Religion in Indonesia
With many different religions practiced in Indonesia, conflicts between followers of different religions arise periodically. Moreover, Indonesia's political leadership has played an important role in the relations between groups, both positively and negatively, including the Transmigration Program, which has caused a number of conflicts in the eastern region of the country.
Historically, immigration from India, China, Portugal, Arabia, and the Netherlands has been a major contributor to the diversity of religion and culture within the country. However, these aspects have changed since some modifications have been made to suit the Indonesian culture.
Prior to the arrival of the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity and Islam, the popular belief systems in the region were thoroughly influenced by Dharmic religious philosophy through Hinduism and Buddhism. These religions were brought to Indonesia around the 2nd and 4th centuries, respectively, when Indian traders arrived on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, bringing their religion. Hinduism of Shaivite traditions started to develop in Java in the 5th century AD. The traders also established Buddhism in Indonesia which developed further in the following century and a number of Hindu and Buddhist influenced kingdoms were established, such as Kutai, Srivijaya, Majapahit, and Sailendra. The world's largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur, was built by the Kingdom of Sailendra and around the same time, the Hindu monument Prambanan was also built. The peak of Hindu-Javanese civilisation was the Majapahit Empire in the fourteenth century, described as a golden age in Indonesian history.
The Portuguese introduced Catholicism to Indonesia, notably to the island of Flores and to what was to become East Timor. Protestantism was 1st introduced by the Dutch in the sixteenth century with Calvinist and Lutheran influences. Animist areas in eastern Indonesia, on the other hand, were the main focus Dutch conversion efforts, including Maluku, North Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Kalimantan. Later, Christianity spread from the coastal ports of Borneo and missionaries arrived among the Torajans on Sulawesi. Parts of Sumatra were also targeted, most notably the Batak people, who are predominantly Protestant today.
Significant changes in religion aspect also happened during the New Order era. Following an abortive coup in 1965 officially blamed on the Communist Party of Indonesia, around 1/2 million were killed in an anti-communist purge. Following the incident, the New Order government had tried to suppress the supporters of PKI, by applying a policy that everyone must choose a religion, since PKI supporters were mostly atheists. As a result, every Indonesian citizen was required to carry personal identification cards indicating their religion. The policy resulted in a mass religion conversions, topped by conversions to Protestantism and Catholicism. The same situation happened with Indonesians with Chinese ethnicity, who mostly were Confucianists. Because Confucianism wasn't one of the state recognised religions, many Chinese Indonesians were also converted to Christianity.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, with 87 percent of its citizens identifying as Muslim. Traditionally, Muslims have been concentrated in the more populous western islands of Indonesia such as Java and Sumatra. In less populous eastern islands, the Muslim population is proportionally lower. Most Indonesian Muslims are Sunnis. Around one million are Shias, who are concentrated around Jakarta.
The history of Islam in Indonesia is complex and reflects the diversity of Indonesian cultures. In the 12th century many predominantly Muslim traders from India arrived on the island of Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan where the religion flourished between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. The dominant Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of the time, such as Majapahit and Sriwijaya, were in decline and the numerous Hindus and Buddhists mostly converted to Islam, although a smaller number, as in the notable case of Hindus immigrating to Bali, moved off Java and Sumatra. Islam in Indonesia is in many cases less meticulously practiced in comparison to Islam, for example, in the Middle East region.
Politically, parties based on moderate and tolerant Islamic interpretations have had significant, but not dominant success in the national parliamentary elections in 1999 and 2004. Hardline Islamist parties, however, have had little electoral success and their bases of support remain. One form of Islam, known as neofundamentalist, adapted for new ways of thinking about the relationship between Islam, politics and society. Nonetheless, a number of fundamentalist groups have been established, including the Majelis Mujahiden and their alleged associates Jamaah Islamiyah (JI). The Islamist Justice and Prosperous Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera or PKS) has a different point of view from the neofundamentalists, notably the anti-Semitic views and anti-Western conspiracy theories of some of its members.
The Government of Indonesia officially recognizes the two main Christian divisions in Indonesia, Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, as two separate religions.
