According to this theory, Austronesians migrated from southern China to Taiwan – the home of the ancestors of the Austronesians – around 6,000 years ago.

From about 4,000 years ago, some groups of Austronesians moved out of Taiwan to the Philippines, and about 3,500 years ago to northern Borneo, Sulawesi and Central Java.

Subsequently, there was a further movement of Austronesians to Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula about 2,000 years ago.

A competing hypothesis to the “Out-of-Taiwan” hypothesis is the “Out-of-Sundaland” hypothesis, favoured by a few researchers, including Stephen Oppenheimer, an Oxford geneticist. According to them, the homeland of the Austronesians was the Sundaland landmass - which was drowned during the end of the last glacial period by rising sea levels.

Proponents of this hypothesis point to the ancient origins of mtDNA in Southeast Asian populations, pre-dating the Austronesian expansion, as proof that the Austronesians originated from within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA).

However, this “Out-of-Sundaland” hypothesis has been repudiated by studies using whole genome sequencing, which has found that all ISEA populations had genes originating from the aboriginal Taiwanese.

Furthermore, as reiterated by ME Phipps, an authority on the genetic history of Asians, it would be erroneous to draw conclusions about human ancestry, evolution and migration based on mtDNA alone, without taking into account nuclear genomes and the bigger picture.

Malay migration to Peninsular Malaysia

According to NN Dodge in his article, “Population Estimates for the Malay Peninsula in the Nineteenth Century, with Special Reference to the East Coast States” (1980), the estimated population of Malays in the Malay Peninsula (including Patani) during the 1830s was about 630,000. The Malays then were mainly concentrated in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Pahang, Perak and Johor.

Subsequently, the number of Malays in Peninsular Malaysia increased from about 1.2 million in 1911 to about 2.2 million in 1947. In 1947, Indonesian immigrants belonging to other ethnic groups (including Javanese, Banjarese, Mandailing, Bugis, Acehnese and Kerinci) were categorised as “Other Malaysians” totalling 265,803.

These ethnic groups settled mainly in the west coast states of central and southern Peninsular Malaysia.

Development of Malay language and culture

Linguistically, “Malay” belongs to a linguistic subgroup called “Malayic” which developed from a common ancestral language, “Proto Malay”. As stated by KA Adelaar, a renowned specialist in Austronesian comparative linguistics, the original homeland of the Malay language is most probably West Borneo.

According to Blust, the Malay language started emerging at the beginning of the first century CE. Subsequently, a group of Malayic speakers moved to South Sumatra, built their own maritime empire, became Indianised, gave the Malay language its literary form, and developed a new identity.

According to Blust and Adelaar, the Malay cultural homeland is southeast Sumatra. The Malay culture developed in the early Sumatran polities of Srivijaya and Melayu (Malayu) between the seventh and 14th centuries CE.

Subsequently, in the 15th century, the Malacca sultanate became, in the words of LY Andaya, “the standard-bearer” of Malay culture, including royal court traditions, traditional dress, literature, culinary traditions and martial arts.

Furthermore, it was during the Malacca sultanate era that the common definitive markers of “Malayness” as we know it today - Islam, the Malay language and cultural traditions - were promulgated.

It should be noted that the early Malays were animists, believing in spirits that dwell in objects and nature. Subsequently, they became Hindu Buddhists from about the fifth to the 14th century.

From the 15th century onwards, the Malays in Malacca embraced Islam - which gradually became the most professed religion of the Malay Peninsula.

After the capture of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, Aceh became the main polity in the Malay world during the 16th and most of the 17th century. In the late 17th century, Johor replaced Aceh as the centre of the “Malay world”.

Summing up, the term “Malay” in Malaysia, which was initially restricted ethnically to people originating from Sumatra, has been extended to encompass other ethnic groups within the “Malay world” due to assimilation.

Additionally, a large proportion of Malays have a mixed ethnic background with Indian, Chinese, Arab and Siamese blood. What binds them together basically is their core Islamic faith and the Malay language.