Architecture of Malaysia

Throughout many decades, the traditional Malaysian architecture has been influenced by Buginese and Javanese from the south, Islamic, Siamese, and Indian from the north, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Acehnese and Minangkabau from the west and southern Chinese from the east.

Within an area of about 350 square kilometres, 87 early historic religious sites have been reported and there are 12 candis located on mountain tops, a feature which suggests may derive from pre-Islamic Malay beliefs regarding the sanctity of high places.

A 7th-century Chinese account tells of Buddhist pilgrims calling at Langkasuka and mentioned the city as being surrounded by a wall on which towers had been built and was approached through double gates.

[6] Another 7th-century account of a special Chinese envoy to Red Earth kingdom in West Malaysia, recorded that the capital city had three gates more than a hundred paces apart, which were decorated with paintings of Buddhist themes and female spirits.

According to this historical document, the building had a raised seven-bay structures on wooden pillars with a seven-tiered roof in cooper shingles and decorated with gilded spires and Chinese glass mirrors.

They have pitched roofs, porches in the front, high ceilings, many openings on the walls for ventilation,[9] and are often embellished with elaborate wood carvings.

The beauty and quality of Malay wood carvings were meant to serve as visual indicators of the social rank and status of the owners themselves.

[10] With the migration of Acehnese, Minangkabau, Javanese, Banjarese and Buginese, regional Malay architectural style with influences from other parts of the archipelago also exists, especially in places where they formed the majority.

In some parts of Sabah and Labuan, a substantial number of indigenous people like the Bajau and Bruneian Malay still remain to live in water villages.

The floating of rubbish and sewage on the water is still a persisting issue in many of these villages despite substantial measures and initiatives taken by various government and non-government agencies.

With its colonial-style government buildings, churches, squares, fortifications, and multicultural heritage, both Malacca and George Town demonstrate a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.

Wood, an important element in traditional Malay buildings, is also reinterpreted and readapted in the modern landscape in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Putrajaya.

[citation needed] The stilt elevated undulating roof structure of the KLIA is supposed to imitate the traditional Malay-styled raised village houses.