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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
German - Deutsch | Gujarati - ગુજરાતી
Hindi - हिन्दी | Indonesian - Bahasa Indonesia
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Portugese - Português | Russian - Русский
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Punan of Brunei

The Punan of Brunei, numbering approximately 90 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Bornean people, also called Penan, likely descended from Taiwan-origin farmers who arrived between 5,000 and 2,500 BCE before abandoning agriculture for forest hunting and gathering, divided by the Baram River into East and West branches. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Eastern Penan is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Brunei
People Cluster: Borneo-Kalimantan
Primary Language(s): Eastern Penan (pez)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 90
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG046592

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Pray for the Punan of Brunei

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

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Eastern Penan
Language Family: Austronesian

72%
%
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 Punan 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 Punan:
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 Punan of Brunei

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
readIsaiah 40:8

Pray that those who don't know Jesus will be freed from the emptiness of fading hopes and find lasting life and truth in the unchanging Word of God.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
readPsalm 1:1-2

Pray that God will call out many sons and daughters from among them and give them a deep love for His Word.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
readPhilippians 3:20-21

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember their citizenship is in heaven.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
readLuke 10:1

Ask God to raise up, send out, and sustain Christians who can go together to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

Penan, Western Across Countries (ROP3 - 108180) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▲Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
PunanPG046592PunanBrunei90No 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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