Balinese hinduism and the Indonesian state; Recent developments

Abstract

During the last few decades Indonesian society has undergone a major process of change. A military-bureaucratic elite, with at the centre Presid ent Soeharto (b. 1921), whose position is dominant, has played a major role in this process. One of main features of the changes taking place is the spread of thousands of Balinese to other islands of the archipelago, with the result that their religion is now found not only in Lombok where it has existed for centuries but also on other islands, such as Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan. The aim of this article is to discuss some of the developments that have taken place in Balinese religion, usually known as Hinduism or Balinese Hinduism, over the past decade, developments that may be corollaries or merely concomitants of the spread of Balinese to other islands. It is, of course, beyond the scope of this article to describe all the current develop ments in Balinese Hinduism. The focus here will be on some important trends in Balinese intellectual thinking and in government-sponsored reli gious education and rituals that seem likely to change the scope of Hindu Balinese religion which will no longer be a religion confined to the island of Bali, but one encompassing the whole of Indonesia, perhaps even ex tending beyond the borders of that country, since Hinduism is a world religion. This article will concentrate on written sources in Bali and other Indo nesian islands where Hindus are living today, rather than investigate what people are doing in the religious domain. The main sources are publications from Bali and other parts of Indonesia, though I will also draw on inter

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