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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
German - Deutsch | Gujarati - ગુજરાતી
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The Mandailing of Indonesia

The Mandailing of Indonesia, numbering approximately 1,300,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Batak people of southern North Sumatra whose identity developed through close ties with the Mandailing homeland and enduring cultural influences from both Batak and Minangkabau traditions. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Batak Mandailing is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Mandailing

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Batak-Nias of Sumatra
Primary Language(s): Batak Mandailing (btm)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 1,300,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG022515
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Pray for the Mandailing 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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

95%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Batak Mandailing
Language Family: Austronesian

76%
%
Batak Mandailing Speakers

Media Resources in Batak Mandailing:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Batak Mandailing:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Batak Mandailing bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Mandailing 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.

Next steps for the Mandailing:
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

Pray specifically for the Mandailing of Indonesia

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
readRomans 1:22

Ask God to pour out His mercy and bring those who are walking in their own wisdom to faith in Jesus.

The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
readPsalm 104:8

Pray that they will see the hand of God in the beauty and order of the natural world, and that they will worship Him as the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
readGenesis 50:20

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will forgive those who do them harm and trust God as they walk in His ways.

And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
readMatthew 25:40

Ask God to raise up and send believers who will serve "the least of these" with compassion and energy because they know that in serving those in need, they are serving Christ.

Batak Mandailing Across Countries (ROP3 - 101126) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion ▼
MandailingPG022515MandailingIndonesia1,300,000Engaged yet UnreachedBatak MandailingSunni Islam

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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