Penan in Malaysia


Population
Main Language
Largest Religion
Christian
Evangelical
Progress
Progress Gauge

Introduction / History

The Penan are one of the few remaining nomadic peoples who made their home in the rainforest of Borneo's interior. Today, only a few Penan maintain such a nomadic lifestyle. The Malaysian government has built longhouses for them to settle in. Most of the Penan are located around Baram (in the Miri Division) and around Belaga (in the Kapit Division). Smaller populations can be found in the Bintulu and Limbang Districts.
There are several distinct dialects of Penan, which are like the Kenyah languages but not mutually intelligible with them. However, some of the younger generations are beginning to learn Malay to communicate with other people groups.


What Are Their Lives Like?

The Penan who now live in longhouses cultivate large plots of terraced rice fields. While they have taken up sedentary agriculture as their main livelihood, the change from their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle has been difficult. They still hunt wild animals and collect rattan, fruit and other food plants in the forests, and they still depend on the jungles to collect trade items such as camphor, jelutong 'wild rubber', damar 'a type of resin', gaharu 'incense wood', and rattan for making baskets, hats, and bags. Their diet includes fish and prawns from the rivers.
The Penan are generally gentle and soft-spoken. They are closely knit as a community, and they share whatever food they get from the forest. The traditional hunting weapon of the Penan is a keleput ‘blowpipe.’ It is made from straight-grained wood, drilled by a long metal rod and uses darts dipped in poison called tajem 'poison obtained from a jungle tree or plant'. Older Penan, due to their nomadic lifestyle, have not had access to education. They cannot speak the national language and can neither read nor write their own language.


What Are Their Beliefs?

The Penan still practice a system of animistic or traditional beliefs. They believe that every animal, tree, river, stream, and rock in the forest has its own spirit. To survive and prosper in the jungle, they must maintain harmonious relations with the spirits.
To the nomadic Penan, death is taken seriously. They believe that the soul of the dead should rest peacefully. As a result, children and adults should not make any noise near burial sites. After a dead person is buried, they will move out from that location to another location, and they will no longer mention the dead person's name. Afterwards, if a Penan wishes to mention the dead person, they will only refer to the burial site of the dead person.


What Are Their Needs?

There is a great need for language development and education, both for older Penan and for the younger generation. Pray for more teachers to offer their skills and knowledge to these people in order to help them improve their livelihood and standard of living. Pray too that the results of such efforts would also give the Penan access to God's good news.
Many Penan still do not have legal documents such as birth certificates and Malaysian identity cards. As a result, many of them still find it difficult to look for better job opportunities and to make it possible for their children to receive an education. Pray that the Penan will gain access to all the benefits of being Malaysians.


Prayer Points

Pray for the Lord to provide them with a huge harvest this year as a testimony of his mercy and love.
Pray for the Church to win, equip and send workers to the Penan people in Malaysia.
Pray for a Holy Spirit-led hunger for righteousness and truth.
Pray this will be the decade when there is a massive movement to Christ among the Penan people.


Scripture Prayers for the Penan in Malaysia.


Profile Source:   Joshua Project  

People Name General Penan
People Name in Country Penan
Alternate Names Penan, Eastern
Population this Country 12,000
Population all Countries 12,000
Total Countries 2
Indigenous Yes
Progress Scale 1
Unreached Yes
Frontier People Group No
GSEC 5  (per PeopleGroups.org)
Pioneer Workers Needed 1
PeopleID3 14357
ROP3 Code 107968
Country Malaysia
Region Asia, Southeast
Continent Asia
10/40 Window Yes
Persecution Rank 49  (Open Doors top 50 rank, 1 = highest persecution ranking)
Location in Country Sarawak, Apoh river district, east of Baram river.   Source:  Ethnologue 2016
Country Malaysia
Region Asia, Southeast
Continent Asia
10/40 Window Yes
Persecution Rank 49  (Open Doors top 50 rank, 1 = highest persecution ranking)
Location in Country Sarawak, Apoh river district, east of Baram river..   Source:  Ethnologue 2016
Primary Religion: Ethnic Religions
Major Religion Percent
Buddhism
0.00 %
Christianity  (Evangelical 0.30 %)
5.00 %
Ethnic Religions
65.00 %
Hinduism
0.00 %
Islam
30.00 %
Non-Religious
0.00 %
Other / Small
0.00 %
Unknown
0.00 %
Primary Language Penan, Eastern (12,000 speakers)
Language Code pez   Ethnologue Listing
Language Written Yes   ScriptSource Listing
Total Languages 1
Primary Language Penan, Eastern (12,000 speakers)
Language Code pez   Ethnologue Listing
Total Languages 1
People Groups Speaking Penan, Eastern
Photo Source Cayce - Wikimedia  Creative Commons 
Map Source Southeast Asia Link - SEALINK   Copyrighted ©   Used with permission
Profile Source Joshua Project 
Data Sources Data is compiled from various sources. Learn more.


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