Today, Indonesia is about 87% Islamic, making
it the most populous Islamic state in the world. However, despite
some pressures on the part of radical muslim groups, Indonesia
is a secular state with religious freedom for its four major religious
groups: Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus. Historically,
major conversion to Islam began in the thirteenth century, although
a number of states were converted prior to that time. Before Islam
was brought by Muslim traders, both Hindu and Buddhist States
were created in the Indonesian Islands. These states were created
by Indian traders who for centuries dominated Southeast Asian
trade. Indonesia was both a good source of trade goods in spices,
gourmet foods, sandalwood, and medicines and a stopping point
on the trade routes between India and China.
The earliest kingdoms in Indonesia were Hindu
and Buddhist states. Both Hinduism and Buddhism spread throughout
Southeast Asia along the trade routes and were adopted by local
rulers who were attracted both by the religious ideas and by the
rituals, ceremonies, and worship practices of these traditions.
These kingdoms rose and fell and in the process created some of
the most glorious religious monuments in Indonesia and in the
world. Hindu culture had a profound impact on Indonesia as the
various courts promoted huge building projects to demonstrate
both their piety and their wealth and power and adopted Indian
music, dance and literature. The two great Indian epic poems,
the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were transformed into vehicles
for the transmission of local ethics and cultural values. They
influenced the development of Indonesian music, drama, dance and
puppetry. Today, the stories of these epics are retold throughout
Indonesia in forms ranging from puppets to comic books to classical
dance and are familiar to most Indonesians. With the coming of
Islam in the 13th century, these tales were adapted to the new
religion and remained essential components of Indonesian culture.
Two of the great religious monuments of these
early kingdoms are today World Heritage sites; both are near the
city of Yogyakarta in central Java. The Hindu temple of Prambanan
and the Buddhist temple of Borobudur were built of stone between
the 6th and 8th centuries. Today both have undergone great restoration
projects which have revealed their beauty and the engineering
skills which built them. They are evidence of the wealth and sophistication
of the kingdoms of Central Java and of the extent of both Buddhist
and Hindu beliefs.
The following link is a wonderful site on the
history, religious symbolism, and reconstruction of Borobudur
and other temples and archeological discoveries as well as an
excellent discussion of Buddhist ideas.
http://www.borobudur.tv/index.htm
Islam began to be important in the 13th century
as the rulers of a number of the existing kingdoms converted to
Islam; this gradual encroachment of Islam into Indonesia was a
slow process as people absorbed Islamic beliefs into their existing
religious and philosophical systems. This change to Islam was
not the result of forcible conversion even though certain states
that had been converted to Islam waged war against other states;
however, trade, not religion, was often the cause of these wars.
Instead, merchants, mystics (Sufis) and literary figures spread
Islam in the Indonesian archipelago. A noted historian of Indonesia,
M.C. Ricklefs discusses legends describing the conversion of rulers
to Islam as a "great turning point" marked by miracles,
including their magical circumcision, and the adoption of Arabic
names. According to Javanese sources as well, a number of saints
came to the area and converted rulers through magical means. The
various kingdoms and islands of Indonesia gradually came under
Islamic rule during the 13th through the 19th centuries, but this
Islam was often mixed with traditional, Hindu, and Buddhist ideas.
Beginning with the coming of first the Portuguese and then the
Dutch in the 16th and 17th centuries, Christianity began to make
inroads in Indonesia and at times, competed with Islamic kingdoms
for control. With the Dutch gaining control of Indonesia in the
18th and 19th centuries, it faced opposition form Islamic groups.
The Dutch made a distinction between Islam as a religion and as
a political force. They interfered with religious observance as
little as possible although they monitored schools and mosques
to ensure that they did not promote anti-state activities. They
also promoted a Westernized and secular elite.
After independence there was heated debate between
the Western secularized elite and a small group of Muslim politicians
who demanded that Islam be the official religion of the state.
While this group was defeated, they have never abandoned this
goal. The Islamic revival of the 1970s and 1980s, in part reflecting
the Iranian revolution strengthened this group but the majority
of Indonesians accept the current democratic government and recognize
the religious diversity of Indonesia. Recent events, especially
the bombing of the nightclub on Bali have given rise to fears
of resurgent and militant Islam but only a very small minority
of the Indonesian people supports this kind of terrorism or the
establishment of this kind of Islam.
For more information on Indonesian Islam today,
please click on the following:
http://www.usindo.org/Briefs/Islam%20in%20Indonesia.htm
This religious diversity is especially apparent in the island
of Bali, a prime tourist destination but also a devoutly Hindu
island, in which neither Buddhism nor Islam has changed the people's
practices and beliefs. Bali is the largest place outside of India
itself, in which Hinduism is the dominant tradition. However,
Bali Hinduism has absorbed many of the traditional animist practices
of its people and is different from Indian Hinduism. Ceremonies
are elaborate and frequent on Bali and religion permeates every
aspect of the island.
For two websites which discuss aspects of Balinese
Hinduism and have pictures of dances and ceremonies please click
on the following.
http://www.baliadvertising.com/tradition/bali_hinduism.shtml
and
http://www.batukaru.info/culture/
