The Bahau of Indonesia

The Bahau of Indonesia, numbering approximately 21,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Indigenous Dayak people of East Kalimantan with communities in the upper Mahakam region, including Mahakam Ulu and West Kutai. They mostly adhere to Animism and Bahau is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bahau

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Bahau (bhv)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 21,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG022545
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Bahau 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: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

90%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bahau
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Bahau Speakers

Media Resources in Bahau:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Bahau:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Bahau bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bahau are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Bahau:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Bahau of Indonesia

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
readJohn 14:6

Pray that those who don't know Jesus will recognize Him as the only way to the Father and follow Him in faith.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
read2 Peter 3:9

Pray that the lost will not perish but come to repentance and that God's patience and long-suffering will lead them to salvation.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
readPsalm 51:10

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will quickly repent when they sin and walk with clean hearts and right spirits as they grow in their relationship with the Lord.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
readJohn 1:9-10

Pray for those God might send to share the gospel here. Ask that they will grow closer to Jesus and be compelled to share His good news with people who don't know it.

Bahau Across Countries (ROP3 - 100764) 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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