100 Fun Facts About Malaysia

Malaysia is split into two regions by which body of water?

Peninsular Malaysia sits on the Asian mainland while East Malaysia occupies the northern part of a large island shared with Indonesia and Brunei.

The states of Sabah and Sarawak lie on which island?

Malaysia shares the island with Indonesia and the tiny sultanate of Brunei.

What is the national capital and largest city of Malaysia?

It hosts parliament; the executive and judiciary sit in a separate planned city to the south.

Which planned city serves as Malaysia's federal administrative capital?

It was one of the mega-projects of the Mahathir era, alongside the Petronas Towers and the North-South Expressway.

How many states does Malaysia have?

Add three federal territories, including the island of Labuan.

Malaya achieved independence from Britain on which date, now celebrated as Hari Merdeka?

The 1963 federation is marked separately as Malaysia Day on 16 September.

Which territory left the Malaysian federation in 1965 to become an independent country?

It had joined only two years earlier, in the 1963 federation.

Malaysia's head of state is unusual because he is what?

By informal agreement the throne rotates among the nine hereditary rulers of the Malay states.

What is the official title of Malaysia's king?

The role has been largely ceremonial since constitutional changes in 1994.

Which ruler became Malaysia's king on 31 January 2024?

Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor took the throne for a five-year term in 2024; the four states with appointed governors rather than hereditary rulers do not take part in choosing the King.

Who was sworn in as Malaysia's 10th prime minister in November 2022?

He took office after the country's first hung parliament, leading a grand coalition.

The 1MDB corruption scandal implicated which former Malaysian prime minister?

The scandal contributed to the ruling party's first-ever election defeat in 2018.

Which European power conquered Malacca in 1511?

The Dutch took the port from the Portuguese in 1641, and Britain gained it in 1824.

Which island did the Sultan of Kedah lease to the British East India Company in 1786?

It became one of the Straits Settlements alongside Malacca and Labuan.

James Brooke and his successors ruled Sarawak under what title?

Brooke received Sarawak from the Sultan of Brunei in 1842, and the family ruled until 1946.

Which 1874 treaty established the system of British residents in the Malay states?

It followed the Klang and Larut wars, which had disrupted the tin trade and alarmed British merchants.

The Malayan Emergency against communist guerrillas ran from 1948 until which year?

Independence came in the middle of it, in 1957.

Which prime minister launched the New Economic Policy after the 1969 race riots?

The policy aimed to increase the Malay share of the economy and remains controversial.

The 15th-century Malacca Sultanate was founded by which runaway king of Singapura?

His conversion to Islam helped spread the religion across the peninsula.

What is the tallest mountain in Malaysia?

At 4,095 m it rises from Sabah's Crocker Range inside a UNESCO World Heritage park.

The Mulu Caves in Sarawak hold what distinction?

They lie in Gunung Mulu National Park, one of Malaysia's UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

What is the largest river in Malaysia?

It flows through Sarawak in East Malaysia.

What share of world trade passes through the Strait of Malacca, between Sumatra and Malaysia?

It is one of the most important shipping lanes on the planet.

The southernmost point of mainland Asia, Tanjung Piai, is in which Malaysian state?

A causeway and a bridge cross the strait from here to the neighbouring city-state.

Which mountain range divides Peninsular Malaysia into east and west coasts?

Its highest point is Mount Korbu at 2,183 metres.

Malaysian forests host Rafflesia, notable as what?

A single bloom can reach a metre across.

Malaysia is one of how many megadiverse countries?

It is estimated to hold about 20 percent of the world's animal species.

The waters around which Malaysian island are described as the most biodiverse in the world?

Tourism there has been limited to protect the reefs.

Roughly what fraction of Malaysians are ethnically Malay?

Chinese and Indian Malaysians make up the largest minorities.

What term covers Malays and indigenous groups given constitutional preference in Malaysia?

It literally means 'sons of the soil'; laws on who qualifies vary between states.

Which two states plus one federal territory have non-Muslim majorities?

Nationally about 63.5 percent of the population practise Islam.

The earliest known Malay writing appears on which artefact, dated 1303?

The first Malay literature was written in the Arabic script.

At what age is every Malaysian citizen issued a MyKad smart identity card?

Holders must carry the biometric card at all times.

Hindu pilgrims converge on which site during Thaipusam?

Malaysians of all backgrounds join each other's festivals in a custom called 'open house'.

Malaysia Day on 16 September has been a national holiday since which year?

It commemorates the 1963 federation that brought in Sabah and Sarawak.

Malaysia has been one of only four countries to win which badminton trophy since 1948?

It is the world team championship of men's badminton.

The first Malaysian Grand Prix was held at the Sepang International Circuit in which year?

Sepang is also home to the country's main international airport.

Malaysia hosted the Commonwealth Games in which year?

The games were held in the capital.

What is the traditional martial art most commonly practised by ethnic Malays?

Football remains the country's most popular sport overall.

The Petronas Towers were the world's tallest buildings until 2004. What surpassed them?

The twin towers stand 88 storeys tall.

