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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Pasemah of Indonesia

The Pasemah of Indonesia, numbering approximately 370,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an indigenous community of Indonesia; a dialect subgroup of Central Malay (pse) They are an Indigenous people, with Pasemah as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Pasemah of Sumatra people cluster of the Malay Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam. They primarily speak Malay, Central.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Pasemah

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Pasemah of Sumatra
Primary Language(s): Malay, Central (pse)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 370,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG022526

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Pray for the Pasemah of Indonesia

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: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

97%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Malay, Central
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Malay, Central Speakers

Media Resources in Malay, Central:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Malay, Central:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Malay, Central bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Pasemah:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Pasemah are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Pasemah:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Pasemah 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 Pasemah:
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 Pasemah of Indonesia

And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
readExodus 14:22

Pray that the God who split the sea so that the Israelites might pass through would do another great work among these people, softening the hearts of those who remain lost to the good news and saving them from their sins.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them
readMatthew 4:24

Pray that the truth about the Lord will spread throughout the land so that many will have an opportunity to receive the good news and put their faith in Him.

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
read1 Peter 3:8

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will live in harmony with one another, showing sympathy, love, compassion, and humility.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Pasemah Across Countries (ROP3 - 107908) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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