Sri Lankan Malays

Common card · No. 340639

Sri Lankan Malays (Sinhala: (ශ්‍රී ලංකා) මැලේ ජනතාව Śrī Laṅkā Mælē Janatāva (Standard); colloquially මැලේ මිනිස්සු / ජා මිනිස්සු Mæle Minissu / Ja Minissu; Tamil: இலங்கை மலாயர், romanized: Ilaṅkai Malāyar), historically known as Ceylon Malays, are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended primarily from Southeast Asians who were brought to or settled in Ceylon during Dutch and British colonial rule from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Their ancestors included political exiles, soldiers, convicts, servants and their families from various parts of the Indonesian archipelago. The population was ethnically diverse and included people of Javanese, Bugis, Ambonese, Bandanese, Balinese and Madurese origin. The designation Malay was used broadly in colonial Ceylon to refer to Southeast Asians of diverse ethnic origins, rather than exclusively to ethnic Malays. Dutch and British records applied broader collective labels to Southeast Asians of different regional origins, and the designation...

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