Bharat Rakshak

brihaspati wrote: Are we abandoning the politics of the region while aspiring to dominate the waters?

BANGKOK, May 19 — Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (pic) said today he fears a crackdown on anti-government protesters could lead to guerrilla warfare across the country.

“There is a theory saying a military crackdown can spread resentment and these resentful people will become guerrillas,” Thaksin told Reuters in a telephone interview, declining to say where he was.

The National Front coalition's victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections despite losing the popular vote has not only exposed the entrenched racial divide in the country but also a new schism — between the rural poor who preferred the status quo and the urban middle-class who wanted change.

...

Speaking at the news conference, Najib blamed a "Chinese tsunami" for the coalition's performance.

Nationally-recognized Ponagar festival opens
TUOI TRE
UPDATED : 05/01/2013 14:44 GMT + 7



The Ponagar fest, the biggest cultural event held by Cham people in the south of the central region, kicked off on Apr 30 in Khanh Hoa’s Nha Trang coastal city.
The event also earned the recognition as an intangible national heritage the same day.
From Apr 30 to May 2 when the festival takes place, the Ponagar tower is open free of charge to tourists. More than 100 groups from across the country have registered to take part in the event.
The festival features such rituals as dressing up the Ponagar goddess, requiems, floating flowers and colored lanterns, processions and offerings to the goddess and Cham traditional dances.
Roughly 60,000 pilgrims and visitors, almost double last year’s number, are expected to join the four-day festival, as this year the event coincides with public holidays Apr 30 and May 1, said Le Van Hoa, from the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
According to Tran Manh Cuong, vice head of the department, the 1,200-year-old Ponagar tower was recognized as a national historical relic in 1979.
The fest, held annually in the third month of the lunar calendar, is to pay tribute to goddess Yan Po Nagar, or Thien Y Thanh Mau in Vietnamese, who is identified with the Hindu goddesses Bhagavati and Mahishasuramardini.
As legend has it, Thien Y Thanh Mau taught locals how to do farming, weaving and knitting along with several other vocations to fend for themselves and safeguarded them from calamities and wars.
The Ponagar fest, the biggest cultural event held by Cham people in the south of the central region, kicked off on Apr 30 in Khanh Hoa’s Nha Trang coastal city.
The event also earned the recognition as an intangible national heritage the same day.
From Apr 30 to May 2 when the festival takes place, the Ponagar tower is open free of charge to tourists. More than 100 groups from across the country have registered to take part in the event.
The festival features such rituals as dressing up the Ponagar goddess, requiems, floating flowers and colored lanterns, processions and offerings to the goddess and Cham traditional dances.
Roughly 60,000 pilgrims and visitors, almost double last year’s number, are expected to join the four-day festival, as this year the event coincides with public holidays Apr 30 and May 1, said Le Van Hoa, from the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
According to Tran Manh Cuong, vice head of the department, the 1,200-year-old Ponagar tower was recognized as a national historical relic in 1979.
The fest, held annually in the third month of the lunar calendar, is to pay tribute to goddess Yan Po Nagar, or Thien Y Thanh Mau in Vietnamese, who is identified with the Hindu goddesses Bhagavati and Mahishasuramardini.
As legend has it, Thien Y Thanh Mau taught locals how to do farming, weaving and knitting along with several other vocations to fend for themselves and safeguarded them from calamities and wars.

http://tuoitrenews.vn/lifestyle/9196/na ... tival-open

In a bid to keep China in check, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera is making final arrangements to visit the Philippines and Hawaii from later this month, a government source said.

During his trip to Manila from June 26 and Hawaii on July 1, Onodera will stress the need to ensure maritime safety based on the rule of law amid China’s growing assertiveness in the East and South China seas, the source said.

In Manila, Onodera plans to discuss with Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin the current tensions in the region and to work out a coordinated response toward China, the source said.

In Hawaii, the defense minister will reconfirm that the Japan-administered but China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea fall under the scope of the bilateral security treaty with the U.S., which requires American forces to defend Japan in the event of an armed attack.

Onodera is also set to meet with Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of U.S. Pacific Command, to discuss whether the two sides’ missile defense system is sufficient to deal with North Korea, given the recent progress of its missile and nuclear development programs.

Ahead of the July 4 start of the Upper House election campaign, the government hopes to use Onodera’s trip to assure conservatives at home that it is maintaining a hard-line stance on security issues, political analysts said.

