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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Golden Palaung of Myanmar

The Golden Palaung of Myanmar, numbering approximately 215,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as a distinct subgroup of the Palaung (Ta’ang) people, an Indigenous Austroasiatic (Mon‑Khmer) ethnic group predominantly in northern Shan State, Myanmar. They are called "Golden" because of the gold-colored style of women's traditional dress and ornaments Shwe Palaung They are an Indigenous people, with Palaung as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Mon-Khmer people cluster of the Southeast Asian Peoples. Their primary religion is Theravada Buddhism. They primarily speak Shwe Palaung.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3 Flash: Golden Palaung

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Southeast Asian Peoples
Country: Myanmar
People Cluster: Mon-Khmer
Primary Language(s): Shwe Palaung (pll)
Primary Religion(s): Theravada Buddhism
Population: 215,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG009429
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Pray for the Golden Palaung of Myanmar

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: Theravada Buddhism
Religious Affiliation: Buddhism

90%
%
Theravada Buddhism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Shwe Palaung
Language Family: Austroasiatic

100%
%
Palaung, Shwe Speakers

Media Resources in Shwe Palaung:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Shwe Palaung:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Shwe Palaung bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), 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.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Golden Palaung:
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

Pray specifically for the Golden Palaung of Myanmar

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.

"O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me."
readJohn 17:25

Pray that the lost will come to know the Father and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, and that they will be filled with His love and grace.

The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
readNumbers 6:25

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember that He has given them His favor and His presence.

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
readActs 17:32

Ask God to give those He sends to cross cultures wisdom and discernment as they engage in spiritual conversations with those who are curious about the gospel.

Palaung, Golden Across Countries (ROP3 - 103423) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▼PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Golden PalaungPG009429Golden PalaungMyanmar215,000Unengaged and UnreachedShwe PalaungTheravada Buddhism
Shwe DeangPG006720Shwe DeangChina8,100Unengaged and UnreachedShwe PalaungMahayana Buddhism

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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