Java People

Not to be confused with Japanese people.

The Javanese (Javanese Ngoko: Wong Jawa, Krama: Tiyang Jawi; Indonesian: suku Jawa) are an ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Java. At approximately 85 million people (as of 2009^[update]), they form largest ethnic group in Indonesia. They are predominantly located in the central to eastern parts of the island. There are also significant populations in in most Provinces of Indonesia, in Malaysia, Singapore and also Suriname in South America.

Today, majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Muslims. Because the Javanese civilization has been influenced for more than a millennia of interactions between the native animism and the Indian Hindu—Buddhist culture, there are traces of their influences in the Javanese history, culture, traditions and artforms.

The Austronesian-speaking peoples are various populations in Southeast Asia and Oceania that speak languages of the Austronesian family. They include Taiwanese aborigines; the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Polynesia, as well as the Polynesian peoples of New Zealand and Hawaii, and the non-Papuan people of Melanesia. They are also found in Singapore, the Pattani region of Thailand, and the Cham areas of Vietnam (remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam), Cambodia, and Hainan, China. The territories populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.