Kedah
(2002 est. pop. 1.7 million). Kedah State is situated on the northwestern coast of peninsular Malaysia and borders Thailand. The state is commonly known as the "Rice Bowl of Malaysia." Recent government initiatives, however, have sought to diversify its mainstay economic activities, particularly in the areas of industry (e.g., Kulim Technological Park) and tourism (e.g., Isles of Langkawi).
In ancient times, Kedah was a well-known destination for trade. Lively commerce between India and Kedah existed some two thousand years ago, as indicated by contemporary Indian literature. Kedah was variously known in Tamil and Sanskrit as Kadaram, Kidaram, Kalagam, and Kataha. Its fame also reached civilizations in Greece and China.
Malaysia's most extensive archaeological site is also found in the Bujang Valley (in southern Kedah) where ruins of an ancient Hindu-Buddhist kingdom were uncovered. The oldest surviving written sources, in the form of stone inscriptions, bear witness to the region as an important landfall port (at Sungei Mas), and later, as an entrepôt (at Pengkalan Bujang) between India and China from as early as the fifth century CE. Additionally, artifacts in the form of bronzeware, ceramics, amber, glass, and beads originating from China, Indochina, Thailand, West Asia, and India indicate the vitality of these commercial links. Its importance, however, waned with the founding of the Melaka sultanate and the dawning of Islam from the fifteenth century CE onward.
Further Reading
Bonney, Rollins. (1971) Kedah, 1771–1821: The Search for Security and Independence. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
Carstens, Sharon, ed. (1986). Cultural Identity in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies.
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