The article analyzes past perceptions of local identities in the upper Malay Peninsular that appear in Thai and Malay literature. The study focuses on the local power center before the 19th century, consisting of a small Thai town called “Muang” and “Karajaan” in Malay. The comparative literature includes Hikayat Patani, Hikayat Merong Mahawongsa, the Tale of Lady White Blood, and Tamnan Muang Nakhorn Sri Thammarat. The investigation focuses on two historical contexts. The first includes how “our” and “their” identities are perceived and what factors define the identities, ethnic groups, religions, cultures, or necessities. The second is concerned with interactions, reflecting how the center was related to the region. It is found that, before the establishment of nation states and boundaries, identity perceptions implied “difference” and “diversity”. Understanding identities was relatively narrow and consciously centralized, but without perceiving ethnicity or region as a factor of identity differences. At the same time, there was an attempt to create “regionalism” to explain the relationship between ethnic groups and states in terms of shared origins and experiences. Regarding interactions, there are two parallel interactions in the literature. They include direct interactions between Thai and Malay centers in the region and the patronage system within and outside the region. Despite competition and conflicts as well as forced relationships, memories reflected in the literature present the images of co-existence rather than of dominance. It is the convergence of power, cultural and ethnic relationships.