Total population | |
---|---|
c. 6-8 million | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Malaysia | c. 5,000,000 (including Malaysian citizen) (assimilate into the local Malaysian Malays) (NOTE [1] ) [2] [3] [4] |
Singapore | c. 400,000 (including Singaporean citizens, more than 60% of Singaporean Malays are of Javanese descent) [5] |
Taiwan | 190,000–240,000 (2018) [6] [7] |
Hong Kong | 151,021 (2016) [8] |
Saudi Arabia | 150,000 (2014) [9] [10] |
United Arab Emirates | 114,000 (2014) [11] |
Suriname | 102,000 (2019) [12] |
Jordan | 48,000 (2014) [11] |
Sri Lanka | 40,148 (2014) |
Oman | 33,000 (2014) [11] |
Qatar | 28,000 (2014) [11] |
Netherlands | 21,700 (Javanese Surinamese) [13] [14] |
Macau | 7,000–16,000 (2016) [15] |
Australia | 12,000[ citation needed ] |
New Caledonia | 4,100 [16] |
Thailand | 3,000 [17] |
Germany | 2,400[ citation needed ] |
Languages | |
| |
Religion | |
Islam · Christianity · Hinduism · Buddhism · Javanism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Native Indonesians |
The Javanese diaspora is the demographic group of descendants of ethnic Javanese who emigrated from the Indonesian island of Java to other parts of the world. The Javanese diaspora includes a significant population in Suriname, with over 13% of the country's population being of Javanese ancestry. [12] Other major enclaves are found in Australia, French Guiana, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.
Javanese were likely part of the Austronesian migration to Madagascar starting in the first century CE. While the migration was dominated by the Ma'anyan people of Borneo, Javanese involvement is evidenced by an abundance of loanwords in the Malagasy language. [18]
During the late 16th century, numerous Javanese fleaing conflict between the Demak, the Pajang, and the Mataram, migrated to Palembang in southern Sumatra. There they established a sultanate and formed a mix of Malay and Javanese culture. [19] Palembang language is a dialect of Malay language with heavy Javanese influence.
The Javanese were present in Peninsular Malaya since early times. [20] The link between Java and Malacca was important during spread of Islam in Indonesia, when religious missionaries were sent from Malacca to seaports on the northern coast of Java. [21] Large migrations to the Malay Peninsula occurred during the colonial period, mostly from Central Java to British Malaya. Migration also took place from 1880 to 1930 from other parts of Java with a secondary migration Javanese from Sumatra. Those migrations were to seek a new life away from the Dutch colonists who ruled Indonesia at that time. Today these people live throughout Peninsular Malaysia and are mainly concentrated in parts of Johor, Perak and Selangor and cities such as Kuala Lumpur.
New migration patterns emerged during colonial periods. During the rise of VOC power starting in the 17th century, many Javanese were exiled, enslaved or hired as mercenaries for the Dutch colonies of Ceylon in South Asia and the Cape colony in South Africa. These included princes and nobility who lost their dispute with the company and were exiled along with their retinues. These, along with exiles from other ethnicities like Bugis and Malay became the Sri Lankan Malay [22] and Cape Malay [23] ethnic groups respectively.
Major migrations started during the Dutch colonial period under transmigration programs. The Dutch needed many labourers for their plantations and moved many Javanese under the program as contract workers, mostly to other parts of the colony in Sumatra. They also sent Javanese workers to Suriname in South America. [24] As of 2019, approximately 13.7% of the Suriname population is of Javanese ancestry. [12] Outside of the Dutch colonies, Javanese workers were also sent to plantations administrated by the Dutch colonial government in New Caledonia, a French territory. [24]
The Javanese presence in Australia has been reported by native Southeast Asian and European people over several centuries. The most renowned record is from the itinerary of Chiaymasiouro, king of Demak, and Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Eredia. Chiaymasiouro describes a land called LucaAntara in Southeast direction of Java, which Eredia coined the term India Meridional (Meridional India - Southern/South India). [25] According to Chiaymasiouro's accounts (1601 AD), a subgroup of Javanese people already settled in those lands, but when Eredia's servant went to LucaAntara in 1610, the land had seemingly been abandoned. [26]
Nowadays, 12,000 Javanese Australians living in Australia.
