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The Javan or Javanese ; ꦠꦶꦪꦁꦗꦮꦶ, Tiyang Jawi ] are indigenous ethnic group native to the central and eastern hemisphere of Java island, Indonesia. With approximately 100 million people, Javanese people are the largest ethnic group in Indonesia and whole Southeast Asia in general. Their native language is the Javanese, which belongs to the Javanesic language family of Austronesian. There are also significant numbers of Javanese diaspora outside of central and eastern Java regions, including the provinces of Indonesia, and also in another countries such as Suriname, Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Netherlands.
A majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Sunni Muslims, with a small minority identifying as Christians and Hindus. However, Javanese civilisation has been influenced by more than a millennium of interactions between the native animism Kejawen and the Indian Hindu—Buddhist culture, and this influence is still visible in Javanese history, culture, traditions, and art forms. Javanese heritage has created the largest temples in the world like Prambanan and Borobudur. Javanese culture also has an impact on traditional Maritime Southeast Asian culture, especially in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand and Philippines. In Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore, Javanese cultural influences have had a profound impact on many aspects of modern Malay culture. Javanese culture has greatly influenced Malay cuisine with many dishes such as satay, sambal, ketupat, nasi kuning , rojak and others. Kris weapons, batik practice, gamelan musical instruments, ronggeng dance and wayang kulit puppet were introduced through contacts between Javanese and Malays. With a sizeable global population, the Javanese are considered significant as they are the fourth largest ethnic group among Muslims in the world after the Arabs, Bengalis and Punjabis.