China
14:30, 17-Jun-2017
Indigenous Indonesian tribe converts to Islam for survival
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With their homeland devastated, a nomadic indigenous tribe in Indonesia is struggling to survive. Some of its members are converting to Islam for survival.
The west of Indonesia was once lush rainforest, but now it's been entirely replaced by ever-growing palm oil plantations which leave little for the tribe to hunt. Members of the "Orang Rimba" tribe – which in Indonesian means "jungle people" – are one of the last nomadic tribes in the archipelago and they are suffering.
Not far away, members of the same tribe recently gave up their tradition and converted to Islam. If recognized by the government, they will gain access to services such as healthcare and education. Children from the tribe have been learning the Koran for a few months under the guidance of an Islamic NGO.
Indonesia is home to an estimated 70 million tribes people, out of a population of 255 million – but nomadic groups are becoming a rarity.
In recent decades Indonesia has lost huge areas of rainforest to make way for mining and palm oil plantations, leaving tribes with less room to roam and little choice other than to convert.