Tokyo and Beijing remain at odds over the ownership of the Senkakus, known in China as Diaoyu. Japan denies the existence of any sovereignty dispute, arguing the islets are an inherent part of its territory in terms of history and international law.

China is also involved in a dispute with the Philippines and several other Southeast Asian nations over the sovereignty of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Both Tokyo and Manila have protested repeated incursions by Chinese vessels in their respective territorial waters near the Senkakus and the Spratlys.

Since taking office in December, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has looked to bolster Japan’s defense ties with Southeast Asian nations, and top Self-Defense Forces officials already have been dispatched to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, among other destinations.

brihaspati wrote:Thailand seems to be fast developing into another of those proxy battlefields like Myanmar. The British connection is strong and prominent in both countries when protest against army+one political faction by another political faction turns up. Any ideas about the possibility? Moreover, Indian voice here seems to be getting increasingly faint. Are we abandoning the politics of the region while aspiring to dominate the waters?

Beginning to see the light

The GaneshMuseum in Chiang Mai displays the expansiveworld of the elephant god's worshippers
4/07/2013
Peerawat Jariyasombat

A brickshrinetowers up among fragrances of incenseand flower offerings. The fast rhythms of tablaplaying and the multi-coloured decorations on buildings and indeed all around make me think that I am somewhere in India.

In the middle of nowhere amidstthe rice paddiesand the fruit orchards of Doi Lo district, the god Ganeshis seriously worshipped.

The GaneshMuseum is a privately-owned venturefounded 10 years ago by Pandara Theerakanond. It exhibits all things Ganeshand a worshipping ceremonyis held every Sunday.

"It all started with a privatecollection When I stayed in Chiang Mai city, my growing collectionof Ganeshreplicas interested people and I lost my privacywhen they visited my house to view these statues. So I decided to build a shrineand a museum a place to keep my collection" says Pandara.


A Ganesh doll.

The GaneshMuseum is a privately-owned venturefounded 10 years ago by Pandara Theerakanond. It exhibits all things Ganeshand a worshipping ceremonyis held every Sunday.

"It all started with a privatecollection When I stayed in Chiang Mai city, my growing collectionof Ganeshreplicas interested people and I lost my privacywhen they visited my house to view these statues. So I decided to build a shrineand a museum a place to keep my collection" says Pandara.


The Ganesh museum in Chiang Mai.

The elephant-headed Hindu god is renownedthroughout India as the Lord of Beginnings, and both the placer and the remover of obstacles. Thus, he is worshipped before any new venturehas begun.

The shrineis located in a soi, around 5km from the main road, and Pandara explains that it is the best location to get spiritualpower from Doi Inthanon, which can be seen from the shrine

"Doi Inthanon is the last tipof the Himalaya range which connects to India," he says. When he was a kid the first Ganeshhe collected was a small replicaas a giftfrom his father.

"When I watched Indian movies, I was so curious All actors in the movie had very nice looks except the character of Ganesh" In this endeavourto learn more, he started collecting statues of the elephant god.

Thirty-six years later, he foundthat he had more than 2,000 statues of Ganesh

His museumcomprises two buildings, displaying Ganeshreplicas in different styles, as well as regaliaand decorativeitems from many Asian countries where the deityis worshipped.

Visitors are educated about the style of Ganeshstatues, of which there are 32, ranging from one to five heads and two to 16 arms. Each style depicts a particularpurpose.



The most recognisablestyle is Nritya Ganapati, or dancing Ganesh This style is worshipped by dancers, performers and those who work in the entertainment business.

Vara Ganapati - the giver of boons - is the style of fulfilled love. In this style, Ganeshhas his lover sitting on his lap Garment sellers or beauty-related business operators generally worshipthis style.

Srishti Ganapati - the creator- rides a large rodent This style is worshipped by people who travel a lot, mostly pilots, air crew tour guides, writers and designers.

Moreover, there are numerousGaneshreplicas used as decorativeitems and toys such as puppets from Myanmar, masks from Nepal, or colourful toys from India.

At the shrine there is also a counterofferingmotichoor ladoo, a ball-shape sweet made especiallyfor offeringto the deity There is a beliefGaneshloves this sweet so much anybody offeringhim one will have their wishes granted.

"You may noticethere is always a ratnearby Ganesh The ratis Ganesh's vehicleand servant When you make a wish do not forget to whisper to the rat He will help conveyyour wishto Ganesh" a museumemployee advises.

The longer you stay in the museum the more you will learn about the world of Ganeshand and the myriadways of worshipping this deity

TRAVEL INFO

- The GaneshMuseum opens daily from 9am to 5pm. Admission is free. Call 089-855-5852 or visit www.ganeshmuseum.com. The museumis situated in the Doi Lo district of Chiang Mai, in a soi off highway 108.

- Another Ganeshmuseum, Ganesha Park in Nakhon Nayok, has the biggest Ganeshstatue in Thailand at 15m tall.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/lea ... 00-statues

Mystic beauty of Cambodia's Shiva temple captured by MP
Source : IANS
Last Updated: Tue, Jul 09, 2013 18:20 hrs

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) Rajya Sabha mjember Tarun Vijay is attempting through his photographs to unravel the mystic beauty of the 1,100-year-old India-inspired architecture of the Preah Vihear, a Shiva temple in Cambodia.

Presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the six-day photo exhibition will be inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Friday.

Vijay's photographs are an attempt to throw light on the glorious period of history when India contributed immensely to the growth of art and civilisation in the neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.

The World Heritage site temple is located at the top of a cliff in the Dangkrek mountain range forming a natural border between Cambodia and Thailand.

"The exhibition is the first ever attempt to unravel the mystic beauty and the 1,100-year-old India-inspired architecture. The unique stone image of Shiva dancing on the elephant head on the doors of the sanctum sanctorum is mesmerising," Vijay said in a statement Tuesday.

"This exhibition traces the interesting archaeological links between the temples in India and Southeast Asian region. The traditions of Hindu culture which travelled into the Southeast Asia about a millennia ago, continue to be an integral part of daily life in that region and the exhibition is an accurate testimony to these strong links," said ICCR director general Suresh K. Goel.

The exhibition is open to public July 12-17.

http://www.sify.com/news/mystic-beauty- ... ceccc.html

Phnomenal archaeology
12 JUL 2013 01:17 LARA DUNSTON

A vast, ancient and sophisticated city has been uncovered beneath Angkor Wat in Cambodia.



It’s 7am at Angkor Wat and there’s not a tourist in sight. It’s blissfully quiet, the first clear June morning after two days of torrential rains. The only souls around are a small group of Buddhist pilgrims, lighting incense at the spectacular Khmer temple.

I’m not here for sightseeing, however, I’m heading further into the forest surrounding the stupendous temple complex with Australian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans to meet the archaeologists from Cambodia, the Philippines and the United States, who are working on new excavations.

The release this month by the National Academy of Sciences in the US of a report on the results of a high-tech survey of Khmer Empire sites, undertaken in April 2012, has rocked the archaeological world and captured travellers’ imaginations.

A huge, sophisticated, densely populated urban landscape, which dates back more than 700 years, has been identified. It includes and connects Angkor cities such as Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Bayon with the rarely visited medieval city ruins of Phnom Kulen, Beng Mealea and Koh Ker, more than 100km away.

Evans was one of the report authors and the lead archaeologist on the project, which only became known outside local and archaeological circles with the release of the report this month.

As we make our way through dense vegetation, he explains how eight key archaeological groups, including the Cambodian government’s Apsara Authority, which manages archaeological sites, collaborated on the ­project.

It began with the survey using an airborne laser scanning instrument called Lidar, strapped to a helicopter, to search for ruins and other structures (the size of the area covered by the helicopter doing the survey was 320km2). Developed in the 1990s, it’s only recently that the technology has matured to the level where it can penetrate dense vegetation and provide extremely detailed models of the forest floor.

“For archaeologists, these lumps and bumps that we see in the forest, each has a meaning,” Evans explains, pointing out gentle mounds. “These are all the traces of the civilisation of the city associated with Angkor Wat that has disappeared. It’s these contours that we study.”

Smoke wafts from the fires lit to keep mosquitoes at bay. Dotted between the mounds are several rectangular holes in the ground where Dr Miriam Stark from the University of Hawaii and her team are at work.

“We’re really interested in understanding residence patterns, where and how people lived and who they were,” Stark explains excitedly, showing me X-ray-like images of the area we’re in. “Before, it took more than three intensive weeks of [preparation] before we knew where to dig. Now, with Lidar, it’s as if you just peel a layer off and it’s there!”

Scholars have based their idea of all medieval cities around the world on European cities, explains Professor Roland Fletcher, director of the Greater Angkor Project. But now, it seems there was a colossal low-­density urban sprawl here, a conurbation of different places with massive working citadels with enormous infrastructure.

“This is a highly managed system, the most extensive preindustrial city in the world,” he says, though referring to its complexity rather than its size. “The Lidar results show there were three cities [here] at the end of the 9th century — the largest was on top of Mount Kulen, creating an [equivalent to] industrial 19th-­century Britain.”

The city is so enormous it is unlikely ever to exist as one excavated site, but tourism here is likely to increase. There’s talk of a cutting-edge museum presenting the exciting new discoveries, new archaeological sites in the future, and greater interest in little-visited outlying temples already accessible to the public.

We decide to head to Phnom Kulen, a site rarely visited by tourists, with just a few companies offering expeditions and treks there.

“Phnom Kulen is a sacred mountain,” Tat, our guide from Backyard Travel, tells us en route. His ancestors called this place Mahendraparvata, or the Mountain of Indra, King of the Gods. “We call it the Mountain of the Lychees now. Look, you can see it here,” he says, pointing to a long, low, flat plateau that barely rises above the palms, banana plants and rubber trees that skirt the road.

Mahendraparvata was never really “lost” — the mountain has long been known as the location of the sandstone quarries that built Angkor’s cities, as well as the source of water for a system that irrigated the empire.

When we visit, people are wading in the River of a Thousand Lingas, a section of the stream boasting stone carvings on its floor. Villagers frequently stumble across finds, recently some bronze, copper and sandstone statues of Hindu gods. But the Lidar survey confirmed that Mahendraparvata was part of a city, and much larger than suspected — maybe as big as Phnom Penh is now.

We leave our 4x4 behind and soon we’re bouncing along muddy tracks on the back of motorbikes behind guides familiar with the landmine-riddled mountainside, which was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge.

They lead us towards the summit. It’s a slow journey and only the most intrepid travellers come here. Scattered across the mountain are ruined, foliage-covered temples, ancient highway markers and, at Sras Damrei, or Elephant Pond, massive statues of an elephant and lions. The thought that more sites like this could soon be discovered is thrilling.

Back in Siem Reap, we take to the air in a helicopter to get a better idea of what this urban landscape might have looked like. Had I taken the flight two weeks’ ago, I would have gasped at the magnificence of the isolated temple structures with their imposing walls and moats. Now, I see patterns of bumps and lines on the vast floodplain as beautiful remnants of an immense, effervescent city that technology and archaeology are finally bringing to life.

While many believe this site will become one of Asia’s greatest wonders, and tourism bodies are eager to see excavations progress quickly and more archaeological sites opened up to visitors, the extraordinary size of the area means work will be costly and take years. In the meantime, the intrepid can play at being Indiana Jones at undeveloped sites on Phnom Kulen, and temple cities such as Beng Mealea and Koh Ker.

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-12-phno ... rchaeology

For the residents of Chedian, a few thousand-year-old village of muddy by-lanes and old stone courtyard houses, she is just another form of Guanyin, the female Bodhisattva who is venerated in many parts of China.

But the goddess that the residents of this village pray to every morning, as they light incense sticks and chant prayers, is quite unlike any deity one might find elsewhere in China. Sitting cross-legged, the four-armed goddess smiles benignly, flanked by two attendants, with an apparently vanquished demon lying at her feet.

Local scholars are still unsure about her identity, but what they do know is that this shrine’s unique roots lie not in China, but in far away south India. The deity, they say, was either brought to Quanzhou — a thriving port city that was at the centre of the region’s maritime commerce a few centuries ago — by Tamil traders who worked here some 800 years ago, or perhaps more likely, crafted by local sculptors at their behest.

“This is possibly the only temple in China where we are still praying to a Hindu God,” says Li San Long, a Chedian resident, with a smile. “Even though most of the villagers still think she is Guanyin!” Mr. Li said the village temple collapsed some 500 years ago, but villagers dug through the rubble, saved the deity and rebuilt the temple, believing that the goddess brought them good fortune — a belief that some, at least, still adhere to.

The Chedian shrine is just one of what historians believe may have been a network of more than a dozen Hindu temples or shrines, including two grand big temples, built in Quanzhou and surrounding villages by a community of Tamil traders who lived here during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. At the time, this port city was among the busiest in the world and was a thriving centre of regional maritime commerce.

