The Sundanese (; ) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to western part of Java island in Indonesia, with the term Tatar Sunda (ᮒᮒᮁ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ) or Pasundan (ᮕᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓᮔ᮪) which covers most of the administrative areas of the provinces of West Java, Banten, and western part of Central Java. They number approximately 42 million and form Indonesia's second largest ethnic group, and the fourth largest in Southeast Asia. They speak the Sundanese language, which is part of the Austronesian languages.
Sundanese migrants can also be found in Lampung, South Sumatra, and, to a lesser extent, in Central Java and East Java. The Sundanese people can also be found on several other islands in Indonesia such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali and Papua.
Origins Migration theories The Sundanese are of Austronesian origins and are thought to have originated in Taiwan. They migrated through the Philippines and reached Java between 1,500 BC and 1,000 BC.Taylor (2003), p. 7. Nevertheless, there is also a hypothesis that argues that the Austronesian ancestors of contemporary Sundanese people originally came from Sundaland, a massive sunken peninsula that today forms the Java Sea, the Malacca and Sunda Straits and the islands between them. According to a recent genetic study, Sundanese, together with Javanese and Balinese, has a significant admixture of Austroasiatic and Austronesian ancestries.
Origin myth The Sunda Wiwitan belief contains the mythical origin of Sundanese people; Sang Hyang Kersa, the supreme divine being in ancient Sundanese belief created seven bataras (deities) in Sasaka Pusaka Buana (The Sacred Place on Earth). The oldest of these bataras is called Batara Cikal and is considered the ancestor of the Kanekes people. The other six bataras ruled various locations in Sunda lands in Western Java. A Sundanese legend of Sangkuriang contains the memory of the prehistoric ancient lake in Bandung basin highland, which suggest that Sundanese already inhabit the region since the Mesolithic era, at least 20,000 years ago. Another popular Sundanese proverb and legend mentioned the creation of Parahyangan (Priangan) highlands, the heartland of the Sundanese realm; "When the hyangs (gods) were smiling, the land of Parahyangan was created". This legend suggested the Parahyangan highland as the playland or the abode of gods, as well as suggesting its natural beauty.
History
Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms era
The earliest historical polity that appeared in the Sundanese realm in the Western part of Java was the kingdom of Tarumanagara, which flourished between the 4th and 7th centuries. Hindu influences reached the Sundanese people as early as the 4th century AD, as is evident in Tarumanagara inscriptions. The adoption of this dharmic faith in the Sundanese way of life was, however, never as intense as their Javanese counterparts. It seems that despite the central court beginning to adopt Hindu-Buddhist culture and institution, the majority of common Sundanese still retained their native natural and ancestral worship. By the 4th century, the older megalithic culture was probably still alive and well next to the penetrating Hindu influences. Court cultures flourished in ancient times, for example, during the era of Sunda Kingdom. However, the Sundanese appear not to have had the resources nor desire to construct large religious monuments.Hefner (1997) The traditional rural Sundanese method of rice farming, by ladang or huma (dry rice farming), also contributed to small populations of sparsely inhabited Sundanese villages.
Geographic constraints that isolate each region also led Sundanese villages to enjoy their simple way of life and their independence even more. That was probably the factor that would contribute to the carefree nature, egalitarian, conservative, independent and somewhat individualistic social outlook of the Sundanese people. The Sundanese seems to love and revere their nature in spiritual ways, leading to them adopting some taboos to conserve nature and maintain the ecosystem. The conservative tendency and their somewhat opposition to foreign influences are demonstrated in extreme isolationist measures adopted keenly by Kanekes or Baduy people. They have rules against interacting with outsiders and adopting foreign ideas, technology, and ways of life. They have also set some taboos, such as not cutting trees or harming forest creatures, to conserve their natural ecosystem.
One of the earliest historical records that mention the name "Sunda" appears in the Kebon Kopi II inscription dated 854 saka (932 AD) discovered in Bogor. In 1225, a Chinese writer named Chou Ju-kua, in his book Chu-fan-chi, describes the port of Sin-t'o (Sunda), which probably refers to the port of Banten or Kalapa. By examining these records, it seems that the name "Sunda" started to appear in the early 11th century as a Javanese term used to designate their western neighbours. A Chinese source more specifically refers to it as the port of Banten or Sunda Kelapa. After the formation and consolidation of the Sunda Kingdom's unity and identity during the Pajajaran era under the rule of Sri Baduga Maharaja (popularly known as King Siliwangi), the shared common identity of Sundanese people was more firmly established. They adopted the name "Sunda" to identify their kingdom, their people and their language.