The Petronas Towers' skybridge, linking the 41st and 42nd floors, holds which record?

Visitor tickets are capped at about 1,000 a day.

Which dish, rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf, is considered Malaysia's national dish?

One legend credits a girl in Malacca who accidentally spilled coconut milk into her rice.

Which spiky, strong-smelling 'king of fruits' is banned from some Southeast Asian hotels?

Its odour can linger for several days.

Malaysian badminton star Lee Chong Wei won how many Olympic silver medals?

He was the first Malaysian to reach an Olympic men's singles final, in 2008.

How many stripes are on the Malaysian flag, the Jalur Gemilang?

They stand for the 13 states and the federal territories; the star has the same number of points.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on 8 March 2014 while flying to which destination?

All 239 people aboard were lost, and the main wreckage has never been found.

The name of Malaysia's capital city translates from Malay as what?

The city grew from 1857 as a town serving the region's tin mines.

Which French navigator proposed the terms Malaysia, Micronesia and Melanesia in 1831?

He coined them after his 1826 Oceania voyage to distinguish island groups from the older term Polynesia.

Which European power took Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641?

Britain only gained the town in 1824 under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, adding it to the Straits Settlements.

Which short-lived 1946 crown-colony scheme did Malays reject over citizenship for ethnic Chinese?

It was replaced on 1 February 1948 by the Federation of Malaya, restoring the autonomy of the Malay rulers.

Malaysia's currency is divided into 100 units called what?

In the northern states a 10 sen coin is still called a kupang, and the Malay names only became the sole official ones in 1975.

Who served as Malaysia's first prime minister, from 1957 to 1970?

He doubled as the new nation's first foreign minister, and he later personally commissioned the sculptor of the National Monument.

Which prime minister served a cumulative 24 years, the longest in Malaysian history?

He held the job twice, from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 to 2020, and was a physician before entering politics.

What was the name of Proton's first car, launched in July 1985?

It was based on the Mitsubishi Lancer Fiore with a 1.3-litre Mitsubishi engine; Proton's first in-house design did not arrive until 2000.

Which carmaker, founded in 1993, is Malaysia's largest by sales?

Its name abbreviates 'Second Automobile Company'; its first model, the Kancil hatchback, went on sale in August 1994.

Which duty-free archipelago of 99 islands lies off Malaysia's northwest coast?

Only four of the 99 islands are inhabited, and UNESCO granted the group Geopark status in 2007.

What was Malaysia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in December 2000?

The park shelters more than 4,500 species of flora and fauna, including over 110 kinds of land snail.

The Sepilok centre near Sandakan, opened in 1964, rehabilitates which animal?

It was the first official project of its kind, and around 60 to 80 rehabilitated apes now live free in the surrounding reserve.

Which flower, called bunga raya in Malay, is Malaysia's national flower?

It beat rivals including ylang ylang, jasmine, lotus, rose and magnolia when the Ministry of Agriculture drew up a shortlist in 1958.

Which Malaysian squash player was world No. 1 for a record 108 consecutive months?

Her nine-year run at the top ended in September 2015, when Egypt's Raneem El Weleily overtook her.

Which Malaysian actress became the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress?

Born in Ipoh, she understood the local Cantonese but could not speak it; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.

Which Malaysian designer from a Hakka family of shoemakers co-founded a luxury shoe label?

Born in 1948, he was appointed an OBE in 2002 for services to the British shoe and fashion industry.

Tony Fernandes bought the debt-laden airline AirAsia, two jets included, for what sum?

The token price came with about RM40 million of debt; he mortgaged his house to take it on.

Which 678.9 m skyscraper, completed in 2023, is the world's second-tallest building?

It overtook the 451.9 m Petronas Twin Towers as Malaysia's tallest and Vietnam's Landmark 81 as Southeast Asia's.

Which businessman founded the Genting Highlands casino resort in 1965?

He got the idea from the cool air of the Cameron Highlands while there on a hydroelectric project in 1963.

Which American silk magnate vanished while walking in the Cameron Highlands in 1967?

He had revived the Thai silk industry; a Thai court declared him dead in absentia in 1974.

Which state, nicknamed 'Land of the Hornbills', is Malaysia's largest by area?

Its area nearly equals the whole of Peninsular Malaysia; Portuguese mapmakers knew the region as Cerava in the 16th century.

What is Malaysia's smallest state by both area and population?

At 819 square km it is so small that it is not divided into administrative districts.

Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, was formerly known by what colonial name?

It was named for Sir Charles Jessel of the North Borneo Chartered Company, and was largely destroyed in World War II.

Ipoh boomed in the 1880s after huge deposits of what were found nearby?

The city on the Kinta River sits between the capital and George Town, and both the railway and the North-South Expressway run through it.

What does 'tarik' mean in teh tarik, Malaysia's frothy national drink?

The drink is poured back and forth between vessels to froth it, a craft developed by South Indian street cooks after 1850.

Which island did Sabah cede to Malaysia's federal government in 1984?

Its capital is Bandar Victoria, and the island is a base for offshore oil and gas workers.

