Coat of arms of Malaysia

The coat of arms of Malaysia () is a coat of arms comprising a shield or escutcheon, two tigers for supporters, a crescent and fourteen-pointed star for a crest and a motto. As the Malaysian coat of arms descended from that of the Federated Malay States under British colonial rule, it resembles European heraldic designs.

Design

The coat of arms consists of a shield guarded by two rampant tigers proper as supporters. The shield is topped by a crest consisting of a yellow crescent with a 14-pointed "federal star", and includes a motto, on a banner, at the bottom.

Crest

The yellow colour of the crest, a crescent and a 14-pointed federal star, symbolises the country's monarchy. The star crescent also represents Islam as the official religion while the federal star alone the thirteen states and the federal territories of Malaysia. written in both romanised Malay and Jawi. The original English phrase was replaced by romanised Malay in 1963.

History

Federated Malay States and Malayan Union

The origins of the Malaysian coat of arms can be traced to the formation of the Federated Malay States (FMS) under the colonial rule of the United Kingdom. In conjunction with the introduction of the flag of the Federated Malay States in 1895, the FMS coat of arms was adopted and remained in use from 1895 to the formation of the Federation of Malaya in 1948.

The arms, like its modern successors, included a shield, two tigers, and a banner, but depicts an eastern crown on the helm, representing the four sultanates. The shield's design was also significantly simpler; as the FMS consists of only four states, the shield encompassed a quarterly "party per cross" division representing the colours of the flag of the four FMS (in the same way the flag of the FMS represents the states, and the colours in the modern Malaysian arms represent the same states). The motto was also originally written in Jawi as "Dipelihara Allah" (Under God's (Allah's) Protection) flanked by two eight-pointed stars. Dipelihara Allah is today the Selangor state motto.

While the establishment of the Malayan Union in 1946 brought about the merging of the FMS with the five Unfederated Malay States and two of the Straits Settlements (excluding Singapore), the FMS arms remained in use unchanged as the Union's coat of arms for two years before the Union's dissolution.

The arms is blazoned as such:

Crest: An eastern crown Or.

Shield: Quarterly Argent, Gules, Sable and Or.

Supporters: Two tigers rampant proper.

Motto: Dipelihara Allah in Jawi Malay script.

Federation of Malaya

thumb|The [[Federation of Malaya arms in use between 1952 and 1963, based heavily on the FMS arms, would serve as the basis of the current Malaysian arms.]]

The founding of the Federation of Malaya in 1948 led to a revision of the arms, which was officially proclaimed and adopted on 12 May 1952. Among the changes were a more complete representation the 11 states of the federation on the shield (where new partitions containing insignias of the additional states added over and beside the original FMS colours), the replacement of the eastern crown with a yellow crescent and an 11-pointed federal star (symbols representing the 11 states that were derived from the flag of the Federation of Malaya). The original Jawi motto was also replaced with "Unity is Strength" in both English and Jawi Malay.

At the point of adoption, the shield was composed of the following elements:

In chief, the five krises representing the Unfederated Malay States;
In pale, the quartered colours of the FMS;
In dexter, the Prince of Wales's feathers, battlement (or crenellation), and waves from the Penang coat of arms; and
In sinister, and gate of A Famosa from the Malaccan coat of arms.

The arms is blazoned as such:

Crest: A crescent and an eleven-pointed federal star Or.

Shield: Tierced per pale, The first (at dexter) per fess embattled Or and barry wavy of eight Azure and Argent in chief a plume of three ostrich feathers surmounted by a riband of the Second on the riband the words Ich Dien in letters of the First; the second (at fess point) quarterly Argent, Gules, Sable and Or; the third (at sinister) Azure, a representation of the gate of A Famosa Proper; and a chief Gules, five krisses in their sheaths, per pale Or.

Supporters: Two tigers rampant proper.

Motto: Unity is Strength in English and Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu in Jawi Malay scripts.

Malaysia

The arms was amended a second time after the formation of Malaysia, with the admission of Singapore (Gules, a crescent facing a pentagon of five mullets Argent) and the Borneo states of North Borneo (renamed Sabah) and Sarawak (Or, on a cross parted per pale Sable and Gules, an Eastern Crown of the first) in 1963. The increased number of states later resulted in the modification of the Federation of Malaya coat of arms to support the three new member states with the widening of the shield. The tigers were redesigned to assume different positions of limbs (front limbs reaching over and behind the shield, and rear limbs reaching over the motto and the shield), and minor adjustments were also made on the appearance of the banner and the length of the crescent, while the 11-pointed federal star was updated to include 14 points. In tandem with Malay as Malaysia's national language, the English motto was replaced with Malay language.

During this period of revision, the Malacca's colonial A Famosa insignia was replaced by a Malacca tree.