THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MALAYSIA

                            Malaysia 

• Malaysia is a multiracial country. Malaysia has a population of 30,073,353 (July 2014 est.)  consisting of Malay 50.1% , Chinese 22.6%,  Indian 6.7%, and ,indigenous 11.8%,  other 0.7%, non-citizens 8.2% .
  
• Diversity of races, religions and cultures is a significant characteristic of our nation. Malaysia is a multiracial country with a rich cultural heritage.
• Unique to Malaysia is the 'Open House' concept where during the various cultural and religious festival like Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Gawai Day and others, friends and families would visit the house of those who are celebrating the festival, to wish them well and enjoy the feast prepared by the host.

Deepavali Celebration.

Hari Raya celebration .

Chinese new year Celebration .

Gawai Dayak  Festival is one of the major festivals celebrated in Sarawak, East Malaysia. 

Kadazan Harvest Festival .

The tallest twin towers in the world , KLCC ( Petronas Twin Towers ) .

Here is a bunch of facts you probably didn't know about Malaysian Twin Towers : 

1. Tower One was built by a Mayjaus Joint-Venture led by Japan’s Hazama Corp. and made up of JA Jones Construction Co , MMC Engineering Services Sdn Bhd , Ho Hup Construction  and  Mitsubishi Corp. 
The Tower One foreman was Robert Pratt.

2. Tower Two was built by a SKJ Joint-Venture led by  Korea’s Samsung Engineering , and comprised of Kuk Dong Engineering and Syarikat Jasatera Sdn Bhd.
The Tower Two foreman was Jon Dunsford. 

3. It took 6 years of 24 hour construction to complete the twin towers. The building costs were US $ 1,8 billion .

4. French “Spiderman” Robert Alain climbed the Twin without any equipment twice . First time in 1997 the authorities knew about his intent and were prepared to stop him. Yet the police noticed him only when he was half way through his climb. They managed to catch up with the “Spiderman” and arrest him only on the 60th floor. In 2007 Alain climbed Petronas again. He stopped on the 60th floor and made a show out of surrendering to the police public applause.

5. Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004, when Taipei101 took over the title. 

BBKLCC - PAVILION KUALA LUMPUR

1. Featured as the world’s fourth best shopping city in CNNGo, Kuala Lumpur is indeed a shopper’s paradise. 

2. Case in point :  Three of the world’s 10 largest malls are in KL , while year-round sales offer the best bang for your buck. 

3. The BBKLCC stretch from Bukit Bintang to Kuala Lumpur City Centre, in particular, will leave you spoilt for choice with its abundant fashion, food and entertainment options.There are huge selection of local and international brands available across nine signature malls within the area. 

The First Formula 1 circuit in South-East Asia:

Sepang International Circuit

The Sepang International Circuit outside Kuala Lumpur was designed by Hermann Tilke and built to host the first Malaysian Grand Prix in 1999. 

The Batu Caves

(Temple Cave or Cathedral Cave is the best known and biggest of the caves ).

1.Brief History of Batu Caves :

• Originally used by the Orang Asli or aborigines of the Bersisi tribe for  shelter when out hunting.

• 1860s Used by the Chinese community to collect guano from bat droppings for their vegetable farms around Kuala Lumpur.
• 1878 Discovered by William Hornaday, an American Naturalist, who documented the caves and made popular as a result.
• 1891 Temple founder, Thamboosamy Pillai, laid foundation stone and installed a "murti" or consecrated statue of the Sri Subramania Swamy Temple. Apparently the mouth of the entrance to the main cave resembles the shape of a "vel" or spear.
• 1892 First Thaipusam festival celebrated here. This major Hindu festival has been held here annually since then.

2. Golden Statue of Lord Murugan : 

• Completed: January 2006
• Cost: RM2.5 million.
• Tallest statue of Lord Murugan in the world.
• Malaysian Book of Records: Tallest Hindu deity in Malaysia.

The mountain Kinabalu

1.Towering 4095m above northern Borneo, Mountain Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the island of New Guinea.
It has a very wide range of habitats, from rich tropical lowland and hill rain forest to tropical mountain forest, sub-alpine forest and scrub on the higher elevations. 

2.Mount Kinabalu is a prominent mountain on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It is located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah and is protected as Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Site. 

3.In 1888, zoologist, John Whitehead, ascended the highest point. Lilian Gibbs, a British botanist, was the first woman to reach the summit in 1910. 

Malacca and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca.

1.The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. With its government buildings, churches, squares and fortifications , Malacca demonstrates the early stages of this history originating in the 15th-century Malay sultanate and the Portuguese and Dutch periods beginning in the early 16th century. 

2.Featuring residential and commercial buildings, George Town represents the British era from the end of the 18th century. The two towns constitute a unique architectural and cultural towns-cape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia. 





Other general Information :

◘  Petronas is the only Malaysian company in the Fortune Global 500 (Fortune magazine’s list of 500's largest corporations in the world).

◘ There are  878 islands in Malaysia . Sabah has the most at 394 .

◘ The tropical rain-forests of Malaysia are the mother of all rainforests.
 At 130 million years, they are even older than the tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins

◘ The biggest roundabout in the world is located at Putrajaya.  It is 3.5km in diameter.

◘ SABAH is home to the Rafflesia, the lagest flower in the world. 

◘  SIPADAN Island off Sabah is one of the worlds top diving spots. 

◘  THE largest cave chamber in the world is the Sarawak Chamber in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, which can easily accommodate a Boeing 747-200.

◘ Malaysia Facts – The Language

 - Although the official lingua franca is Bahasa Malaysia, being a multi ethic country, various other languages and dialects are also spoken in Malaysia.

 - The main Chinese dialects that are spoken by the Malaysian Chinese include Cantonese, Foochow, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin.

 - Tamil and Telugu and Punjabi are also widely spoken among the Malaysian Indian communities.

 - In East Malaysia, the indigenous tribes form the bulk of the local population, the Iban and Bidayuh languages are widely spoken in Sarawak while in Sabah, it is quite common to hear the Kadazan language being spoken among the people in Sabah. There are more than 60 sub-ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak.  .

Edit 1 :

The " Datukship "of Shah Rukh Khan'' and  ''Jackie Chan''  .

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan became the first Indian movie star to be conferred a prestigious Malaysian title. The actor will be referred to as Datuk Shah Rukh Khan in Malaysia and will be addressed as Datuk .

 

The well known Hong Kong actor was bestowed "datukship " on February 2015 . 

Datuk Jackie chan .