Pahang
The state is divided into 11 districts (daerah) - Pekan, Rompin, Maran, Temerloh, Jerantut, Bentong, Raub, Lipis, Cameron Highlands and Bera. The largest district is Jerantut, which is the main gateway to the Taman Negara national park. Pahang's capital and largest city, Kuantan, is the eighth largest urban agglomerations by population in Malaysia. The royal capital and the official seat of the Sultan of Pahang is located at Pekan. Pekan was also the old state capital which its name translates literally into 'the town', it was known historically as 'Inderapura'. Other major towns include Temerloh, Bentong and its hills resorts of Genting Highlands and Bukit Tinggi. The head of state is the Sultan of Pahang, while the head of government is the Menteri Besar. The government system is closely modeled on the Westminster parliamentary system. The state religion of Pahang is Islam, but grants freedom to manifest other religions in its territory. Pahang is categorised as medium ethnically diverse state with 0.36 of ethnic diversity index in 2010. It is ranked 5th least diverse among Malaysian states and territories, after Terengganu, Kelantan, Melaka and Perlis.
Archaeological evidences revealed the existence of human habitation in the area that is today Pahang from as early as the paleolithic age. The early settlements gradually developed into an ancient maritime trading state by the 3rd century. In the 5th century, the Old Pahang sent envoys to the Liu Song court. During the time of Langkasuka, Srivijaya and Ligor, Pahang was one of the outlying dependencies. In the 15th century, the Pahang Sultanate became an autonomous kingdom within the Melaka Sultanate. Pahang entered into a dynastic union with Johor Empire in the early 17th century and later emerged as an autonomous kingdom in the late 18th century. Following the bloody Pahang Civil War that was concluded in 1863, the state under Tun Ahmad of the Bendahara dynasty, was eventually restored as a Sultanate in 1881. In 1895, Pahang became a British protectorate along with the states of Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. During the World War II, Pahang and other states of Malaya were occupied by the Empire of Japan from 1941 to 1945. After the war, Pahang became part of the temporary Malayan Union before being absorbed into the Federation of Malayas and gained full independence through the federation. On 16 September 1963, the federation was enlarged with the inclusion of new states of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore (expelled in 1965). The federation was opposed by neighbouring Indonesia, which led to the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation over three years along with the continuous war against local Communist insurgents.
Modern Pahang is an economically important state with main activities in services, manufacturing and agricultural sectors. As part of ECER, it is a key region for the manufacturing sector, with the local logistics support network serving as a hub for the entire east coast region of Peninsular Malaysia. Over the years, the state has attracted much investment, both local and foreign, in the mineral sector. Important mineral exports include iron ore, gold, tin and bauxite. Malaysia's substantial oil and natural gas fields lie offshore in the South China Sea. At one time, timber resources also brought much wealth to the state. Large-scale development projects have resulted in the clearing of hundreds of square miles of land for oil palm and rubber plantations and the resettling of several hundred thousand people in new villages under the federal agencies and institutions like FELDA, FELCRA and RISDA.
The Cambodian word for tin is pāhang (ប៉ាហាំង) and it is phonetically identical to (note that the Jawi spelling, literally, "phŋ", deviates from modern DBP rule although its sound is unmistakably /paahaŋ/, note that the long ā sound is not explicitly rendered or stressed in old Jawi, just like ڤد). Since the tin mines at Sungai Lembing were known since ancient times and that the Malay peninsula was within the sphere of influence of Khmer civilization, William Linehan hypothesized that the name of the state was named after the Cambodian term of the mineral (note that tin-rich Perak is also etymologically linked to the same mineral).
We can then use this lexemic starting point to explain other derivatives such as Pahang the river, Mahang the place (name given to Pahang by Jakuns), Mahang the tree (macaranga 血桐树 , a common tree species in secondary forests, likely named after the toponym of the same phoneme). The proto-Malays of the Sungai Bebar who interacted with trito-Malays likely acquired the term from their city counterparts and the name was fossilized their memory. The theory that the state was named after the a river or a tree is unsatisfactory as we still need to explain how the river or the tree got their names.
There were many variations of the name Pahang outside the Malay world. For examples, Song dynasty author Zhao Rukuo 趙汝适 wrote in Zhufanzhi 諸蕃志 (circa 1225) that Phong-hong (蓬豐 romanized according to Southern Min dialect since Zhao is from Quanzhou) was a dependency of Srivijaya. The transition from Inderapura to Pahang, approximately around the Song period indicates that Khmer influence on the state was weakened and displaced by that of Srivijaya and Majapahit.
In Yuan dynasty, Pahang is known as Phenn-Khenn 彭坑 in Daoyi Zhilue 島夷志略 (circa 1349), and in Ming Shilu 明實錄 (circa 1378), it was transliterated as Pen-Heng 湓亨, and in Haiguo Wenjianlu 海國聞見錄 (circa 1730), compiled in the Qing period, Pahang was transliterated as 邦項 (Pang-hang).
Arabs and Europeans, on the other hand, transliterated Pahang to Pam, Pan, Paam, Paon, Phaan, Phang, Paham, Pahan, Pahaun, Phaung, Phahangh.
Map - Pahang
Map
Country - Malaysia
Flag of Malaysia |
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms, which, from the 18th century on, became subject to the British Empire, along with the British Straits Settlements protectorate. Peninsular Malaysia was unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948 and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. The independent Malaya united with the then British crown colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia. In August 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation and became a separate independent country.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
MYR | Malaysian ringgit | RM | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
ZH | Chinese language |
EN | English language |
MS | Malay language |
ML | Malayalam language |
PA | Panjabi language |
TA | Tamil language |
TE | Telugu language |
TH | Thai language |