Bibleless Nations

Al Jazeera - FlickrCreative Commons The Kingdom of Bahrain is an archipelago nation located in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Most Bahraini live on the main island. The town people usually live in apartments or houses made of cement and lime brick. The villagers live in thatched huts. The arid climate allows some dairy and vegetable farming, but most of their food is imported. Bahrain has diversified its petroleum [...]

There are forty-four subgroups of the Jula, a sub-Saharan people, one of which is the Odienne Jula. The majority of the 183,000 Odienne Jula live in the northwest town of Odienne, Côte d’Ivoire which is an historic trading center. Odienne lies within the savanna region of Côte d’Ivoire where the soil is fertile. People make their living as merchants, craftsmen, and farmers. Rice is grown in the region and cashews have recently become an important [...]

Among the mountains and valleys of the Shan state of Myanmar live the Golden Palaung. Over 200,000 Golden Palaung speak the Shwe dialect of Palaung, which comes from the Mon-Khmer language family. The Palaung are able to grow a number of crops in their area and they trade for additional foods with their pickled tea (also called laphet). This exclusive novelty is made by fermenting tea leaves over a long period of time and then [...]

Centuries ago, the most feared pirates in the Bay of Bengal terrorized com-munities in what is now Bangladesh. These pirates were called Maghs. Having left the seas long ago, the Magh are now valley farmers and dislike the term Magh because they do not want to be associated with pirates. They prefer the name Marma, which means “Burmese.” There are 182,000 Marma living in the Chittagong Hills of southeastern Bangladesh. There is no Bible in [...]

The 2000 census lists 45,000 ethnic Phunoi living in north-central Laos. Phunoi is one of eighty-four languages spoken in Laos. It is a Tibeto-Burman language which reflects the Burmese rule in Phunoi history. Phunoi is classified as a Loloish language which reflects a Chinese origin. Experts believe there are 240 ethnic groups in Laos. In 1981, they were officially divided into five groups according to language. However, the former three group system is still commonly [...]

Bagobo-Klata of Mindanao Located in the heart of the second largest island of the Philippines is a tribal people who cling tenaciously to their ancient customs and traditions. The Bagobos are a people steeped in ethnoreligion. They combine spirit worship, ancestral worship, and nature worship into a religion that is strict in ritual and full of fear. They are fiercely territorial, suspicious of outsiders, and very resistant to the efforts to assimilate them into the [...]

Luobohe Miao of China Imagine a dark place where superstition and fear rule peoples’ lives. It is a place where daily activities must be done in a prescribed manner or risk the ire of demons and the spirits of ancestors. There are no Christians, no Scriptures, and no hope. This is reality for the 123,000 Luobohe Miao (a group of the Hmong people cluster) who live in the mountains in southwest China. They keep to [...]

Tourists gather yearly to see the Yörük caravans depart their winter coastal homes for their summer pastureland in the Taurus Mountains. Excitement abounds. Sheep and goats walk single file, bells ringing. The huge loads of tents and equipment carried by camels are covered by colorful Turkish rugs. Women in their long, flowered skirts and young people dressed in their colorful best lend an air of festivity. This 1,000 year way of life is vanishing as [...]

The Brunei Malay people are a native Malay ethnic group that live in Brunei, a little-known nation on the island of Borneo. The country is tiny (a little larger than Delaware), but enjoys the wealth from oil resources. The Brunei also live in Malaysia, Canada, and the United States. The in-country population is 184,000; the worldwide population is 556,000. Their language, also called Brunei Malay, is different in sound from Malay. Brunei Malay is the [...]

The Tama people live in eastern Chad and western Sudan. Statistics vary according to source; reports include a population of anywhere from 170,000 to 300,000. The Kimr tribe, numbering 169,000, belongs to the Tama people group and speaks the same language. Tama (also known as Tamok, Tamot, or Tamongobo) is a language in which tone, stress, and length can all change the meaning of words. It is the language spoken in homes. It is [...]

Bob and Liz Patton Suriname is situated on the northern coast of South America. Its history is almost as diverse as the vegetation that grows in its tropical climate; Suriname was first explored by the Spanish in the 16th century, settled by the British in the mid-17th century, and became a Dutch sugar colony in 1667. Indigenous populations and escaped African slaves were pushed into the interior of the country where they [...]

The ancient home of the Aymara is perched twelve-thousand feet above sea level on the Altiplano, a high plateau near Lake Titicaca in the Peruvian Andes. Although life is challenging due to very poor soil and a region susceptible to both drought and flood, the nearly three hundred thousand Southern Aymara have found a way to sustain a vibrant culture. Fulfilling social obligations is very important in these communities, which are usually composed of [...]

