History of Religions in Indonesia Part II: from c. 1900 to the Present Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism revivals: the Meaning of “Religion”; Fredri

Tri Harmaji
History of Religions in Indonesia Part II: from c. 1900 to the Present
Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism revivals: the Meaning of “Religion”; Fredrik Bart, Balinese World, Robert W. Hefner, Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam, Lien Shen Siddhi Hu, Sejarah Agama Buddha di Indinesia.
Especially Hinduism and Buddhism used to be the biggest religion in society now called as Indonesia where recently these religions are the most minorities. Reading the articles above I can imagine how it so painful for some hindu-buddhist leaders for witnessing the decline of their religion so drastically after the penetration of Islam and then Christianity. I can feel the pain because I also felt the same thing when my small congregation within aggressive Islamic majority in there my father is the priest because of one other problems began to lose its members. To experience the extinction of our community or religion is a painful feeling for the leaders as well as most devoted people in the community.
Hindu and Buddhist communities in Bali and Tengger regions described in the articles are the generation of this unfortunate time. In these two areas I can see how the people inside deal with the issue. In Bali where Hinduism is the majority the tension is not as strong as in Tengger where they are just minority that in fact faced continual threat from other religion especially Islam. In Bali the people are more confident of their position and their high long tradition in encountering Indonesian state development. Like what is ague by Fredrik Barth the people of Bali are very diverse their custom and religious detail of belief and practice. Although Islam as well as Christianity is presence there they are more secure because of their strong position as majority with long and strong tradition. It is different from the people in Tengger or on other Indonesian areas in general. In Tengger the Hindus as well as the Buddhists such in Basuki villages are in the position of minority within aggressive majority of mission. Like Hefner tell us, communities such Buddhism in Basuki area was completely ruined finally. They all were converted to Islam and rationally just looked at their previous religion as their past.
But, like also was described in the three readings, these religions are never giving up to struggle for their existence. In the independent time of Indonesia they begun to strive to make their religion recognized as Indonesian official religions. It was a long struggle but finally successful. Now, the time of one particular religion domination is over and the time of pluralism is emerging. This new era Indonesia was importantly marked by the recognition of Confucianism/ kong hu cu as official religion during Gusdur’s era. This new environment is totally important for the minority to free from religious majority’s mission. In this time the minority are highly honor as precious unique entities within the extravagance of the majority.
Revivalism is then become a chief issue for long ‘oppressed’ religion such as these three religions. But, it is also the fact that in this pluralism era in Indonesia we also find the revivalism of some radical/ fundamentalist among the major religion. These fundamentalist groups have an agenda that actually very different from pluralism values. In this context we can see that actually the situation is not so different from the long previous one. The hope for this minor religions is then on hand of the government. The role of the government is very important to give and insure more space for these religions at least to live for themselves.