The history of Quanzhou’s temples and Tamil links was largely forgotten until the 1930s, when dozens of stones showing perfectly rendered images of the god Narasimha — the man-lion avatar of Vishnu — were unearthed by a Quanzhou archaeologist called Wu Wenliang. Elephant statues and images narrating mythological stories related to Vishnu and Shiva were also found, bearing a style and pattern that was almost identical to what was evident in the temples of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh from a similar period.

Wu’s discoveries received little attention at the time as his country was slowly emerging from the turmoil of the Japanese occupation, the Second World War and the civil war. It took more than a decade after the Communists came to power in 1949 for the stones and statues to even be placed in a museum, known today as the Quanzhou Maritime Museum.

“It is difficult to say how many temples there were, and how many were destroyed or fell to ruin,” the museum’s vice curator Wang Liming told The Hindu . “But we have found them spread across so many different sites that we are very possibly talking about many temples that were built across Quanzhou.”

Today, most of the sculptures and statues are on display in the museum, which also showcases a map that leaves little doubt about the remarkable spread of the discoveries. The sites stretch across more than a dozen locations located all over the city and in the surrounding county. The most recent discoveries were made in the 1980s, and it is possible, says Ms. Wang, that there are old sites yet to be discovered.

The Maritime Museum has now opened a special exhibit showcasing Quanzhou’s south Indian links. Ms. Wang says there is a renewed interest — and financial backing — from the local government to do more to showcase what she describes as the city’s “1000-year-old history with south India,” which has been largely forgotten, not only in China but also in India.

“There is still a lot we don't know about this period,” she says, “so if we can get any help from Indian scholars, we would really welcome it as this is something we need to study together. Most of the stones come from the 13th century Yuan Dynasty, which developed close trade links with the kingdoms of southern India. We believe that the designs were brought by the traders, but the work was probably done by Chinese workers.”

Ms. Wang says the earliest record of an Indian residing in Quanzhou dates back to the 6th century. An inscription found on the Yanfu temple from the Song Dynasty describes how the monk Gunaratna, known in China as Liang Putong, translated sutras from Sanskrit. Trade particularly flourished in the 13th century Yuan Dynasty. In 1271, a visiting Italian merchant recorded that the Indian traders “were recognised easily.” “These rich Indian men and women mainly live on vegetables, milk and rice,” he wrote, unlike the Chinese “who eat meat and fish.”

The most striking legacy of this period of history is still on public display in a hidden corner of the 7th century Kaiyuan Buddhist Temple, which is today Quanzhou’s biggest temple and is located in the centre of the old town. A popular attraction for Chinese Buddhists, the temple receives a few thousand visitors every day. In a corner behind the temple, there are at least half a dozen pillars displaying an extraordinary variety of inscriptions from Hindu mythology. A panel of inscriptions depicting the god Narasimha also adorns the steps leading up to the main shrine, which houses a Buddha statue. Huang Yishan, a temple caretaker whose family has, for generations, owned the land on which the temple was built, says the inscriptions are perhaps the most unique part of the temple, although he laments that most of his compatriots are unaware of this chapter of history.

A few kilometres from the Kaiyuan temple stands a striking several metre-high Shiva lingam in the centre of the popular Bamboo Stone Park. To the city’s residents, however, the lingam is merely known as a rather unusually shaped “bamboo stone,” another symbol of history that still stays hidden in plain sight.

The audience numbered in the hundreds: mechanics and small retailers, office workers and academics, mingled as they squatted or stretched out on the dry lawn in front of the stage. Women wearing headscarves cradled children on their laps, whorls of spicy smoke floating above them, as their husbands chain-smoked clove cigarettes.

It was ten at night on a Thursday in South Tangerang, a suburb of Jakarta, and it wasn’t a popular band or comedian that the crowds had gathered to watch but rather, an extraordinary classical art form called wayang kulit. This is an Indonesian shadow puppet performance wherein ancient stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata are brought to silhouetted life on a screen, using backlit figures cut from raw buffalo hide.