The migration of Malays in Cocos (Keeling) Islands are believed to have arrived and settled in the islands in 1826 "when Alexander Hare, an English merchant, brought his Malay harem and slaves there." [27] Nowadays, this ethnic group made significant population, known as Cocos Malays. Cocos Malays are an ethnic group composed of ethnic groups originating from different places of the Malay Archipelago, including Javanese and Malays.
French Guiana shares a land border with Suriname and both countries share many aspects of their culture. This situation makes probability that Javanese Surinamese immigrate to French Guiana from Suriname. Javanese French Guianans lives in French Guiana with approximately 3,000 population.
The majority of Javanese Malaysians originated from Central Java, First wave came from Shailendra era in 6-9 century, then in Singhasari and Majapahit era in 12-14 century, there were also migrants from the Dutch East Indies looking for new opportunities in British Malaya. Despite many of them arrived through the colonial era, there are also who arrived through the World War II to both Japanese-occupied British Malaya and Borneo as forced labour. [28] [29] In the present day, they live predominantly in the West Malaysian states of Johor, Perak and Selangor with significant minorities found in East Malaysia especially in the states of Sabah and Sarawak.[ citation needed ]
Most Malaysians of Javanese descent have assimilated into the local Malay culture, and speak Malaysian as a native tongue and first language rather than the Javanese language of their ancestors.
Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands from 1605 until 1945. In the early 20th century, many Indonesian students studied in the Netherlands. Most of them lived in Leiden and were active in the Perhimpoenan Indonesia (Indonesian Association). During and after the Indonesian National Revolution, many Indo people, people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian ancestry migrated to the Netherlands. Furthermore, Javanese Surinamese also migrating to Netherlands and made population in the amount of 21,700.
Javanese workers were sent to plantations administrated by the Dutch colonial government in New Caledonia, a French territory. [24] Nowadays, Javanese New Caledonians make up 1.4% population of total population of New Caledonians. [30]
The second largest Malay group were the Javanese. They came from Java in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). In the 1931 Population Census, the number of Javanese in Singapore was 16,063. The 1981 Population Census, however, showed that they made up 6% of the Malay population. However, many Javanese had actually registered themselves as 'Malay'. It is likely that the actual percentage of the Javanese within the Malay population was much higher. An ethnographic study in 1990 estimated that approximately 50–60% of Singaporean Malays have at least some degree of Javanese ancestry. [5] [31] The Javanese came to Singapore in stages. In the mid-19th century, they came and worked as ironsmiths, leather makers as well as spice merchants and religious books dealers. There were also a group of Javanese printers and publishers in the Arab Street area. There were also community of pilgrim brokers that played an important role in encouraging the migration of the Javanese to Singapore.
After the Second World War, the total number of Javanese coming to Singapore continued to increase. The first wave consisted of conscript labour that were brought by the Japanese and their numbers were estimated to be about 10,000 (Turnbull, 1976:216). The second wave were those who moved to Singapore through Malaya. The 1970 Population Census showed that a total of 21,324 Malays who were born in Malaya (later Malaysia) had moved to Singapore in the years 1946–1955; and as many as 29,679 moved to Singapore from 1956 to 1970 (Census 1970:262-3). Interviews conducted showed that a majority of them were young men of Javanese descent from Johore who wanted to find a better life in Singapore. Most of them were not educated and not highly skilled and worked as manual labourers in the post war years.
In the 2010 census, Malays of Javanese descent numbered 89,000.
