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The Penan of Malaysia

The Penan of Malaysia, numbering approximately 13,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Malaysia. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Eastern Penan is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Malaysia
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Eastern Penan (pez)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 13,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG018231
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Pray for the Penan 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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

65%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Eastern Penan
Language Family: Austronesian

70%
%
Penan, Eastern Speakers

Media Resources in Eastern Penan:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Eastern Penan:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2011 Pengepemung irah éh suai Surat Tuhan tong Malaysia✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Eastern Penan bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Penan 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 Penan:
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 Penan of Malaysia

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
readLuke 12:7

Pray that those who don't yet know how to trust in Jesus will not be consumed by worry and anxiety, but will trust in the Father's care and provision for their daily needs and for their eternal salvation

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
readPsalm 119:97

Pray that the lost will have access to God's Word in their language and treasure it deeply, meditating on God's promises and precepts.

Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
readPsalm 105:3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will glory in His holy name and that their hearts will rejoice.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
readRomans 1:16

Pray that God will raise up sons and daughters who, like Paul, will be bold to share the gospel across cultural barriers so that many might receive salvation.

Penan, Eastern Across Countries (ROP3 - 107968) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountry ▼PopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
PenanPG018231PenanMalaysia13,500No Longer UnreachedEastern PenanEthnoreligion

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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