Protestantism arrived in Indonesia during the Dutch East India Company colonisation in the sixteenth century. VOC policy to ban Catholicism significantly increased the percentage of Protestant believers in Indonesia. Missionary efforts for the most part didn't extend to Java or other already predominantly Muslim areas. The religion expanded considerably in the 20th century, marked by the arrival of European missionaries in some parts of the country, such as Western New Guinea and Lesser Sunda Islands. Following the 1965 coup, all non-religious people were recognised as Atheist, and hence didn't receive a balanced treatment compared to the rest of the citizens. As a result, Protestant churches experienced a significant growth of members, partly due to the uncomfortable feeling towards the political aspirations of Islamic parties.
During the Dutch East Indies era, the number of Roman Catholicism practitioners fell significantly, due to VOC policy to ban the religion. Hostility of the Dutch toward Catholicism is due to its history where the Protestant Dutch nation gained its independence after the bloody Eighty Years War against oppressive Catholic Hapsburg Spain's rule. The most significant result was on the island of Flores and East Timor, where VOC concentrated. Moreover, Roman Catholic priests were sent to prisons or punished and replaced by Protestant priests from the Netherlands. One Roman Catholic priest was executed for celebrating Mass in a prison during Jan Pieterszoon Coen's tenure as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. After the VOC collapsed and with the legalization of Catholicism in the Netherlands starting around 1800, Dutch Catholic clergy predominated until after Indonesia's independence.
Other than Flores, Central Java also have significant numbers of Catholics. Catholicism started to spread in Central Java when Frans van Lith, a priest from The Netherlands came to Muntilan, Central Java in 1896. Initially, his effort didn't produce a satisfying result, until 1904 when four Javanese chiefs from Kalibawang region asked him to give them education in the religion. On 15 December 1904, a group of 178 Javanese were baptised at Semagung, Muntilan, district Magelang, Central Java, near the border of province DI Yogyakarta. In Java, next to Javanese, Catholicism also spread to Chinese Indonesian.
As of 2006, 3% of all Indonesians are Catholics, about half the number of Protestants at 5.7% The practitioners mostly live in West Kalimantan, Papua and East Nusa Tenggara. The province of East Nusa Tenggara where the island of Flores and West Timor located is notable as the only province in Indonesia where Catholics are majority (about 54.56% of total population).
Hindu culture and religion arrived in the Indonesian archipelago in the 1st century, roughly coinciding with the arrival of Buddhism. This resulted in a number of Hinduism-Buddhism empires such as Kutai, Mataram and Majapahit. The Prambanan Temple complex was built during the era of Hindu Mataram. The greatest Hindu empire in the archipelago was Majapahit. The age of Hindu-Buddhist empires lasted until the sixteenth century, when the archipelago's Islamic empires began to expand. This period, known as the Hindu-Indonesia period, lasted for sixteen centuries. The influence of Hinduism and classical India remain defining traits of Indonesian culture; the Indian concept of the god-king still shapes Indonesian concepts of leadership and Sanskrit is used in courtly literature and adaptations of Indian epic poetry.
Hinduism in Indonesia takes on a tone distinct from other parts of the world. For instance, Hinduism in Indonesia, formally referred as Agama Hindu Dharma, never applied the caste system. It also incorporated native Austronesian elements that revered hyangs, deities and spirits of nature and deceased ancestors. The Hindu religious epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are expressed in uniquely Indonesian wayang puppetry and dance. In many areas on Java, Hinduism and Islam have heavily influenced each other, in part resulting in Abangan and Kejawen traditions.
All practitioners of Agama Hindu Dharma share many common beliefs, mostly the Five Points of Philosophy: the Panca Srada. These include the belief in one Almighty God, belief in the souls and spirits and karma or the belief in the law of reciprocal actions. Rather than belief in cycles of rebirth and reincarnation, Hinduism in Indonesia is concerned more with a myriad of local and ancestral spirits. In addition, the religion focuses more on art and ritual rather than scriptures, laws and beliefs. Balinese Hinduism also holds to the concept of Tri Hita Karana, nurturing and maintaining a harmonious relationship between human and God, human and human, human and nature.