Cape Malays are an ethnic group or community in South Africa. The name is derived from the Cape of Good Hope and the Malay race people originally from the Malay Archipelago, mostly from the Dutch East Indies colony (present-day Indonesia), [32] a Dutch colony for several centuries, and Dutch Malacca, [33] which the Dutch held from 1641 to 1824. [34] The community's earliest members were enslaved Javanese transported by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). [35] Key figures in the arrival of Islam were Muslim leaders who resisted the company's rule in Southeast Asia. Some, like Sheikh Yusuf, were exiled to South Africa by the company, which founded and used Cape Town as a resupply station for ships travelling between Europe and Asia.
Sri Lankan Malays first settled in the country when both Sri Lanka and Indonesia were Dutch colonies, while a second wave (1796–1948) came from the Malay Peninsula, when both Malaya and Sri Lanka were in the British Empire. However, Sri Lanka has had a longer history of Malay presence dating back to as early as the 13th century. [36] Most of Sri Lankan Malays are of Javanese descent.
After the abolition of slavery, the plantations in Suriname needed a new source of labor. In 1890, the influential Netherlands Trading Society, owner of the plantation Mariënburg in Suriname, undertook a test to attract Javanese indentured workers from the Dutch East Indies. Until then, primarily Indian indentured workers from British India worked at the Surinamese plantations as field and factory workers. On 9 August, the first Javanese arrived in Paramaribo. The test was considered successful and by 1894 the colonial government took over the task of recruiting Javanese hands. They came in small groups from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands, and from there to Paramaribo. The transport of Javanese immigrants continued until 1914 (except 1894) in two stages through Amsterdam.
The workers came from villages in Central and East Java. Departure points were Batavia, Semarang and Tandjong Priok. The recruited workers and their families awaited their departure in a depot, where they were inspected and registered and where they signed their contract.
A total of 32,965 Javanese immigrants went to Suriname. In 1954, 8,684 Javanese returned to Indonesia, with the rest remaining in Suriname. The census of 1972 counted 57,688 Javanese in Suriname, and in 2004 there were 71,879. In addition, in 2004 more than 60,000 people of mixed descent were recorded, with an unknown number of part Javanese descent.
Malay may refer to:
Malays are an Austronesian ethnoreligious group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations. These locations are today part of the countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, the southern part of Thailand, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
The Javanese are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the central and eastern part of the Indonesian island of Java. With more than 100 million people, Javanese people are the largest ethnic group in both Indonesia and in Southeast Asia as a whole. Their native language is Javanese, it is the largest of the Austronesian languages in number of native speakers and also the largest regional language in Southeast Asia. The Javanese as the largest ethnic group in the region have dominated the historical, social, and political landscape in the past as well as in modern Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders.
Malay Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Malay ancestry, including those from the Malay Archipelago. They constitute approximately 13.5% of the country's citizens, making them the second largest ethnic group in Singapore. Under the Constitution of Singapore, they are recognised by the government as the indigenous people of the country, with Malay as the national language of Singapore.
The Tamil diaspora refers to descendants of the Tamil speaking immigrants who emigrated from their native lands in the southern Indian subcontinent to other parts of the world. They are found primarily in Malaysia, Arab states of the Persian Gulf, South Africa, North America, Western Europe, and Singapore. It can be divided into two main diasporic clusters, due to geographical, historical and cultural reasons, as Indian Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.
Overseas Malays refers to individuals with Malay race ancestry living outside of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Singapore, parts of Myanmar, East Timor, the Philippines and Southern Thailand are not considered to be Malay countries at present time, due to geopolitical reasons. Albeit being an overseas community, this does not change the fact that they are still a part of the Malay archipelago, and share common ancestral and historical ties together.
Malaysian Malays are Malaysians of Malay ethnicity whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the Malay world. According to the 2023 population estimate, with a total population of 17.6 million, Malaysian Malays form 57.9% of Malaysia's demographics, the largest ethnic group in the country. They can be broadly classified into two main categories; Anak Jati and Anak Dagang.
Tamil Malaysians, also known as Malaysian Tamilar, are people of full or partial Tamil descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia from Tamil Nadu, India and the Tamil regions of north-east Sri Lanka. The majority of 1.8–2 million people 80% of the Malaysian Indian populations in Malaysia were from Indian Tamil ethnic groups from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The bulk of Tamil Malaysian migration began during the British Raj, when Britain facilitated the migration of Indian workers to work in plantations. There are, however, some established Tamil communities from before British colonialism.
