Sufism, Mysticism and Tradition in Indonesian Islam. Nahdatul Ulama by Joko wicoyo

Durga’s Mosque: Cosmology, Conversion and Community in Central Javanese Islam written by Stephen C. Headley tells us about what the “umma” is. It is the exploration of the Islamization of the Krendawahana-Kaliasa area of Central Java. It explores the sociology of village life, the founding of communities, the cult of female divinities, including the rice goddess, the goddess of the Indian Ocean and, Durga (Chapter 1-4). Headley enriches the readers by describing the reconstruction of the religious history of the Kaliasa area by looking at two kinds of lineages, the Javanese trah and the Islamic lineages that have their own particular ties with Kaliasa. The weakening of the royal apanage system brought about by land reform allowed a restructuring of the religious landscape of the area by both Islamic and aristocratic lineages (Chapter 5-6). The author looks at how Muslim lineages encompass the area through a network of mosques and Islamic schools, the rituals and prayers offered at Durga’s shrine in Krendawahana and in the mosque at Kaliasa, and an analysis of the integration of Muslim and Javanese village cults. (Chapter 6-7)
The book is becoming more interesting when Headley offers the reader with the discussion of the sacrifice of a buffalo in Durga’s forest which explores the links between the Mahabarata, the tale of Durga’s defeat of the demon buffalo, and Durga’s son, Kala. What makes me surprise is he examines the Islamic and Javanese mantras that are part of the sacrifice and which used to address local deities, the formula of the prayers isn’t so different from the Islamic prayers. He also explores Islamic cosmographies and Javanese cosmogonies. By looking at the development of salat, the prayers said in the mosque. Salat is seen as a marker that distinguishes the Muslim from the unbeliever, and the sameness of these public prayers is a way for the local mosque community (jemaah) to create the illusion of being at one with the Muslim world (Chapter 8-11).
In the following chapters, the author illustrates the development of an Islamic space, the five daily prayers structure time, the effect of the recent economic and political crisis on the religious landscape of Central Java, how jihad (struggle) has permitted a reinterpretation of Islam in Java as an image of society, and the social healing rituals in and for the city of Solo after the chaos following the fall of ex-president Soeharto. Headley sees these rituals as an application of rural values in an urban setting. He asks how Islam has appropriated modernity through an accommodation with an individualism that would previously have been impossible in holistic rural Java, but was promoted by changes that came with colonial policy and post-independence development. Even so, this individualism continues to be limited by Javanese custom (adat) as the emphasis is once more on the values that allow the coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups.
I think what Stephen C. Headley has already explored in this book is one of the most original and systematic ethnography of Javanese religion and cultural history which is full of the varieties of Javanese traditions and bears the contemporary religious change in the Surakarta region of Central Java. In his analysis of the Durga ritual complex, Headley sheds light on one of the most unusual court traditions which have to survive in an era of deepening Islamization. His analysis of this ritual complex, and its implications for understanding of popular Javanese religion, deserves to be read by all serious students who are interested in Sufism, mysticism and traditions in Indonesian Islam in Java, as well as anyone who is interested in studying religions and indigenous beliefs in Indonesia.