The Iban of Sarawak, interestingly, still live in traditional jungle villages in longhouses along the Rajang and Lupar rivers and their tributaries in Malaysia. Along with them, Malaysia also houses quite a large number of Orang Asli or aboriginal people, who comprise a number of different ethnic communities living in Peninsular Malaysia. Traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers and agriculturists, many have been sedentarised and partially absorbed into modern Malaysia, though still remaining the poorest group in the country.

Apart from the original nomadic tribes, there are the Chinese comprising of about a quarter of the population and also Indians who account for about 7% of the population. While the Chinese are mostly Buddhists, Taoists or Christian, and speak a variety of Chinese dialects, the Indians are mainly south-indian Hindus, speaking Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam and Hindi. However, english as a first language is used by umpteen middle to upper-middle class Chinese as well as Indians in Malaysia.

The remaining population of Malaysia comprises of a sizeable Sikh community, of Eurasians (of mixed Portuguese and Malay descent as well as mixed Malay and Spanish descent), Cambodians, and Vietnamese. In most cases, the Cambodians and Vietnamese are Buddhists of the Theravada sect and Mahayana sect.

The Chinese forming a sizeable part of the population, Malaysian traditional music is heavily influenced by Chinese forms. Saying that, the Islamic forms also influence the music to a great extent. The music, based largely around the gendang (drum), also includes a number of interesting percussion instruments, and even flutes and trumpets. Infested with a strong tradition of dance and dance dramas, some of Thai, Indian and Portuguese origin, the malaysian culture also incorporates artistic forms like wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre), silat (a stylised martial art) and crafts like batik, weaving, silver and brasswork.

In terms of religion, Malaysians usually tend to personally respect one another's religious beliefs. However, inter-religious problems arise mainly from the political sphere. Often non-muslims are said to experience restrictions in activities like construction of religious buildings. All Muslims here are obliged to follow the decisions of sharia courts, although when it comes to leaving/renouncing the Islam faith, the court of malaysia is said to have denied one the right (such as the Yeshua Jalilludin versus the Minister of Home Affairs case in the 1980's).

Malaysia Travel/Tourism: