7 November 2017: Constitutional Court on local religions

From 7-29 October I was in Indonesia again, with Paule. We visited for the first time in our life the Island Sumba. It was an exceptional happening. Everywhere in East Indonesia the old traditions, adat are still sacred and important, but in Sumba they have continued to survive as the major religious and spiritual tradition in quite many 'traditional' villages. The followers, about 30% of the population, consider themselves as Marapu, followers of the traditions of the ancestors.
An Association of village chiefs from Sumba, of similar Dayak group (= Kaharingan) and two Batak spiritual societies, Parmalim and Ugamo Bangsa Batak, have taken their case to the Mahkamah Agung or institutional court (in 2016?).  On 7 November 2018  this court published its decision that article 29of the Constitution of 1945 gives freedom of religion and belief  (agama dan kepercayaan) for all Indonesian citizens. It was specified as to the request for identity cards and passports: no longer applicants have to chose out of six official recognised religions, but they can also write that they are followers of a kepercayaan: penghayat kepercayaan. Within the ministry of culture and education they are listed as cultural and spiritual societies.

Already at our  arrival at the airport of Waingapu we shook hands with the village chief of  Prailiu, who was also the vice-president of the Marapu Society of Sumba. We were introduced by Rev. Herlina Kenya, a minister of the Protestant Sumbanese Church, who has good contacts with Marapu people. That same afternoon we visited the village of Prailiu, where we had to share a sirih-pinang with the village chief (above, left). He was very happy with the new legal overtures which gave more status and security to their old traditions. His house is, like the 15-20 great houses in this village all built with traditional materials. There is an old tree where in former times the heads of their enemies were hang, but where now still a ritual centre is found (in a quite informal way: for outsiders, the motor cycle does not disturb the sacredness of the place).

 Above the three ingredients for the ritual sirih pinang: the pinang nut, the sirih fruit and a bottle with calcium.  If you chew it for  quite long time (30 minutes up to a few hours) some calmness seems to come over you, but we had not the true habit of chewing it patiently without somehow eating it.
The other day we went to the greatest traditional village of Sumba, Rende (some 10 km east of Melolo). Here the president of theMarapu Society resides. They were very busy with the preparation of a major funeral, including a village chief and former bupati, who had died ten years ago, together with two other men and one lady. The corpses that had been kept until one month ago in foetus position, were now brought in one house, where they were accompanied by mourning people. The specialists for a night long singing traditional hymns in the complicated ritual language were called upon.There is fear that these texts  will be lost, because there are less and less specialists who know them by heart and there are no written copies.
Bali has the most spectacular funerals in Indonesia, followed by the Toraja people. But also the Sumbanese now celebrate a revival of their pride! And funerals are a major part of this.
I heard that  part of the Kaharingan want to continue as member of Hindu-Kaharingan,but other people want to be member of the Kepercayaan Kaharingan.