Of or relating to or characteristic of Java or its inhabitants.

The Indonesian language spoken on Java.
Member of the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Indonesia. There are more than 50 million speakers of Javanese, which belongs to the western branch of the Austronesian family. Although the Javanese have a Hindu-Buddhist heritage, they are today predominantly Muslim, practising a branch of Islam known as Islam Jawa, which contains many Sufi features.
The Javanese are known for their performing arts, especially their shadow theater and gamelan orchestras, their high-quality metalwork, and batik resist-dyed cloth. In pre-independence Indonesia, Javanese society was divided into hierarchical classes ruled by sultans, and differences in status were reflected by strict codes of dress. Arts and crafts flourished at the court. Although the majority of Javanese depend on the cultivation of rice in irrigated fields, there are many large urban centers with developing industries. To relieve the pressure on the land, farmers have been moved under Indonesia's controversial transmigration scheme to less populated islands such as Sulawesi (Celebes) and Irian Jaya (W New Guinea).