Which neighbour fought the 1963-66 'Konfrontasi' in opposition to Malaysia's formation?

The conflict faded after Sukarno lost power to Suharto, and a peace agreement was signed on 11 August 1966.

Which disputed island did the ICJ rule in 2008 was not Malaysian territory?

The same judgment handed the nearby Middle Rocks to Malaysia; Malaysians know the island as Pulau Batu Puteh.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor reached the ISS in 2007 aboard which nation's spacecraft?

He rode up on Soyuz TMA-11 and came home 11 days later on Soyuz TMA-10 under the Angkasawan programme.

How many MPs sit in the Dewan Rakyat, Malaysia's lower house?

Each is elected by first-past-the-post from a single constituency, and a parliament can last at most five years.

Which coalition's 2018 win was the first time Barisan Nasional lost federal power?

Together with Sabah's WARISAN party it took 121 seats, the first time in Malaysian history a ruling party had been voted out.

Malaysia's oldest human remains, a skull some 40,000 years old, came from which site?

Museum curator Tom Harrisson dug there in the 1950s on a hunch that the cave's bats and swiftlets would have fed ancient people.

At 2,187 m, what is the highest peak in Peninsular Malaysia?

Folklore says two giant apes guard its magic wells that turn objects to gold and silver; tahan means 'forbidden'.

Bako National Park, founded 1957, is famed for which endangered Bornean primate?

About 150 live there among four species of pitcher plant, sundews and bladderworts.

The 36.57 m bronze statue at Kek Lok Si, Malaysia's largest Buddhist temple, depicts whom?

The Goddess of Mercy shares the hill with a seven-storey pagoda holding 10,000 Buddha statues, commissioned by Thailand's King Rama VI.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building, completed 1897 opposite the Padang, is in what style?

Its red bricks with white plaster bands earned the nickname 'blood and bandages'; the clock came from Gillett & Johnston of Croydon.

The melody of Negaraku, Malaysia's anthem, was originally the state anthem of which state?

Benjamin Britten and William Walton were among composers invited to write an anthem in 1957, but their efforts were passed over.

Porta de Santiago is the surviving gateway of which Portuguese fortress in Malacca?

Built around 1512, its name means 'The Famous'; many Malaysians mispronounce the Portuguese article 'a' as the letter A.

Which British sailor founded George Town in 1786?

His son William Light went on to found Adelaide in South Australia in 1836.

Pandelela Rinong, first Malaysian woman to win an Olympic medal, competes in which sport?

Her London 2012 bronze in the 10 m platform was also Malaysia's first Olympic medal outside badminton; she was the flagbearer that year.

Azizulhasni Awang, the 'Pocket Rocketman', won Olympic medals in which cycling event?

He followed his Rio bronze with silver in Tokyo, and remains the only Malaysian cyclist with an Olympic medal.

Which rattan-ball sport played without using the hands is Malaysia's national sport?

Its modern rules were standardised in 1960 when officials from four countries met to agree a name and a common rulebook.

Into which sea does the 560 km Kinabatangan, Malaysia's second-longest river, empty?

A planned bridge over it at Sukau was cancelled in 2017 after David Attenborough and others objected on behalf of its pygmy elephants.

Which mammal was declared extinct in Malaysia in 2019 after its last two animals died?

The last bull died in May and the last cow in November; a small wild population was found in East Kalimantan in 2016.

Cartoonist Lat's best-known work, first published in 1979, is titled what?

Born Mohammad Nor Khalid, he was made a datuk in 1994 for promoting social harmony through his cartoons.

Who became Malaysia's first female deputy prime minister in 2018?

She founded the party now known as PKR in 1998 after her husband's sacking, and in 2008 became the first woman to lead the Opposition.

Malaysia ranks second in the world in producing which commodity?

It produced 19.7 million tonnes in 2023-24, less than half the output of the world leader.

Felix de Weldon, sculptor of Malaysia's National Monument, also made which US landmark?

Malaysia's first prime minister saw the Marine Corps memorial on a 1960 US visit and asked for an equivalent; the result is the world's tallest freestanding bronze sculpture group.

The logo of Malaysia Airlines is based on which traditional object?

Specifically the wau kucing or 'cat kite', a cousin of Kelantan's crescent-shaped wau bulan.

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in George Town is nicknamed for which colour?

The walls are lime mixed with indigo plant dye, chosen over cheaper white because every community prized the colour.

The Crystal Mosque of steel, glass and crystal stands in which state capital?

It sits in the Islamic Heritage Park on the island of Wan Man and holds over 1,500 worshippers.

Which 19th-century Kapitan China is remembered as the 'father' of Malaysia's capital?

He was the third Kapitan China of the town, which grew from about 1857 as a base for the region's mines.

Which wildlife biologist founded the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in 2008?

A 2004 survey of captive bears found many kept in poor conditions; the centre sits beside the Sepilok forest reserve.

Which 'Voice of Asia' singer played a solo Royal Albert Hall concert in 2005?

She was the first Southeast Asian singer to headline the hall, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra.