religious forms, focusing primarily on forms of Islam, and then discuss some of the interactions between the religious groups.
Islam in Indonesia is unique. It can seldom be characterized along the lines of Muslim practice generally accepted and propounded elsewhere in the world. For instance, this writer found no report that ventures to classify Indonesian Islam as predominantly Sunni or Shi'i. Perhaps this is due to the prevalence of syncretization of pre Islamic beliefs with Islam among Indonesians: many Indonesians disregard basic practices and prohibitions that both Sunni and Shi'i Muslims accept (Geertz 124). In that case Sunni versus Shi'i distinctions would not be as meaningful for most Indonesian Muslims. However, it seems commonly accepted that the foundational Islam that came to Indonesia was Sufi in orientation (Denny 371), and mysticism still seems to play a major role in the religious life of Indonesia.
In The Religion of Java, Geertz (6) describes three "main cultural types" in Javanese culture, the abangan, santri, and prijaji, which he claims are divisions and terminology which are popularly recognized by the Javanese. The categories have been widely accepted and used by scholars in subsequent studies on Indonesia, with slight variations. They seem to be the best way to distinguish among forms of Islam in Indonesia.
Geertz chooses to distinguish among the three groups on the basis of religious beliefs, ethical preferences, and political ideologies (4). The three cultural types correspond to three different Islamic religious subtraditions. Each subtradition is seen as emphasizing a different aspect of an overall Javanese syncretism.
The abangan religious subtradition, which includes the majority of Indonesians, emphasizes animistic aspects of the overall syncretism. Geertz describes it as " . . . made up primarily of the ritual feast called the slametan, of an extensive and intricate complex o...