Immigration to Malaysia is the process by which people migrate to Malaysia to reside in the country. The majority of these individuals become Malaysian citizens. After 1957, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act 1959/63. Malaysian immigration policies are still evolving.
Overseas Indonesians refers to Indonesians who live outside of Indonesia. These include citizens that have migrated to another country as well as people born abroad of Indonesian descent. According to Ministry of Law and Human Rights, more than 6 million Indonesians diaspora live abroad in 2023 this include ex-Indonesian citizens, foreign citizens who are children of Indonesian citizens, and children of ex-Indonesian citizens, illegal and undocumented workers.
Sri Lankan Malays are Sri Lankan citizens with full or partial ancestry from the Indonesian Archipelago, Malaysia, or Singapore. In addition, people from Brunei and the Philippines also consider themselves Malays. The term is a misnomer as it is used as a historical catch-all term for all native ethnic groups of the Malay Archipelago who reside in Sri Lanka; the term does not apply solely to the ethnic Malays. They number approximately 40,000 and make up 0.2% of the Sri Lankan population, making them the fourth largest of the five main ethnic groups in the country.
Javanese Surinamese are an ethnic group of Javanese descent in Suriname. They have been present since the late 19th century, when their first members were selected as indentured laborers by the Dutch colonizers from the former Dutch East Indies.
Malaysian Indians or Indo-Malaysian are Malaysian citizens of Indian or South Asian ancestry. They now form the third-largest group in Malaysia, after the Malays and the Chinese. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India to British Malaya from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Most Malaysian Indians are ethnic Tamils; smaller groups include the Malayalees, Telugus and Punjabis. Malaysian Indians form the fifth-largest community of Overseas Indians in the world. In Malaysia, they represent the third-largest group, constituting 7% of the Malaysian population, after the ethnic Malays and the Chinese. They are usually referred to simply as "Indians" in English, Orang India in Malay, "Yin du ren" in Chinese.
Indonesia and Malaysia established diplomatic relations in 1957. It is one of the most important bilateral relationships in Southeast Asia.
The Javanese Malaysians are people of full or partial Javanese descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia. They form a significant part of Malaysia's population and Malaysian law considers most of them to be Malays. Malaysia is home to the largest Javanese population outside Indonesia.
The Indonesian Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indonesian ancestry. Today, there are many Malaysian Malays who have lineage from the Indonesian archipelago and have played an important role in the history and contributed to the development of Malaysia, they have been assimilated with other Malay communities and are grouped as part of the foreign Malays or anak dagang in terms of race. The Malaysian census does not categorize ethnic groups from the Indonesian archipelago as a separate ethnic group, but rather as Malay or Bumiputera.
Manuel Godinho de Erédia, or Emanuel Godinho de Erédia, was a Bugis-Portuguese writer and cartographer. He wrote a number of books, including an early account of the Malay Peninsula that is a source of information on the region of that period. In the early 17th century, he became interested in exploring a "southern land", which is thought to be Australia.
The Javanese presence in Australia has been reported by Southeast Asian and European people over several centuries. The most renowned record is from the itinerary of Chiaymasiouro, king of Demak, and Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Eredia. Chiaymasiouro describes a land called LucaAntara in Southeast direction of Java, which Eredia coined the term India Meridional. According to Chiaymasiouro's accounts, a subgroup of Javanese people already settled in those lands, but when Eredia's servant went to LucaAntara in 1610, the land had seemingly been abandoned.
Javanese New Caledonians are an ethnic group of full or partial Javanese descent in New Caledonia. They have been present since between 1896 and 1949. They were sent as plantation workers administered by the Dutch colonial government in New Caledonia.
Singapore Malay community leaders estimated that some 50 to 60 percent of the community traced their origins to Java and an additional 15 to 20 percent to Bawean Island, in the Java Sea north of the city of Surabaya.