Malaya

Malaya is both a name and word that has different meanings in different places.

Malaya first recorded in the Vayu Purana (c. 1 BCE - 7 CE) as Malayadvipa (lit. 'Malaya island') refers to the Sumatra island. Malaya also mentioned in the Amoghapasa inscription (c. 1300s CE) found in the estuary of Batanghari river in West Sumatra, refers to the region in Sumatra.

Malaysia & Singapore

In the history of Malaysia and Singapore, "Malaya" (Malay: Tanah Melayu) can refer to:

• British Malaya, (18th century-1946) a loose collection of British controlled states in the Malay Peninsula, including Singapore
• The Malayan Union, (1946-1948) a post-war British colony consisting of all states in British Malaya, excluding Singapore
• The Federation of Malaya (Persekutuan Tanah Melayu) (1948-1963), the successor of the Malayan Union (also excluding Singapore) which gained independence within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1957
• present-day Peninsular Malaysia, the states and territories formerly comprising the Federation of Malaya (1963-present), now also known formally as the States of Malaya (Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu)

Other uses

• Malaya (movie), a 1949 American film set in Japanese occupied Malaya
• In the Shambhala tradition, the name of a "National Forest" or sacred garden, comparable to the Garden of Eden.
• Oxana Malaya (born 1983), a feral child that lived most of her life in the company of dogs, picking a number of their habits.
• Malay Archipelago, for the macroregion

Related pages

• Malay (disambiguation)