In 1890, the influential Netherlands Trading Society, owner of the plantation Mariënburg in Suriname, undertook a test to attract Javanese indentured workers from the Dutch East Indies.

The recruited workers and their families awaited their departure in a depot, where they were inspected and registered and where they signed their contract.

Religion of Javanese Surinamese[2] In 1953, a large group of 300 families (1,200 people), led by Salikin Hardjo, went back to Indonesia on the ship Langkuas of the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd.

They intended to settle in Java or Lampung, but their request was not approved by the Indonesian government, and instead they were sent to West Sumatra.

They established the village of Tongar, also referred to as Tongass in Pasaman Regency, north of Padang, clearing land and building new houses.

The current generation is said to identify more as Indonesian than Surinamese, but still maintain contacts with family and friends in Suriname and the Netherlands, sometimes traveling to those countries.