Sundanese people
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (more than 40 million) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
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Indonesia: 36,701,670 15.5% of the Indonesian population (2010) West Java: 34 million Banten: 2.4 million Jakarta: 1.5 million Lampung: 0.6 million Central Java: 0.3 million South Sumatra: 0.1 million |
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| Languages | |
| Religion | |
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Majority: Sunni Muslim, nondenominational Muslim
Minority: Protestantism, Sunda Wiwitan, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism |
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| Related ethnic groups | |
Minority: Protestantism, Sunda Wiwitan, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism
The Sundanese (Sundanese: ᮅᮛᮀ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ, Urang Sunda) are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Indonesian island of Java. They number approximately 40 million, and are the second most populous of all the nation's ethnicities. The Sundanese are predominantly Muslim. In their own language, Sundanese, the group is referred to as Urang Sunda, and Orang Sunda or Suku Sunda in the national language, Indonesian.
The Sundanese have traditionally been concentrated in the provinces of West Java, Banten, Jakarta, and the western part of Central Java. Sundanese migrants can also be found in Lampung and South Sumatra. The provinces of Central Java and East Java are home to the Javanese, Indonesia's largest ethnic group.
The name Sunda derives from the Sanskrit prefix su- which means "goodness" or "possessing good quality". The example is suvarna (lit:"good color") used to describe gold. Sunda is also another name for Hindu God Vishnu. In Sanskrit, the term Sundara (masculine) or Sundari (feminine) means "beautiful" or "excellence". The term Sunda also means bright, light, purity, cleanness and white.
The Sundanese are of Austronesian origins who are thought to have originated in Taiwan, migrated though the Philippines, and reached Java between 1,500 BC and 1,000 BC. Nevertheless, there is also a hypothesis that argues that the Austronesian ancestors of contemporary Sundanese people originally came from Sundaland, a sunken massive peninsula that today formed Java Sea, Malacca and Sunda straits, and the islands between them. However, this is an extremely minority view among professional archaeologists, linguists, and geneticists.
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