CEphoto, uwe aranas The 750,000-900,000 souls comprising the Bajau or Sama people are dispersed throughout the Malaysian section of Borneo and are thought to have originated in the Philippines. There are various Bajau languages, and they are mutually unintelligible. While some of the Bajau have Bible translations or Gospel resources, at least one of them—the West Coast Bajau people— have no known Gospel resources: no Bible, no New Testament, not even a [...]

Photo: Robert Middleton The Pamiris of Central Asia have never had their own country nor lived independently of surrounding powers. The majority of Pamiris live in an area called the Badakhshan Autonomous Province which covers parts of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Pamiris are linguistically, religiously, and culturally distinct from their Tajik and Afghani landlords. They are a highly misunderstood people group and face great prejudice and discrimination. This is primarily due to a [...]

  Hidden deep in the mountains of southwest China, the Bunu people are like a treasure waiting to be found. Many of the small Bunu villages are inaccessible by any type of vehicle. The Bunu went into hiding when they were forced to flee the Hunan valley due to violent persecution from the Han and Zhuang peoples. The kinship system of the Bunu is matrilineal, meaning they trace their descent through their mother’s line, [...]

If you were to venture into the Tarai plains on the India-Nepal border, not only would you behold the incredible Himalayan Mountain range, but you would discover the beautiful Tharu people. Large families live together in brightly colored houses and work in the fields and forests with tools made by their own hands. Proud of their cultural heritage, traditions, and language, the Tharu are very artistic. Colorful clothing, beautiful jewelry, and intricate fishing nets are [...]

Photp: Halpis The Rukai, one of Taiwan’s sixteen indigenous tribes, inhabit the high mountains of southern Taiwan. Difficulties of travel in the high mountains and limited contact even among people of the same tribe have resulted in six distinct dialects of Rukai. Tribesman of the Rukai and neighboring tribes were fiercely protective of their hunting lands, and would hunt the heads of intruders to bring back to their village as trophies. This practice persisted among [...]

Imagine living your entire life committed to what you believe, dedicated to your people and traditions, following the teachings passed down to you from your parents and their parents, and then dying only to realize that everything you believed in was a lie and you must now spend eternity in torment, separated from God. How would it feel to know there were people in the world who had the truth, yet never told you? Approximately [...]

“Avilakoa!” a man cries out to you from beside the dirt path. His long white robe brushes the ground as he stands watching over his cattle. In the distance, you see a village of mud houses and hear the sound of women calling out to each other as they get water and prepare food. This is a village of Fur people and you have just been greeted with a “good morning!” The Fur people live [...]

Tucked away, high in the northeastern mountains of Pakistan, live the Hunza people. They are also known as the Burusha. These people lived for hundreds of years in complete isolation until a highway was built that brings many tourists to see the beauty of the Himalayan mountains contrasted with the lush, terraced gardens of the Hunza farmers. The Hunza people are renown not only for their beautiful valley but also for their long life span. [...]

The Larestani people group of Southwestern Iran has a population of 115,000 Sunni Muslims. The Larestani are surrounded by Shi’ite Muslims, so religious tensions are often very high. The Larestani are farmers and shepherds; but as they are completely dependent on the little rainfall the region receives, are very poor. As a direct result of the difficulty in farming and shepherding, many Larestani have left their homeland and moved to other countries around the world [...]

The Lembak, or Cul (population 231,000), live primarily on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.  They are  farmers whose main crop is rice, though some do farm and sell coffee and rubber. Families are close-knit; two family members accompany anyone leaving Sumatra to receive further training or work experience. When they finish their training, all three family members return. They call themselves “Sindang Kelingi” or “Lembak Sindang Merdeka” which means “free.” This is ironic as [...]

The Palaung people of Myanmar are divided into three groups, each of which has its own language. These three languages are all thriving; they are spoken in the home and markets by speakers of all ages.  The Palaung live in the mountainous northern region where census taking is difficult and results uncertain. The Rumai Palaung number around 157,000; they have no Scriptures. The Shwe Palaung number about 229,000; they have no Scriptures either. The 294,000 [...]

The Moor (world-wide population  4,235,100) are originally from North Africa. They are proud of their Arabic ancestry and retain its Islamic influence which varies between the terrorist Quidari and the more peaceful Jajani. Their language is Hassaniya Arabic. They have no Scripture or known missionaries. In 711 AD, the Moor invaded and conquered Spain. They contributed so much knowledge during their several hundred year reign that    Europe made great strides in education and the sciences.  [...]

An estimated four to five million Luri people live in the Zagros Mountains in the southwestern provinces of Iran.  Making up about 7% of Iran’s population, these ancient nomads are believed to be indigenous to the area, descended from ancient Persians. History reports that Luri ancestors were the Elamites and Kassites, dating back to 3000 B.C.  It was the Kassite dynasty that defeated ancient Babylonia and dominated Mesopotamia for 576 years.  Could this be the [...]