Javanese
Javanese , Javanese Wong Jawa , are an ethnic group on the Indonesian island of Java , who live mainly in Central and Eastern Java and speak Javanese (basa jawa) . Colloquially, all residents of the island are incorrectly referred to as Javanese. The inhabitants of West Java ( Sunda ) who speak Sundanese (bahasa sunda, basa sunda) call themselves Sundanese .
As part of the policy of the Transmigrasi , many Javanese emigrated to other less densely populated parts of Indonesia, which often led to conflicts with the local population.
The Javanese adopted several religions over the course of 1000 years, initially Buddhism and Hinduism , which were the two most popular religions until the 16th century. In many places they mixed with older Javanese beliefs. The conversion to Islam , to which the vast majority of Javanese now belong, began in the 16th century through Indian and Arab traders . Traditionally, most of them practice a form of Islam ( Abangan ) that is still heavily steeped in ancient Javanese beliefs. There are also very small minorities of Christians and Buddhists.