BurmeseMalays, primarily live in Tanintharyi Region in the southern part of Myanmar. The southernmost islands of the Mergui Archipelago is home to the Moken people, a nomadic ethnic minority related to the Malays. There are also some dispersed Malay and Malay related Muslims from the northernmost states of Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Some of the Moken and the Muslims in these southernmost islands speak a dialect of Malay. The Malays are believed to be of Kedahan Malay descent. In 1865, an Arab-Malay group led by Nayuda Ahmed, traveling and collecting sea products around Mergui Archipelago settled down in Victoria Point Bay, now located in modern-day Kawthaung, which commenced the first wave of migration from Kedah. The Burmese Malays mainly live in Bokpyin Township and a few islands in the southern part of the Mergui Archipelago. The Malay influence is clearly visible in the names of certain settlements near Kawthaung - the wordsKampong, Ulu, Telok, Tengah and Pulau appear in a handful of settlement names. In the 1917 Ethnological Survey of Burma, there are 6,368 individuals identified as Malays.
Language, culture and religion
The Malays living in Southern Burma are related to the Kedahan Malay and maintain strong kinship, cultural and economic links to the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand till today. They speak Burmese and Kedah-Perlis dialect. Due to the prevalence of Islamic religious schooling among the community, many of these Malays can also read the Jawi script which was the old Arabic-derived script used in the Malay Peninsula. Most Malays are adherents of the Shafi'imadhab of Sunni Islam. The Mokens, although related to the Malays, have their own Austronesian languages and a separate cultural, societal and religious identity. A sizable wave of return migration from Myanmar in 1980s also resulted a large settlement of Burmese Malay community, concentrated in Bukit Malut, Langkawi, Kedah. The present-day population is estimated to be around 8,000 individuals.
