Meeting with Ancestors—Contesting Borders in Indonesian Religion and Politics

Hellman, Jörgen

doi:10.1080/00664677.2013.780964

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In materializing these sites, family members are then allowed to engage as pilgrims in grave visitation and, in doing so, transform angry spirits into revered ancestors. Visitations thus reaffirm ties between the deceased and the living and its “ritualization meant being remembered, revered and even celebrated” (Hellman, 2013, p. 181). Thus this intimate, private sphere created through the traditions practiced by juru kunci , families, and even memory activists provide the protective space not only to remember but also to mourn.…”

Section: Naming the Deadmentioning

confidence: 93%

Keepers of the Grave: Ritual Guides, Ghosts, and Hidden Narratives in Indonesian History

Leong

2021

Space and Culture

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The 1965 killings in Indonesia brought about the incarceration, disappearances, and deaths of 500,000 to one million alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party. This article concentrates on several suspected mass graves in Central Java reputed to have supernatural energy emanating from the violent deaths of the individuals buried there. These sites also have gatekeepers or juru kunci bridging the living and the spirits inhabiting these spaces. This research asks, How do these sites, through their juru kunci, elucidate a past which continues to be silenced? I posit that through contact with the souls of the executed, these gatekeepers utilize an ethereal connection to subvert the state’s enforced silence. These sites also provide a ritual space transforming these ghosts into ancestors worthy of remembrance. By reclaiming the identities of those murdered, the living and the dead can achieve a kind of localized spiritual reconciliation.

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Section: Naming the Deadmentioning

confidence: 93%

Keepers of the Grave: Ritual Guides, Ghosts, and Hidden Narratives in Indonesian History

Leong

2021

Space and Culture

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“…Notwithstanding the fact that currently nearly all Danyangan have been destroyed and almost nothing is left, to date three Danyangan sites remain intact and are well preserved in Tanggunggunung including: (1) Mbah Mlinjo, (2) Mbah Mergo, and (3) Petilasan Syekh Subakir. These remaining Danyangans are left because pertaining to Islamic promulgation, and people visit them to look for divine blessing, to sharpen their spiritual life, to seek magical power, to become rich through spiritual means (Alatas, 2020, 67-68), to conduit transcendental communication (Hellman, 2013) 25 and visitors recite yasin-tahlil before they express their intentions. Hence, yasinan-tahlilan serves as the main ways to honor ancestral spirits through which the spirit receives their prayers and heavenly rewards.…”

Section: Nasionalis-cum-nahdliyin As a New Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Nasionalis-cum-Nahdliyin: a new identity for nominal Javanese Muslims

Khamami

2022

Cont Islam

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This article discusses contemporary developments in Islam in Indonesia by specifically looking at Muslims living in rural Java. Whereas most studies examine urban Muslims and mostly define Islamization that leads to the emergence of the middle class and the so-called "conservative turn," this article offers a brief discussion of the transformation of non-practicing Muslims or abangan. Through fieldwork in a remote village in Tulungagung, East Java, the article argues that the massive Islamization in contemporary Java has invited the abangan to construct their new identity of Nasionalis-cum-Nahdliyin. While the term "Nasionalis" refers to a modern ideological category, "Nahdliyin" represents a mode of religiosity that confirms local customs and traditions. Looking at their communal ceremonies, such as yasinantahlilan, this new identity has given the abangan a means to maintain their communal bond with their ancestral spirits on the one hand and community cohesion on the other. These communal activities are an amalgam of santri and abangan traditions with which the latter exercise their communal piety in the public space.

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“…After Indonesia's independence in 1945, West Java has been the location for several Islamic uprisings, for example, the Darul Islam movement (Dijk, 1981). However, as in other parts of Java, it is also a place where the belief in ancestors and traditional elements in religious practices are still strong (Wessing, 1978(Wessing, , 2006, although not always publicly announced (Hellman, 2013). The mountain areas around Bandung are known as the Parahyangan which is translated as the abode of ancestors, or where ancestors like to assemble.…”

Section: Fieldwork and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From 2002, three different projects have been conducted with relevance for this article: one on fasting rituals (Hellman, 2006), a second on pilgrimage (Hellman, 2011) and a third on the role of ancestors in modern Indonesia (Hellman, 2013). 4 This article draws on data from all three of these projects.…”

Section: Fieldwork and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilgrim guides and pilgrims in productive complicity: Making the invisible visible in West Java

Hellman

2017

Tourist Studies

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There is a growing interest in the anthropology of pilgrimage. However, as Mesaritou et al. have pointed out, the role of pilgrim guides is often peculiarly absent in the literature. The ethnography in this article builds on several pilgrimages together with a local pilgrim guide in West Java. Using this case as an example, the aim is to spur a general interest in how knowledge and authority are constructed when it comes to sites lesser known to the tourist industry (knowledge which may preexist at places that later develop as tourist sites). A key analytical question raised in this article is how guides achieve legitimacy when there exist no authoritative texts or accumulated knowledge about the site. To understand this, I introduce the analytical concept of 'productive complicity'. The concept is used to describe how an intersubjective understanding about representations of a transcendental reality is developed at the pilgrim site. Being engaged in productive complicity enables pilgrims and their leader to collaborate in 'reading' the signs of transcendental presence, to reach agreement that their expectations of the pilgrimage have been fulfilled and to reinforce the legitimacy and authority of the pilgrim guide. The concept of productive complicity is easily transferred to other situations and could be used by scholars to bring out new perspectives on how pilgrim guides as well as tourist guides establish their authority.

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Meeting with Ancestors—Contesting Borders in Indonesian Religion and Politics

Cited by 10 publications

References 17 publications

Keepers of the Grave: Ritual Guides, Ghosts, and Hidden Narratives in Indonesian History

Keepers of the Grave: Ritual Guides, Ghosts, and Hidden Narratives in Indonesian History

Nasionalis-cum-Nahdliyin: a new identity for nominal Javanese Muslims

Pilgrim guides and pilgrims in productive complicity: Making the invisible visible in West Java

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