Akar Nusa
A market in southern Thailand. Some traders speak Thai, others a Malay close to what is heard in Kelantan, and a Chinese shop is nearby.
The story
Thailand, Malaysia's neighbour to the north, is home to about 70 ethnic groups. Long before the Tai peoples arrived, the central plains were home to Austroasiatic peoples such as the Mon and the Khmer. The Tai moved south from southern China over many centuries, roughly from the 7th to the 13th century. As they went, they intermarried with and absorbed the older peoples. The Tai kingdoms of Lanna (1259), Sukhothai (1279) and later Ayutthaya grew from this mixing.
In the south, the people were Malay. Thailand today has the third biggest Malay population after Malaysia and Indonesia. Most live in the provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Pattani, with others in Songkhla, Phuket and Ranong. In Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat the culture and language are close to those of Kelantan across the border. Kedah, for example, was long a vassal of Siam, and Francis Light, who founded Penang, spent years at Thalang (Phuket).
The map changed in the 1800s and early 1900s. In 1816, Siam divided the Sultanate of Patani into several provinces. In 1909 a treaty between Siam and Britain placed Kedah under British rule, in exchange for what became Satun province. It remains a sensitive subject today, so we tell it briefly and neutrally.
Chinese migrants also played a big part. Many came in the 19th and early 20th centuries, mostly Teochew. About 9.5 million Thais, 11 to 14 per cent, have Chinese roots. Writers describe it as one of the oldest overseas Chinese communities in the world.
One more link: the Malay and Thai worlds met long before any border existed. Malay communities live today in Phuket, Ranong and even Bangkok, as well as in the far south, and they are called by several local names, such as Patani Malay, Satun Malay and Phuket Malay. Each has its own history.
Where you can still see it today
- Southern Thai towns, where Malay, Thai and Chinese cultures live side by side.
- The Malay dialect of Pattani, close to Kelantanese.
- Chinese Thai communities in towns across the country, mostly Teochew.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
A large Asia-wide study found that DNA ancestry follows language families and geography closely, even though people have mixed along the way. It also found that Southeast Asia was a major source of East Asian gene variants, so the region is deeply old.
For Malaysians, this means Thai-border families often share a Southeast Asian base, with many threads from China, India and the islands. A region estimate can show this. DNA does not decide race, religion or bumiputera status, and it cannot tell nationality or language.
