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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Burgher of Sri Lanka

The Burgher of Sri Lanka, numbering approximately 45,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Dutch, British and other European men who settled in Sri Lanka and intermarried with Sri Lankan women. They are an Indigenous people, in the Sinhala people cluster of the South Asian Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Christianity - Roman Catholicism. They primarily speak Indo-Portuguese.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: Burgher

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: Sri Lanka
People Cluster: Sinhala
Primary Language(s): Indo-Portuguese (idb)
Primary Religion(s): Christianity - Roman Catholicism
Population: 45,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG006434
View on Joshua Project

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Pray for the Burgher of Sri Lanka

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Christianity - Roman Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

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Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Indo-Portuguese
Language Family: Indo-European

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Media Resources in Indo-Portuguese:

Films:

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Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Indo-Portuguese:

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Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Indo-Portuguese bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher are Unengaged and Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher 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.

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

Next steps for the Burgher

The Burgher 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.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Burgher of Sri Lanka

That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
readActs 17:27

Pray that those who don't yet know Christ will search diligently for God and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
readLamentations 3:23-23

Pray that they will have hope in the Lord, knowing that His compassions never fails and that His mercies are new every morning.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
readHebrew 4:16

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will boldly draw near to God as they approach Him in prayer, receive His mercy, and find grace for help in their time of need.

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
readPsalm 23:3

Pray for believers to go and share the gospel with others here. Ask that God will restore their souls and lead them in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Burgher (ROP3 - 111732) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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