The Jawa Banten of Indonesia

The Jawa Banten of Indonesia, numbering approximately 651,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an Austronesian people descended from ancestors who reached Java between 1500 and 1000 BC, part of the historically fervent Muslim community of the Banten region converted through Islamic trade in the sixteenth century They are an Indigenous people, with Java / Jawa as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Jawa people cluster of the Malay Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam. They primarily speak Javanese.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Jawa Serang

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Jawa
Primary Language(s): Javanese (jav)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 651,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG047521
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Jawa Banten of Indonesia

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

100%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Javanese
Language Family: Austronesian

75%
%
Javanese Speakers

Media Resources in Javanese:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
The SaviorView Film

3 films

Bible Resources in Javanese:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
New Revised Javanese (formal) Version, 2006✓✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Javanese bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Jawa Banten are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Jawa Banten:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Jawa Banten of Indonesia

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
readIsaiah 40:8

Pray that those who don't know Jesus will be freed from the emptiness of fading hopes and find lasting life and truth in the unchanging Word of God.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
read1 Timothy 2:5-6

Pray for the truth about Jesus Christ to spread among the lost so that many will accept His ransom for their sin and experience freedom in a relationship with Him.

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
readLamentations 3:25

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will trust in the goodness of the Lord as they wait on Him to answer their cries for help.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
readRomans 9:16

Ask God to raise up people who will trust in His sovereignty as they share the gospel, knowing that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

Java Banten Across Countries (ROP3 - 101015) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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