The people of Kelantan are known for their hospitality. The largely rural state preserves rich Malay traditions such as kite-flying contests, top-spinning contests, and bird singing competitions, and traditional handicrafts such as batik, songket, and silver crafts. As a border state and former vassal state of Thailand, Kelantan has absorbed influences from Thai customs and traditions that help to make the state's culture distinct from those of other states of Malaysia. The Kelantanese people, regardless of ethnic origin, are very proud of their state and its unique local culture and dialect.
All the ethnicities generally live together harmoniously in Kelantan. For example, members of the Thai community received a permit to build a very large statue of the Buddha without any objection from the Malay community or the PAS government that granted the permit.
Malay
Kelantan Malays consider themselves an unusual breed. Many have some Thai blood, as intermarriages between the Thais and Malays have been and remain common. Kelantan Malays also note differences between themselves and the Malays of other states. The Patani Malays of southern Thailand are very similar in ethnicity and culture to the Malays of Kelantan.
Kelantanese Malay dialect, heavily influenced by the Thai language, is distinguished from standard Malay as well as other Malay dialects by its unique grammar, pronunciation and figures of speech.
Kelantanese Malay is the only lingua franca of the state, is used in the local mass media, and is so commonly used for daily communication that some Kelantanese cannot speak the standard form of Malay, as promoted by the Federal Government. The dialect is also prevalent beyond the state borders into southern Thailand and in Besut, the nothernmost district of Terengganu. Whilst the Arab script called Jawi has less influence in the other parts of Malaysia, it is still widely used in writing and printing the Malay language in Kelantan. Signboards in Kelantan are written in both Jawi and Rumi. To a certain extent, Thai is also used.
95% of Kelantan's population are ethnic Malay, and under the Malaysian Constitution, all Malays are Muslims; therefore, Islam is the most influential religion in the state.
To most Malaysians, Kelantan is synonymous with Malay arts and crafts. Kota Bharu, as the state capital, is a popular centre for such pursuits as silat, martial arts, and kertok drumming. Here, too, more than any other place in Malaysia, the traditional pastimes of top-spinning — known as gasing — and the flying of giant, elaborately-decorated kites called wau, are still much in evidence.
Thai
The ethnic Thai inhabitants of Kelantan are mostly centered in an area around the coastal town of Tumpat, site of most of the state's twenty or so Buddhist temples, and noteworthy for its number of confident and relatively well-off Siamese villages.
The dialect of the Thai language spoken in Kelantan is called "Tak Bai", after the southernmost coastal town in Narathiwat, just across the Golok River from Malaysia. Tak Bai dialect differs substantially from standard southern Thai and other regional Thai dialects, and it seems certain that the Kelantan Thais are the descendants of an original enclave of Narathiwat settlers established in sparsely-populated Malay territory as long as four centuries ago.
Buddhism is also visible, in that hundreds of Thai wats can be found throughout the state. The local Muslims are ambivalent in their attitude towards Thai Buddhism, which is seen as a relatively prestigious religion, certainly preferable to atheism, and more obviously an organised community faith than that of the Kelantan Chinese. The Malays definitely approve of the Thais as a religious people, and are generally impressed by the architecture and style of the Buddhist temples, which are recognised as a cultural asset of the region.
Chinese
Chinese assimilation in Kelantan is manifested as: "Malay behaviour as frontstage and Chinese behaviour as backstage". "Frontstage" or public behaviour includes speaking Kelantanese Malay even when among themselves, adopting Malay-style clothing, and observing certain Malay customs and holidays. "Backstage" or private behaviour includes maintaining certain traditional Chinese beliefs and customs confined only to the home. Many Kelantanese Chinese feel a sense of separateness from other Chinese Malaysians due to their illiteracy and lack of fluency in Chinese.
In Kelantan, the Chinese see themselves as either Cina Kampung (village Chinese) or Cina Bandar (town Chinese). In other parts of Malaysia, the Chinese see themselves as either Hokkiens, Cantonese, Hakka, etc. (identifying themselves by the Han subgroup their ancestors were part of in China), but not in Kelantan. Descendants of the earlier waves of small-scale migration are known as Orang Cina kita (our very own Chinese) and the elders are seen as Orang Kelantan betul (true Kelantanese). Speaking excellent Kelantanese Malay dialect unites both Cina Kampung and Cina Bandar.
The Chinese in Kelantan have native speaker competence in the Kelantanese dialect. It is impossible to tell a Malay from a Chinese by just listening to his speech in the Kelantanese dialect, without looking at the person.
Orang Asli
In addition, there are Orang Asli, mostly Temiar, a people who have lived in the forests of Kelantan and Perak for thousands of years.
Resource from: http://wikipedia.org/