As of 2007, the official number of Hindu practitioners was 10 million, giving Indonesia the 4th largest number of Hindus in the world. This number is disputed by the representative of Hinduism in Indonesia, the Parisada Hindu Dharma. The PHDI gives an estimate of 18 million. Of this number, 93% of the practitioners are located in Bali, the majority of the population of which is Hindu. Besides Bali, Sumatra, Java, Lombok, Kalimantan and Sulawesi also have significant Hindu populations; most are Balinese who migrated to these areas through government sponsored transmigration program or urbanized Balinese attracted to cities in Java, especially the Greater Jakarta area. Central Kalimantan has a 15.8% Hindu population. The Hindu variant of Kalimantan is identified as Hindu Kaharingan, although this native Dayak belief may be more correctly categorized as Animism, rather than Hinduism.
Buddhism is the 2nd oldest religion in Indonesia, arriving around the 6th century. The history of Buddhism in Indonesia is closely related to the history of Hinduism, as a number of empires based on Buddhist culture were established around the same period. Indonesian archipelago has witnessed the rise and fall of powerful Buddhist empires such as Sailendra dynasty, Srivijaya and Mataram Empires. The arrival of Buddhism was started with the trading activity that began in the early of 1st century on the Silk Road between Indonesia and India. According to some Chinese source, a Chinese traveler monk on his journey to India, has witnessed the powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya based on Sumatra. The empire also served as a Buddhist learning center in the region. A number of historical heritages can be found in Indonesia, including the Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta and statues or prasasti from the earlier history of Buddhist empires.
Following the downfall of President Sukarno in the mid-1960s, Pancasila was reasserted as the official Indonesian policy on religion to only recognise monotheism. As a result, founder of Perbuddhi, Bhikku Ashin Jinarakkhita, proposed that there was a single supreme deity, Sang Hyang Adi Buddha. He was also backed up with the history behind the Indonesian version of Buddhism in ancient Javanese texts, and the shape of the Borobudur Temple.
According to the 2000 national census, roughly 1% of the total citizens of Indonesia are Buddhists, which takes up about 2 million people. Most Buddhists are concentrated in Jakarta, although other provinces such as Riau, North Sumatra and West Kalimantan also have a significant number of practitioners. However, these totals are likely high, due to the fact that practitioners of Confucianism and Taoism, which aren't considered official religions of Indonesia, referred to themselves as Buddhists on the census.
After the independence of Indonesia in 1945, Confucianism in Indonesia was affected by several political turmoils and has been used for some political interests. In 1965, Sukarno issued Presidential Decree No. 1/Pn.Ps/1965, in which there be six religions embraced by the Indonesian people, including Confucianism. Earlier in 1961, the Association of Khung Chiao Hui Indonesia, a Confucianist organization, declared that Confucianism is a religion and Confucius is their prophet.
In 1967, Sukarno was replaced by Suharto, marking the New Order era. Under Suharto rule, the anti-China policy was applied to gain political support from the people, especially after the fall of Indonesian Communist Party, which is claimed to have been backed by China. Suharto issued the controversial Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967, which practically banned Chinese culture, expression of Chinese belief, Chinese celebrations and festivities, as well as forcing many Chinese to change their name. However, Suharto knew how to handle Chinese Indonesian community that formed only 3% of the population, but gained a disproportionately large share of wealth and dominant influence in many key sectors of economy. Yet, in the same year, Suharto addressed "The Confucian religion deserves a decent place in this country," in front of the PKCHI national convention.
In 1969, Statute No. 5/1969 was passed and it re-iterated the official six religions from the 1967 presidential decree. However, it was different in practice. In 1978, the Minister of Home Affairs issued its directive that there are only five religions, excluding Confucianism. On 27 January 1979, a presidential cabinet meeting took place and it firmly decided that Confucianism isn't a religion. Another Minister of Home Affairs was issued in 1990 re-iterating about five official religions in Indonesia.
Related Sites for Religion in Indonesia
- Religion Tables - Statistics Indonesia read Religion in Indonesia
- Culture & Religion of Indonesia - Indonesian Culture - Cultural ... read Religion in Indonesia
- Religion in Indonesia - Friends of Indonesia read Religion in Indonesia
