INDONESIAN RELIGIOUS FORMS

INDONESIAN RELIGIOUS FORMS AND THEIR INTERACTIONS

Indonesia is an archipelago nation 3,500 miles long by 1,000 miles wide (Koentjaraningrat). It ranks fifth in the world in population, with 150 million people as of 1985 (Denny 370). More than half of these live on Java, the capital island. The nation is made up of people of many ethnic groups that speak at least 250 mutually unintelligible languages, though most are related. Bahasa Indonesia ("the language of Indonesia") is used as the national language (Johns 202).

The archipelago has an ancient civilization that has been affected by many foreign peoples, including Indians, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch (Geertz 7). At the beginning of the 20th century, the islands making up modern Indonesia were the Dutch East Indies. Dutch colonial rule was ended by the Japanese occupation of the region during World War II. Following World War II Indonesian independence was declared by the nationalist leader Sukarno. Independence from the Dutch was realized in 1949, and parliamentary government was established to govern the country (Denny 370). The constitution establishing the government included a state philosophy called the antjasila (Five Principles), the first of which is belief in the one Supreme God (Johns 203). Indonesia has had two longruling presidents: Sukarno and Suharto, whose presidencies were split by a Muslimled anticommunist massacre in 1965 (Denny 371).

About 90 percent of Indonesian nationals c

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istinctive, are already well defined, and require little thought. Instead of meditating on ritual practice, many santris pursue apologetics (Geertz 127). Santris also differ from Abangans in social organization. The Santris have a strong sense of both the local and the wider, international Islamic community regulated by an objective system of law that takes priority over the household unit (Geertz 1289). In a sense, Santris are the most religious group of Muslims in Indonesia, for they view Islamic doctrine to be " . . . the fundamental basis for human action in all of its aspects" in contrast to the abangans and prijajis for whom religion is only one part of life (Geertz 152). The Prijaji religious subtradition, as described by Geertz, tends to lean toward HinduBuddhist pantheism (234). Prijaji focus on etiquette and mystical practice in their religious life. Art is also valued. In general, it seems that the prijaji seeks to secure himself from disturbance by the outside world by making both an inner and an outer barrier against disturbance. The outer barrier is etiquette, which conceals the inner feelings from exposure to the outside world, and normalizes behavior so as to prevent disturbing surprises (Geertz 2412).

Category: Foreign - I