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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
Bengali - বাংলা | Chinese (Simplified) - 中文（简体）
Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
German - Deutsch | Gujarati - ગુજરાતી
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Portuguese - Português | Russian - Русский
Spanish - Español | Tagalog / Filipino
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The Sea Dayak of Malaysia

The Sea Dayak of Malaysia, numbering approximately 684,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an indigenous Iban people of Sarawak whose ancestors migrated from western Borneo's Kapuas basin, traditionally organized in riverine longhouse communities centered on rice cultivation. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Iban is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Sea Dayak

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Iban (iba)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 684,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG009325
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Pray for the Sea Dayak of Malaysia

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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

60%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Iban
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Iban Speakers

Media Resources in Iban:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Iban:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Today's Iban Version✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Iban bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Sea Dayak 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 Sea Dayak:
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 Sea Dayak of Malaysia

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’
readRevelation 7:9-10

Pray that many people will receive the gospel and will be part of the great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, clothed in white robes and palm branches, proclaiming salvation belongs to our God.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
readRomans 10:12

Pray that as people from different backgrounds place their faith in Christ, they will be unified by their faith Him.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
readPsalm 57:9

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who will boldly go and share the gospel with people nearby and with those far away.

Iban Across Countries (ROP3 - 103933) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

3 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Sea DayakPG009325Sea DayakMalaysia684,000No Longer UnreachedIbanEthnoreligion
IbanPG019588IbanBrunei24,000Unengaged and UnreachedIbanAnimism
IbanPG022608IbanIndonesia20,000No Longer UnreachedIbanProtestantism

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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