“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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” […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Amazon Basin contains the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covering an area almost the size of the continental United States. Most of the basin lies within Brazil, but it also encompasses parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela. It is home to an estimated twenty-six million people, including isolated and even uncontacted tribes. Some have denied the existence of as yet uncontacted tribes, […]
The 4,127,124 Banjar, Indonesia’s tenth largest ethnic group, makes up 1.7% of the nation’s total population. They live mainly in Southern Kalimantan. There are also over a million Banjar in Malaysia.
The Banjarese language reflects the influence of the Dayaks, the Javanese, and the Malay peoples from whom the Banjar descended. This is a very active language; many of its speakers lack fluency in Indonesian. The script […]
The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon are French and English. There are also 286 indigenous languages, one of which is Eton with an estimated 127,000 speakers. The Eton people live in the tropical rain forest of the Centre Region. They are subsistence farmers, using the slash and burn method to plant root crops (such as cassava, yam, and macabo), plantain, and groundnuts. Fishing and hunting […]