TheTitiwangsa Mountains are part of theTenasserim Hills system and form the backbone of the peninsula and the southernmost section of the centralcordillera, which runs fromTibet through theKra Isthmus, the peninsula's narrowest point, into the Malay Peninsula.[1] TheStrait of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island ofSumatra, and the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by theStraits of Johor.
The Malay termTanah Melayu is derived from the wordTanah (land) andMelayu (Malays), thus it means "the Malay land". The term can be found in various Malay texts, of which the oldest dating back to the early 17th century. It is frequently mentioned in theHikayat Hang Tuah, a well-known classic tale associated with the legendary heroes ofMalacca Sultanate.Tanah Melayu in the text is consistently employed to refer to the area under Malaccan dominance.[2] In theNegarakertagama manuscript written in 1365, this area is calledHujung Medini.[3][4]
In the early 16th century,Tomé Pires, a Portugueseapothecary who stayed inMalacca from 1512 to 1515, uses an almost identical term,Terra de Tana Malaio, with which he referred to the southeastern part of Sumatra, where the deposed sultan of Malacca,Mahmud Shah, established his exiled government. The 17th century's account of Portuguese historian,Emanuel Godinho de Erédia, noted on the region ofMalaios surrounded by theAndaman Sea in the north, the entireStrait of Malacca in the centre, a part ofSunda Strait in the south, and the western part ofSouth China Sea in the east.[5]
Prior to the foundation of Malacca, ancient and medieval references to a Malay peninsula exist in various foreign sources. According to several Indian and Western scholars, the wordMalayadvipa ("mountain-insular continent"), mentioned in the ancient Indian text,Vayu Purana, may possibly refer to the Malay Peninsula.[6][7][8][9] Another Indian source, an inscription on the south wall of theBrihadeeswarar Temple, recorded the wordMalaiur, referring to a kingdom in the Malay Peninsula that had "a strong mountain for its rampart".[10][11]Ptolemy'sGeographia named a geographical region of theGolden Chersonese asMaleu-kolon, a term thought to derive from Sanskritmalayakolam ormalaikurram.[12]Tabula Rogeriana completed by an Arab geographerMuhammad al-Idrisi, reflects the Malay peninsula as a long island and called it Malai, bordering the Qmer (Khmer) and lying 12 days sail from Sanf (Champa).[13][14] While the Chinese chronicle of theYuan dynasty mentioned the wordMa-li-yu-er, referring to a nation of the Malay Peninsula that was threatened by the southward expansion of theSukhothai Kingdom under KingRam Khamhaeng.[15][16] During the same era,Marco Polo made a reference toMalauir in histravelogue, as a kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula, possibly similar to the one mentioned in the Yuan chronicle.[17][18] The Malay Peninsula was conflated withPersia in old Japan, and was known by the same name.[19]
In the early 20th century, the termTanah Melayu was generally used by the Malays of the peninsula during the rise ofMalay nationalism to describe uniting allMalay states on the peninsula under one Malay nation, and this ambition was largely realised with the formation ofPersekutuan Tanah Melayu (Malay for "Federation of Malaya") in 1948.[20]
The peninsula's forests are home to thousands of species of animals and plants. Several large endangered mammals inhabit the peninsula –Asian elephant (Elephas maximus),gaur (Bos gaurus),tiger (Panthera tigris),sun bear (Helarctos malayanus),Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus),clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), andsiamang (Symphalangus syndactylus).[21] TheSumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) once inhabited the forests, but Malaysia's last rhinoceroses died in 2019, and the species' few remaining members survive only inSumatra.[22]
The Kangar-Pattani floristic boundary crosses the peninsula in southern Thailand and northernmost Malaysia, marking the boundary between the large biogeographic regions ofIndochina to the north andSundaland andMalesia to the south. The forests north of the boundary are characterized by seasonally-deciduous trees, while the Sundaland forests have more year-round rainfall and the trees are mostly evergreen. Peninsular Malaysia is home to three terrestrial ecoregions. ThePeninsular Malaysian montane rain forests ecoregion covers the mountains above 1,000 meters elevation. The lowlands and hills are in thePeninsular Malaysian rain forests ecoregion. ThePeninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests include distinctive waterlogged forests in the lowlands on both sides of the peninsula.[23]
^Pigeaud, Theodoor Gautier Thomas.Java in the 14th Century: A Study in Cultural History, Volume IV: Commentaries and Recapitulations (3rd ed.). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.ISBN978-94-017-7133-7.
^Nugroho, Irawan Djoko (2009).Meluruskan Sejarah Majapahit. Ragam Media.
^Pande, Govind Chandra (2005).India's Interaction with Southeast Asia: History of Science,Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Vol. 1, Part 3. Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 266.ISBN978-81-87586-24-1.
^Sarkar, Himansu Bhusan (1970).Some contributions of India to the ancient civilisation of Indonesia and Malaysia. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak. p. 8.ASINB000PFNF5C.
^Gerini, Gerolamo Emilio (1974).Researches on Ptolemy's geography of eastern Asia (further India and Indo-Malay archipelago). Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. p. 101.ISBN81-7069-036-6.
^Cordier, Henri (2009).Ser Marco Polo; notes and addenda to Sir Henry Yule's edition, containing the results of recent research and discovery. Bibliolife. p. 105.ISBN978-1-110-77685-6.
^Wright, Thomas (2004).The travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian: the translation of Marsden revised, with a selection of his notes. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. pp. 364–365.ISBN978-1-4191-8573-1.
^Bunnell, Tim (2004). "From nation to networks and back again: Transnationalism, class and national identity in Malaysia".State/Nation/Transnation: Perspectives on Transnationalism in the Asia Pacific. Routledge: 1984.ISBN0-415-30279-X.
^Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002).Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Washington, DC: Island Press.
^Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002).Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Washington, DC: Island Press.
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