The Malay Book of Mormon theory: It just keeps on giving!
I’ve been meaning to write a long blog post that details why the Malay theory of the Book of Mormon is the strongest geographic theory out there for where Book of Mormon lands took place, but I keep putting off the post because I get overwhelmed with all the interesting and exciting information that I keep discovering about the Malay Peninsula and the connections it appears to have to Book of Mormon lands. Rather than putting off my post, I’ll write a shorter post with the hopes of publishing my longer post in the future. It’s better to get something out than nothing at all!
According to our beliefs, the Book of Mormon is the translation of a record found by the prophet Joseph Smith in upstate New York, delivered to him by the Angel Moroni. Smith wrote that Moroni told him it was a record of the former inhabitants of this continent and the source from whence they sprang.
The record was famously written on plates of gold. At least that’s what Joseph Smith and eight other witnesses to the plates testified. What makes the Book of Mormon special is it testifies that Jesus is the Christ and that it was a clean translation as Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. No errors and only a few minor changes since its initial publication.
Traditional teaching of the Book of Mormon has been that it is a record of God’s dealings with prophets here in the Americas. That ancient prophets from the Middle East came to the Americas and kept a record of their dealings with God. The record being the Book of Mormon. The consensus among most Book of Mormon scholars is that Mesoamerica (Southern Mexico + Central America) is the most likely area for where the Book of Mormon took place. Some outside theories are that it took place in the heartland of the United States, Baja California, the East Coast of the United States, or somewhere in South America.
All of these theories are easily in line with traditional church teaching because the church has taught that the Book of Mormon took place somewhere in the Americas. The church doesn’t have an official position regarding where in the Americas the Book of Mormon took place, but it does affirm that its official position is that the Book of Mormon took place somewhere in the Americas.
Growing up in the church, I always believed the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas. When I served my mission in Minnesota, I taught that Christ himself visited the Americas and that the Book of Mormon was a testament of God’s dealings with prophets in ancient America. I didn’t think twice about it. I just took it as established fact that the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas because I had a testimony that the book was true. If the book is true, that must mean the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas.
Ok, so what changed? Why do I now say the Malay theory is the theory that keeps on giving? And what is this theory anyways? And how did I come across this? Let me explain.
When I was in Israel a few years ago, I asked my dad about where the Book of Mormon took place. I don’t know why I asked, but I did. My dad told me that we don’t know for sure where the book takes place and that the text itself doesn’t say (this is key!). He then said that there are these guys who believe it took place in Malaysia and that they swear by it.
Upon first hearing of the possibility of the Book of Mormon taking place in Malaysia, I found it to be the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. It made no sense and just seemed totally crazy. However, being the curious person that I am, I decided to investigate and see for myself.
What I first came across was an article written by the late Dr. Ralph A. Olsen called “A Malay Site for Book of Mormon Events.” It was written on sunstone.org. Click here to give it a read.
Upon reading Ralph’s article, I became more intrigued with the theory and found that it actually might have some legs to it. I then watched a couple of videos about the theory on Gospel Tangents. You can watch the first video here and the second video here.
After watching those videos, I was even more intrigued with the theory. I found it to be surprisingly compelling and making far more sense than any other geographic model proposed. As K.C. Kern said on Gospel Tangents, the more you press against the Malay theory, the more it yields. I have found that to be true as I have gone beyond the videos and article and dived into my own research on the Malay theory and its possible compatibility with Book of Mormon lands.
Now to be clear, the “Malay theory” specifically is that the Book of Mormon took place on the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. That in approximately 600 BC Lehi and Nephi sailed down the Arabian Peninsula and through the Bay of Bengal until they reached the Malay Peninsula, home to modern day Malaysia and Thailand. Rather than sailing on, they stayed on the Malay Peninsula, which became the site for Book of Mormon events. The theory also states that the Jaredites in approximately 2,000 BC landed and stayed on the Malay Peninsula as well. The Mulekites of course landing there as well though we don’t know when they exactly got to the promised land.
I need to also once again stress that this is not at all in line with traditional church teaching, which is that the Book of Mormon took place on the American continent. Joseph Smith, all the early as well as modern church leaders have taught that the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas. The belief that the Book of Mormon may have actually taken place on the Malay Peninsula is radical and truly out of left field.
With that all said, why do I say the Malay Book of Mormon theory keeps on giving? Why am I now a proponent of it? As I said in the beginning, there are almost too many reasons to name and it’s gotten to a point where it’s become overwhelming for me to explain why I believe in the theory because there are just so many reasons! I will however do my best to share what reasons resonate the most with me with the hope that perhaps this theory will get more seriously looked at.
The first reason I think the Malay theory has serious legs to it is the animal life mentioned in the Book of Mormon. All manner of cattle, oxen, goats, wild goats, horses, asses, swine, and elephants are all mentioned in the Book of Mormon. None of these are animals native to the Americas and the Book of Mormon is specific enough in its nomenclature that I have a hard time believing Nephi or Moroni would have been casual with what they called the animals that they encountered.
Furthermore, when you read 1st Nephi 18:25, it really does feel like the Malay Peninsula is a strong match: “beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animal, which were for the use of men. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.”
If you check out the site rewild.org and their blog post about the cattle of Southeast Asia (check that out here), you’ll see a photo of wild cattle in the forests of Laos. Boy does that look like what Nephi and Lehi saw when they landed in the promised land! It fits so well.
