Inter-Religious Discussion

ORGANIZED BY CISAD

The principal opened by welcoming all of us and pointed out that she was delighted to see that we actually were on a study tour and taking interest in the local life on Lombok.

The Hindu leader

‘ Feel life with love, meet hate with love’

Hinduism is an important part of the society in Mataram, and in Lombok in general. An integrated part of the religion is the ideology to help and respect each other and to make peace.

The family is very important in Hindu life. The leader shall give example of how to live a good life and he shall also be a good example. The five pillars of a good life are Truth, Attitudes, Antiriot, Wisdom, and Love. The five main methods for obtaining a good life are obtaining information, dialogue, singing, behaving in a courteous way, and pilgrimage.

Conflicts
Hindus are active in programmes for circumventing conflicts between religious groups in Lombok. They work to encourage humanity and to make others see that all religions are equal. An important belief in the organization is not to mix politics, economics and religion. In Mataram, there are some special governmental inflictions in this matter: No noise in the evening and the night; no use of microphones after 10 pm; and no building of mosques in a Hindu area.

There is a rule in Hinduism saying that Hindu leaders cannot be a part of politics because it can change his attitude towards his local community. Therefore, if a Hindu priest wants to be a politician he has to step out of the role as religious leader first. There is no significant discrimination in work and religious matters between the religious groups in Mataram. Also Hindus are occupied in governmental and regional positions.

One difference between Hindus and Muslims is that a Muslim man can have more than one wife. But of course, then he has to be wise. This is a symbol of status as well as a practical matter. Hindus on the other hand are allowed only to have one wife, but according to some rules you can take a new one if the first wife for example has bad health or if she is unable to generate sons. Thus, there has to be a good reason. The times are changing with people getting education and there comes in new impulses, also the view on polygamy varies. In some cases polygamy is important to preserve and increase the population.

The Muslim leader

The Muslim leader spoke about the cultural aspects of the Sasak people. He said that religion becomes more and more important in Indonesia. This also affects the language, both the national and local ones.

The Sasak people comprises about 2.5 million and is patrilineal (the male line) and patrilocal (kin group). Balinese kingdom dominated the island for about two and a half centuries; therefore there are several elements of Hindu traditions in the culture. Sasak people speak Sasak with, at least, five dialects and style of speech. Indonesian is also used by those educated Sasak (formal vs. casual).

Social stratification
Sasak borrows the social stratification system from both Javanese and Balinese, but Sasak people use these terms:

1. Raden – prominent nobles

2. Menak and Perwangse – ordinary nobles

3. Jajar karang and Bulu kentur – commoners

These all use different styles of speeches.
The current perception:
- The Sasak Adat (customary law) in cultural spheres is considered to be traditional or feudalistic.
- Moreover, if Adat is not in accordance with Islamic teaching, people will try not to follow it, for example in elopement and marriage price.
The role of egregious people and prominent figures ( Tokoh Sasak):

l Tokoh Adat (prominent traditional figure)

l Tokoh Masyarakat (prominent community figure)

l Tokoh Agame (prominent religious figure)

l Kepala Desa, Kepala Dusun (head of villages)

l Camat (head of sub-district)

l Bupati (head of district)

The whole of Indonesia has reached a point of significant change, which means change also for Lombok and the Sasak people in both culture and language. This has led to variation in the perception of interaction’s status, and manifests itself as linguistic change. Islam teaches the equality of all people, and contrasts with the ménak outlook (asymmetrical relationship between participants is projected). The religion has embraced the use of alus as a maker of religious status, although it traditionally pertains to the language of a feudalistic social group. Representing a feudalistic image and challenged by the egalitarianism of Islam, alus has been revitalized by the new status gained through Islamic religious affiliation, education and social position. In other words, religious status is now much more likely to determine the use of alus.

There is no direct correlation between wealth and language use in the Sasak community, in spite of what is shown above. However, there is an indirect relation between wealth and language use which is manifested in religious status namely hajj. To gain hajj status in the Sasak community, one needs to be wealthy enough to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. As soon as one hold the hajj title, language use both to and from the title-holder is likely to change; here alus speech style will also be used.

The conclusion is that the dynamics of Sasak language and culture can be predicted. The role of Islam to change people’s perception to determine which values should be maintained is revealed. In other words, Islam plays a significant role and thus has been used as a parameter to perceive existing values in the community.

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