Indonesia: A Javanese family of Jakarta (Batavia), c. 1870

The Javanese are an ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Java. At approximately 100 million people (as of 2011), they form the largest ethnic group in Indonesia. They are predominantly located in the central to eastern parts of the island. There are also significant numbers of people of Javanese descent in most Provinces of Indonesia, Malaysia, Suriname, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Today the majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Muslims, with a minority identifying as Christians and Hindus, but because Javanese civilization has been influenced by more than a millennium of interactions between the native animism and the Indian Hindu—Buddhist culture, the influence is still visible in Javanese history, culture, traditions and art forms.

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