Multi-racial and multi-cultural Malaysia, truly Asia

 In addition to this blog, I have another blog Testing Blogger Beta (close new window to get back to this page) which I use to test various features of the newly rolled out Blogger Beta. Since it has been reported that the problem of blogging direct from Picasa (Google's photo software) to Blogger Beta has been solved, I decided to test it out, posting a photo from my album and at the same time, write about multi-racial and multi-cultural Malaysia. The photo you see here is a photo of a beautiful Malaysian Chinese, posted direct from Picasa.

Malaysia comprises 3 major races - Malay, Chinese and Indian. There are also the natives of Peninsular Malaysia (orang asli) and the Borneo island (Dayak, Kenyah, Iban, Murut, Dusun, Kayan, Punan, Kelabit and Bidayuh). In addition to that, there are some Portugese in historical Malacca, the decendents of the Portugese invaders who in 1511, conquered Malacca and established a colony there. In Malacca too, are the Peranakans, the Baba (male) and Nyonya (female) who are the descendents of the Chinese who stayed behind after Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) visited Malacca in the 15th century. The Peranakans have retained most of their ethnic and religious origins (ancestor worship), but assimilated the language and culture of the Malays. They developed a unique culture and distinct foods.

In the Borneo island (Sabah and Sarawak) are the natives comprising the Dayak, Kenyah, Iban, Murut, Dusun, Kayan, Punan, Kelabit nad Bidayuh.

A visit is like a visit to a microcosm of Asia as the 3 major races of Chinese, Indians and Malays can be found here, and you can experience the diversity of Asian food and culture. That is why the slogan of Tourism Malaysia is "Malaysia, truly Asia" 

BTW I found uploading photos to my blog via Picasa very convenient as I do not need to be logged into my Blogger account to do it. If you are interested in downloading Picasa, you can do so via the text link "Organise your pictures. Get Google's photo software" at the top of the sidebar in this page.