And I need to stress, there is no evidence of the cow and the ox existing anywhere on the American continent in pre-Columbian times. Horses, yes. But the years don’t match Book of Mormon times. And there really isn’t a good match for goats in the Americas as the only kind of goats native to the Americas are mountain goats and they aren’t exactly friendly towards people.
As for the elephants that the Jaredites had that are referenced in the Book of Ether, the Asian elephant is a perfect match. Asian elephants have been used as animals for work for a long time, well before 2,000 BC when the Jaredites landed in the promised land. In the Americas, there is a possibility that mammoths existed in Book of Mormon times, but it’s not confirmed and it’s also not confirmed mammoths were ever used as animals for work, though I should mention that the mammoth is closely related to the Asian elephant, so it’s possible. Still, Malay is a much better setting for elephants than the Americas during Book of Mormon times.
When you look at the animal life, the Malay Peninsula is a far better match than anywhere in the Americas. It is what it is. You can make it work with the Americas but only sort of. I’ve seen people say things like when it says horses it means dogs, but then later in the text it also says dogs. So, then what? You see what I mean? It’s just messy.
On top of the animals matching, the Malay Peninsula would have all the ore that is talked about: Gold, silver, copper, etc. That’s all a match. You can find those in the Americas, but where it gets hard is finding a concentrated/limited geographic area that has all those resources. And that’s the prevailing belief among scholars regardless of theory, that the Book of Mormon took place in a more limited setting. Not North and South America, which is known as the Hemispheric Model.
I could go on and on, but in short, all the anachronisms that people point to as problems with the Book of Mormon in the Americas, it’s not a problem at all in the Malay Peninsula. All the things people say weren’t in the Americas and prove the Book of Mormon isn’t true are present in Malay. Silk, ore, animals, etc. I find that to be super interesting.
On top of that, there are tons of writings on plates of metal, including gold in Southeast Asia. From my understanding, writing on plates of gold was really common in Southeast Asia during Book of Mormon times. Especially for anything that was of religious or political significance. As a matter of fact, if the Book of Mormon did take place in Southeast Asia, it would make perfect sense for it to have been written on gold plates.
Building on that, you have the Karen people of Burma who have a legend of a lost book of gold and a white brother sailing away with the book. Pretty wild, huh? You can read more about that here courtesy of KC Kern.
Not only that, but the Malay Peninsula also appears to be a perfect fit for an abstract map of Book of Mormon lands. It has the right shape of what the Book of Mormon teaches the lands had with a narrow neck, a land northward, and a lands southward. It’s a north-south peninsula as the Book of Mormon indicates.
As proof that I’ve done too much research into this, Thailand has many rivers and lakes, matching descriptions of the Nephites being driven to the north and to the east towards a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains which is where the land Cumorah is. Speaking of Cumorah, the Karen people had a battle in the 1990s as part of a military conflict with the Burmese government and named their final outpost Kawmoora (Read about that here).
And if that doesn’t pique your interest, I’ve begun doing my own research on the Malay Peninsula and it really does seem to match Book of Mormon lands in terms of its culture and overall vibe. I was watching a series on YouTube about the Malay Peninsula (click here to watch) and it mentioned how it is referred to as “The Golden Peninsula” because of all its resources. It also mentioned how the people of Penang Island, which is part of an archipelago right off the Malay Peninsula, said it is “a land bestowed with God’s grace” and “a blessed land.” It has certainly been a promised land to the people that have lived there and settled there.
The biggest challenge I have had with the Malay theory hasn’t been how the plates got to New York. That’s easy. Moroni as an angel was supposed to keep the plates hidden unto the Lord until the time came to have them be revealed to Joseph Smith. He could have buried the plates in Burma and then dug them up as an angel and moved them or he could have sailed around the world and buried them in New York or some other location. That part is simple and easy to understand.
The hardest part is how to make the Malay theory work with traditional teaching of the Book of Mormon being about America. If you look at the Malay Peninsula as a part of Southeast Asia, it seems impossible to make it fit.
However, if you see the Malay Peninsulas as part of Austronesia, a region that includes peoples from Madagascar, Taiwan, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Micronesia, Polynesia, Indonesia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Hawaii, and some other islands, it becomes much easier to see how the Book of Mormon could have taken place there.
For you see, Austronesian peoples have covered a great distance to reach all those places by sea over the centuries and millennia. And much of those regions are places that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has had great success in finding membership. The Philippines has the fourth most members of any country in the world, the church has many members from Tonga and Samoa, and Brigham Young University has a campus in Hawaii. Could it be that’s because these are descendants of Lamanite peoples and that the Book of Mormon is really a book of their people?
Just to add on even further, Austronesian peoples may have even reached the Continental Americas shortly after Moroni sealed up the Book of Mormon. There is possible expansion of Austronesian peoples to California, Baja California, Central America, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. So there is your connection between the Malay Peninsula and the Americas! If the Malay theory is true, that would mean that Book of Mormon peoples are Austronesian peoples. Austronesian peoples who are former inhabitants of the Americas and among the ancestors of the American Indians. See what I just did there? That sure seems to fit with what the church teaches about the Book of Mormon. Just not quite in the way that we may have originally thought!
There are many connections that I’ve been able to establish between Book of Mormon lands and the Malay Peninsula. While it may still sound far-fetched I hope that this little blog post of mine has helped give more validity to the Malay theory and given Ralph A. Olsen the credit he deserves for thinking out of the box and finding a place on earth that in my opinion matches the Book of Mormon far better than any other place on earth. A more promising land of promise? I don’t see why not!
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Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
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