Akar NusaHow did we all come to be Malaysian?
Every family here has a long road behind it. Mothers and fathers who walked out of Africa, sailed the seas, traded at the ports and crossed oceans to make a home. Follow the road. Find your own line.
THE LONGEST ROAD: ONE MOTHER LINE, FROM EAST AFRICA TO MALAYSIA. EVERY FAMILY LINE HAS ITS OWN MAP.
Thirteen ways into one big story
Pick a shelf. Each one gathers the stories and family lines behind a chapter of how Malaysians came to be.
14 storiesDeep time
The first roads out of Africa, and the oldest family lines still alive in us.
26 storiesFirst peoples
The Orang Asli and the first communities of Borneo, told with respect from scholars' work.
16 storiesThe sea peoples
Farmers and sailors who likely spread from Taiwan across the islands and out into the Pacific.
20 storiesKingdoms and trade
Monsoon winds, spices and ports: how trade brought people together.
24 storiesMelaka
A port where the world met, and what that meeting left in our families.
52 storiesThe great migrations
Waves of families from China, India and beyond who made Malaysia home.
18 storiesMixed communities
Communities shaped by many roots, and the stories they keep.
22 storiesSabah
The many peoples of the land below the wind.
25 storiesSarawak
Rivers, longhouses and the many peoples of Sarawak.
31 storiesLiving heritage
Food, language and custom: what families keep and pass on.
21 storiesThe science
How a family line is read, and what DNA can and cannot tell you.
18 storiesOur testers in numbers
What the Malaysians we have tested show us, as plain numbers.
12 storiesSoutheast Asia next
The same stories for our neighbours: Indonesia, Thailand and beyond.
Every family line has a story and a map
A mother line follows your mother's mother's mother, and so on back. A father line follows your father's father's father. Each one has travelled a different road to reach Malaysia.
The seafarers' line
Line is likely 30,000 to 50,000 years oldMother line M7The line of the eastern seas
Line is likely 35,000 to 55,000 years oldMother line F1The line of the great rivers
Line is likely 30,000 to 45,000 years oldMother line B5From the Mekong to Japan
Line is likely 30,000 to 45,000 years oldMother line D4The line of the northern lands
Line is likely 25,000 to 40,000 years oldMother line D5A line of China and beyond
Line is likely 25,000 to 40,000 years oldFather line O-M324China's most common father line
Line is likely 20,000 to 30,000 years oldFather line O-M119The seafarers' father line
Line is likely 20,000 to 35,000 years oldFather line O-M268The line of the rice lands
Line is likely 25,000 to 35,000 years oldFather line R-M420A Central and South Asian line
Line is likely 15,000 to 25,000 years oldFather line C-F1067An old line of East Asia
Line is likely 30,000 to 35,000 years oldFather line H-M69An old line of India
Line is likely 20,000 to 45,000 years oldShowing 12 of 70: 41 mother lines and 29 father lines. See them all
One shared family, many communities
Hakka, Iban, Kadazan-Dusun, Chitty, Orang Asli and many more. Each community has its own page, with every story that touches it.
Every story, pinned on the map
From the caves of Niah to the ports of Melaka. Tap a place and see the stories that happened there.
Open the story mapThree steps to your own line
Take a simple sample
A kit comes to you. You take a gentle sample at home and post it back. No clinic visit.
Laboratory partners read your DNA
Your sample is read with care and your result is made private to you.
Follow your lines
Open your result on atgc.asia. See your mother line and your father line, and the road each one took to Malaysia.
A story told with real Malaysian families
DNA tells one part of a family's story. It does not show race, religion, nationality or any legal status. Every community in Malaysia has its own way of telling who it is, and we tell the DNA part with respect.
Find out which lines are yours
Order a kit and open your own family lines. The stories on this site are the same ones you will see in your result.
Get testedSee your result
Your result lives on atgc.asia, private to you. Sign in and open Family lines.
Go to atgc.asia
