Who Came Here First? Ask the Rivers and Tides

Around 10,000 BCE, Proto-Malays from Yunnan became ancestors of the Jakun and Temuan—present-day Orang Asli communities, the peninsula's indigenous inhabitants. Distinct from them, the Du Tero (Deutero-Malay, second wave) peoples arrived by 300 BCE with rice and bronze, intermixing to largely form the basis of today's ethnic Malay majority. Indian traders soon followed, carving Hindu temples at Bujang Valley and leaving Sanskrit scripts, while Chinese merchants exchanged silk for tin and camphor. Srivijaya later rose from Sumatra, ruling the straits by water and trust. Deep in Johor's jungle, Kota Gelanggi stood as a lost inland capital. This land never belonged to one people; it was stitched together by shared harbors and mutual respect, not by the right of being first.