century. The development of many Malay-dominated centres in the state, drew many of the Austronesian and Austroasiatic aboriginals to embrace Malayness by converting to Islam, emulating the Malay speech and their dress.
Due to their closely related history, Pahang Malays share a similar culture with other sub-groups of Malay people native to the Malay peninsula. They are in particular closely affiliated to peoples of the east coast of the peninsula like Thai Malays, Terengganuan Malays and Kelantanese Malays. Nevertheless, there are still aspects of Malay culture that unique to Pahang itself.
Traditional dress In the pre-Islamic Pahang, like most of the tropical world, the early traditional costumes were simple, using a single piece of cloth. This was the description by Fei Xin, a Chinese Muslim and an Arabic scholar who wrote in the Xingcha Shenglan in 1436. He wrote an interesting account of Pahang and its people, extract of the text of which are as follows:-
The "knot" mentioned above actually refers to the chignons ('sanggul' in Malay). There are various ways of tying the hair in a chignon or locks, and one of the hairstyles of the Pahang women is called distinctively as the Sanggul Pahang (Pahang chignon). When the trade with foreign countries flourished, the clothing styles began extensively accepting foreign influences and became more sophisticated. The 15th century was the time when Melaka Sultanate at its apex with Islam as its official religion. The strong Islamic influence had transformed the clothing styles in accordance to Islamic values. The early forms of Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung originated from this period, which both would become the primary traditional dress of Malay people for many centuries to come.
Over the centuries, a distinctive style of Baju Kurung was developed in Pahang, commonly known as Baju Kurung Pahang or Baju Riau-Pahang, or sometimes called Baju Turki. This is a long gown styled dress, cut at the front with 7 or more buttons and worn with a sarong.
The Malay handloom industry traced its origin since the 13th century when the eastern trade route flourished under Song dynasty. Mention of locally made textiles as well as the predominance of weaving in the Malay peninsula was made in various Chinese and Arab accounts. By the 16th century, the silk weaving industry in Pahang had perfected a style called Tenun Pahang, a special clothing fabric used in the special traditional Malay costumes and attires of Pahang rulers and palace officials. In addition to silk weaving, Batik weaving has been part of the small cottage industry in the state. Although not as popular, Pahang batik has, nevertheless, thrived as a small industry in the periphery of the fame and popularity of the Trengganu and Kelantan batik.
Martial arts Silat Melayu practiced in Pahang are diverse, with vast differences in training tools, methods and philosophy across different schools and styles. The Silat Melayu of Pahang may generally be divided into two major groups. Styles like Lincah, Gayong and Cekak which are widely practiced at national level in Malaysia, coexist with eclectic local Pahang styles like Silat Terlak, Silat Lian, Silat Tari Pulut, Silat Melayu Lok Keris 9, Silat Sendeng 2 Beradik, Silat Tongkat Panding Juan, Silat Laksamana, Silat Sutan Muaakad, Silat Pedang, Silat Setimbun Tulang, Silat Carik Kapor and Silat Sangkar Maut.
Other forms of silat also exist especially in the very remote villages, with members consisting of a few students. The current law and regulations require that the silat bodies need to be registered as an association or club. Therefore, we find that those silat forms with very few members are those which are being practiced in a secretive way in remote areas and are taught only by invitation of the master.