15 Facts About Kedah

Kedah, known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia.

Kedah was previously known as Kadaram by the ancient and medieval Tamils, Kataha or Kalahbar by the Arabs, and Syburi by the Siamese when it was under their influence.

Around 788 BCE, a systematic government of a large settlement of Malay native of Kedah had already established around the northern bank of Merbok River.

Indian and Arab sources consider Kedah to be one of the two important sites during the Srivijaya period, often calling the king of the straits "the ruler of Srivijaya and Kataha".

However, in Thai chronicles told that Kedah was a Thai city like Nakhon Si Thammarat and was a part of Siamese kingdom but later was changed into a Malay state after invasion of Muslim kingdoms until today.

Related searches

In World War II, Kedah was the first part of Malaya to be invaded by Japan.

Kedah became one of the states of the Federation of Malaya in 1948, which then achieved independence in 1957.

Kedah has a relatively heterogeneous populace constituted by three major ethnic groups; the Malays, Chinese and Indians as well as some Malaysian Siamese ethnic groups, similar to most of the other Malaysian states.

Kedah Malay has many sub-dialects which differs from district to district and is spoken outside of its boundaries such as Penang, Perlis, northern Perak and even as far as Satun in Thailand and Tanintharyi in Myanmar.

The Chinese in Kedah speaks various varieties of Chinese such as Mandarin, Hokkien and so on.

Kedah is home to a large community of ethnic Siamese of which it has its own distinct dialect of the Thai language which is different from ones spoken in Kelantan and Standard Thai.

Kedah's Constitution was promulgated by its Ruler in July 1950.

Kedah's position is hereditary and he holds office for life.

Kedah is considered the "rice bowl" of Malaysia, accounting for about half of Malaysia's total production of rice.

Private universities and colleges that are located in Kedah include the Open University of Malaysia Regional Learning Center for the state of Kedah and Perlis at Sungai Petani, the Albukhary International University in Alor Setar, Pusat Bahasa Titian Jaya the PTPL College and the Cosmopoint College.