Dutch colonial era
Inland Pasundan is mountainous and hilly, and until the 19th century, it was thickly forested and sparsely populated. The Sundanese traditionally live in small and isolated hamlets, rendering control by indigenous courts difficult. The Sundanese, traditionally engage in dry-field farming. These factors resulted in the Sundanese having a less rigid social hierarchy and more independent social manners. In the 19th century, Dutch colonial exploitation opened much of the interior for coffee, tea, and quinine production, and the highland society took on a frontier aspect, further strengthening the individualistic Sundanese mindset.
Contemporary era
There is a widespread belief among Indonesian ethnicities that the Sundanese are famous for their beauty. In his report "Summa Oriental" on the early 16th century Sunda Kingdom, Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires mentioned: "The (Sundanese) women are beautiful, and those of the nobles chaste, which is not the case with those of the lower classes". Sundanese women are, as the belief goes, one of the most beautiful in the country due to the climate (they have a lighter complexion than other Indonesians) and a diet featuring raw vegetables(they are said to possess especially soft skin). Bandungite ladies, popularly known as Mojang Priangan are reputedly pretty, fashion smart and forward-looking. Probably because of this, many Sundanese people today pursue careers in the entertainment industry.
Language
The Sundanese language is spoken by approximately 36 million people in 2010 and is the second most widely spoken regional language in Indonesia.Taylor (2003), p. 120-121 The 2000 Indonesia Census put this figure at 30.9 million. This language is spoken in the southern part of the Banten province, and most of West Java and eastwards as far as the Pamali River in Brebes, Central Java.Sundanese is also closely related to Malay and Minang as it is to Javanese, as seen by the Sundanese utilising different language levels denoting rank and respect – a concept borrowed from the Javanese. It shares similar vocabularies with Javanese and Malay. There are several dialects of Sundanese, from the Sunda–Banten dialect to the Sunda–Cirebonan dialect in the eastern part of West Java until the western part of Central Java Province. Some of the most distinct dialects are from Banten, Bogor, Priangan, and Cirebon. In Central Java, Sundanese is spoken in some of the Cilacap region and some of the Brebes region. It is known that the most refined Sundanese dialect — which is considered as its original form – are those spoken in Ciamis, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Bandung, Sumedang, Sukabumi, and especially Cianjur (The dialect spoken by people living in Cianjur is considered as the most refined Sundanese). The dialect spoken on the north coast, Banten and Cirebon are considered less refined, and the language spoken by Baduy people is considered the archaic type of Sundanese language,The Sundanese before the adoption of the concept of language stratification to denote rank and respect as demonstrated (and influenced) by Javanese.
Today, the Sundanese language is primarily written in Latin script. However, there is an effort to revive the Sundanese script, which was used between the 14th and 18th centuries. For example, street names in Bandung and several cities in West Java are now written in both Latin and Sundanese scripts.
Religion
The initial religious systems of the Sundanese were animism and dynamism with reverence to ancestral (karuhun) and natural spirits identified as hyang, yet bears some traits of pantheism. The best indications are found in the oldest epic poems (wawacan) and among the remote Baduy tribe. This religion is known as Sunda Wiwitan ("early Sundanese").Dadan Wildan, Perjumpaan Islam dengan Tradisi Sunda, Pikiran Rakyat, 26 March 2003 The rice agriculture had shaped the culture, beliefs and ritual system of traditional Sundanese people, among other the reverence to Nyai Pohaci Sanghyang Asri as the goddess of rice and fertility. The land of Sundanese people in western Java is among the earliest places in the Indonesian archipelago that were exposed to Indian Hindu-Buddhist influences. Tarumanagara followed by Sunda Kingdom adopted Hinduism as early as the 4th century. The Batujaya stupa complex in Karawang shows Buddhist influences in West Java, while Cangkuang Shivaic temple near Garut shows Hindu influence. The 16th-century sacred text Sanghyang siksakanda ng karesian contains the religious and moral rules, guidance, prescriptions and lessons for ancient Sundanese people.
Around the 15th to 16th centuries, Islam began to spread among the Sundanese people by Indian Muslim traders, and its adoption accelerated after the fall of the Hindu-animist Sunda Kingdom and the establishment of the Islamic Sultanates of Banten and Cirebon in coastal West Java. Numerous ulama (locally known as "kyai") penetrated villages in the mountainous regions of Parahyangan and established mosques and schools (pesantren) and spread the Islamic faith amongst the Sundanese people. Small traditional Sundanese communities retained their indigenous social and belief systems, adopting self-imposed isolation, and refused foreign influences, proselytism and modernisation altogether, such as those of the Baduy (Kanekes) people of inland Lebak Regency. Some Sundanese villages such as those in Cigugur Kuningan retained their Sunda Wiwitan beliefs, while some villages such as Kampung Naga in Tasikmalaya, and Sindang Barang Pasir Eurih in Bogor, although identifying themselves as Muslim, still uphold pre-Islamic traditions and taboos and venerated the karuhun (ancestral spirits). Today, most Sundanese are Sunni Muslims.