East Asian/South-East Asian ancestry in South Asians?

[Rez]

So I'm Bengali of Bangladeshi origin, and I scored higher than expected for East/South-east Asian:

MyHeritageDNA = 88.3% south asian; 11.7% East Asian broken down to 8.1% Chinese+ 2% Nepali + 1.6% Filipino, Indonesian and Malaysian

FTDNA (free upload) = 86% Central/south asian (25% central asia highlighted around Lahore/New Delhi/North-west Nepal);
61% South Central Asia (Bottom half of India down to Sri lanka);
14% Southeast Asian (Highlighted were South China and northern Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand as well as Taiwan and Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia)
>1% North/Central America (Trace)

Gedmatch:
Harappa World = 10.4% SE Asia; 3.44% NE Asia (and 2.6% Siberian)
PuntDNAL K13 global = 7% SE Asia; 6.8% NE Asia (and 2.7% Siberian)
MDLP k16 Modern = 19.8% SE asian (No category for NE Asia but I did score 4.5% Siberian)

The only lead I have is that my paternal great-gradfather came over to Rangpur from Assam, India.
I was reading about Tibeto-Burmese migration into Assam as well as the Tai people who came over from South China.
I had a Gedmatch with a Han Chinese person from Taiwan (9 cM/6.2 generations back, but he had 3% south asian so we could have matched through that)
Everyone else in my family is from Bangladesh/some mixes with west Bengal
They are primarily from Rangpur, North-west of Bangladesh.

Sorry for waffling but basically
1) Are the levels of east-asian in me quite typical for a Bengali?
2) What are the historical reasons behind this?

[redifflal]

I think those numbers are fairly typical for Bengalis, not sure if elevated. As everything, these all exist in clines. The east Asian is going to be higher within Bengalis going from Purulia to Sylhet.

In every region there is interplay with the next region, and then that region has interplay with the next one and so on. In western edges of West Bengal you have the interplay of the Bengali world with the Hindi speaking belt and also at a proto level you have a tribal spectrum there that conjoins the two. Similarly in southwest edge of West Bengal, Bengali and Oriya interplay and populations in Mednipur district are fluent in Oriya and Bangla. In northwest edge from Rangpur to Dooars it is Bengalis and Nepali via intermediate subset of Bengalis like Rangpuris and Rajbangshis. In northeast it is Sylhet. In southeast there is Chittagong and I daresay Rohingya as well. I'm not too knowledgeable about the eastern relations for Bengalis.

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Wow we are having lots of Bengalis here now, East asian/South east asian is given in Bengalis seeing the location of them. The same way if you go south of subcontinent, ASI like ancestry increases, you go North west of subcontinent, West asian/steppe like ancestry increases.

[jortita]

Your percentages are close to average for Bangladeshi people from around border regions with NE India. Does it show in your appearance or even your paternal grandfathers appearance. I am from Assam

[Rez]

My paternal grandfather looks completely Assamese, and my eyes are heavily hooded

[Rez]

Thank you to everyone for the replies/explanations, it really is quite simple I just saw China and got hyped.

[Reza]

Hi Rez, good name!

It's great to have more Bengalis join the forum.. You can enlighten us about Rangpur and North / North West Bangladesh.

Your East Asian levels do not seem that different to the Bangladeshi samples I've come across including my own family.

Have a look at this spreadsheet http://https://docs.google.com/sprea...t?usp=drivesdk to find other Bengali samples to compare with.

[redifflal]

Speaking of hooded eyes, what is the deal with some Punjabis getting it? Nusrat has it and to some extent Rahat has it too. My wife also has it kind of and I see our child also has it lol.

[Rez]

Hi Rez, good name!

It's great to have more Bengalis join the forum.. You can enlighten us about Rangpur and North / North West Bangladesh.

Your East Asian levels do not seem that different to the Bangladeshi samples I've come across including my own family.

Thank you very much haha, it's short for Rezwana.
I've actually come across your results before - you are like semi-famous (or shall I say the only lead) for any bengali trying to compare their Gedmatch results
Now that I look again, my results really aren't different to yours and your family. It's a little different to that other one "Bengali AVG".
I think Sylhetis and Rangpuris have similar east asian mixes, probably higher for sylhetis.

[Rez]

Speaking of hooded eyes, what is the deal with some Punjabis getting it? Nusrat has it and to some extent Rahat has it too. My wife also has it kind of and I see our child also has it lol.

I think it's quite a prominent trait, it's prevalent in north-east europeans too and some african communities.