The Buli of Indonesia

The Buli of Indonesia, numbering approximately 3,400 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a people of the Buli Bay area of Halmahera in North Maluku, belonging to the closely related South Halmahera linguistic and cultural sphere. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Buli (Indonesia) is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Buli

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Maluku-Northern
Primary Language(s): Buli (Indonesia) (bzq)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 3,400
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG022637
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Buli 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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

70%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Buli (Indonesia)
Language Family: Austronesian

76%
%
Buli (Indonesia) Speakers

Media Resources in Buli (Indonesia):

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Buli (Indonesia):

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Buli (Indonesia) bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Buli 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 Buli:
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 Buli of Indonesia

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
readRomans 3:23

Pray that those who live in fear, guilt and discontentment because of sin will see their need for change, hear, and receive the good news of freedom from sin through Christ.

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
readMark 4:20

Pray that those who have never encountered the gospel will have the opportunity to receive it, and that it will fall on good soil and bear much fruit.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
readIsaiah 9:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will rejoice in the coming of the Prince of Peace because He will bring everlasting peace and rule with justice and righteousness.

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.

Buli Across Countries (ROP3 - 101726) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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