On this particular evening, a well-regarded dalang, or puppeteer, from East Java was performing the story of the birth of Rahwana (Ravana). The enactment had a hypnotic quality to it, with an energy that ebbed and flowed. Long lulls in the action when the dalang narrated the story, were suddenly interspersed by the singing of a female chorus, accompanied by a gamelan orchestra. The clashing and clanging of bronze gongs and xylophones, fused with the high-pitched singing to evoke a dream-like mood, pregnant with off-kilter possibilities. The performance lasted another three hours, being an abridged form of the full-length version that typically lasts the whole night, starting around nine pm and continuing on till four or five the next morning.

Wayang kulit has a history that stretches back over a thousand years. A copper plate from the central part of Java (Indonesia’s most populous island) that dates to 907 CE has been found, with an inscription describing a wayang performance featuring the story of Bimaya Kumara (Bhima’s adolescence). Hinduism made inroads into the islands of Java and Sumatra from early in the Christian era, as traders and priests from India travelled to the region. By the seventh century CE, Hindu kingdoms were dominant on both islands. Ever since, Hindu-Buddhist cultural norms have infused indigenous mores in these parts of Indonesia even after the local population largely converted to Islam in the 16th century, making for a startling syncretism that survives till today.

Wayang is the most tangible manifestation of Indonesia’s pluralism. Although 87 per cent of the country’s citizenry is Muslim, the imagery and idiom of Hindu epics is inextricably intertwined with the quotidian here. My local mechanic is called Rama Repairs, and my Muslim real estate agent is named Dewi. I discover a nation-wide charitable foundation for twins called the Nakula and Sadewa Society, and a support group for Indonesian women in mixed marriages named Srikandi (Shikhandi).

Wayang is, in fact, thought to have been used by the so-called Wali Songo, or the nine 15th century Islamic scholars credited with spreading Islam in Java. It is, similarly, also believed to have been used by Christian missionaries for proselytising. Wayang and politics have also long been enmeshed. From the Islamic sultans of Java to modern-day nationalists like Sukarno and military dictators like Suharto, wayang has been utilised as both a legitimising and oppositional political tool.

Even contemporary Islamist political parties like the Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) who have an explicit agenda to bring Indonesia in line with Shariat law, have been known to stage wayang performances in an attempt to boost their electoral fortunes. For example, the PKS organised a wayang centred on the life story of Bhima at the party’s national convention held in Jogjakarta in 2011.

In Indonesia, stories centred on Bhima are often used by so-called champions of the common people. During Suharto’s reign (1965-1998), Bhima’s struggle against a cannibal king who dined rapaciously on his subjects was commonly deployed as a means to express concern about the corrupt character of the regime. In Jogjakarta, the PKS used examples from Bhima’s life to draw analogies with contemporary corruption and the need for an honest entity (with Bhima-like characteristics), read the PKS, to enact change. And so an extraordinary situation was created whereby a political party with an ostensibly “Wahabi” ideology identified itself with Bhima in order to persuade people to vote for it.

This is not to say that Islamist hardliners have given wayang a completely free ride. Performances have occasionally been broken up by mobs accusing them of being unIslamic. And in 2011, four statues of wayang characters, including those of Bhima, Ghatotkacha and Nakula-Sahadeva, were destroyed in Purwakarta, a city in West Java.

But, despite these incidents, wayang in Indonesia remains a vibrant art form. Greg Churchill, an American lawyer who has lived in Indonesia for almost four decades and owns what is probably the largest private collection of wayang puppets in the country, says he remains surprised by “how alive” wayang culture remains. A host of Facebook pages and twitter feeds are devoted to the art form. And there is a feisty debate between dalangs and schools of performers, many of whom are taking wayang into new directions, by experimenting with both characters and form.

As part of his collection, Churchill also has traditional wayang puppets from Malaysia, a country where the art form used to be highly popular, particularly along the east coast. But in 1990 the northeastern state of Kelantan banned wayang kulit, for its “unIslamic” nature and, today, shadow puppet performances in Malaysia have largely been reduced to tourist curiosities. In Indonesia on the other hand, famous dalangs can still attract crowds that number in the tens of thousands. One such dalang is Ki Purbo Asmoro from the city of Solo, widely recognised as one of the top exponents of traditional wayang kulit in the country. He can command fees of up to IDR 120 million ($12,000) for a single performance and his calendar is booked up for months on advance.

To put this in perspective, one must imagine thousands of folk in England showing up to listen to an eight-hour long rendition of a Homeric epic in ancient Greek. Bahasa wayang or the language of wayang involves a mixture of several forms of Javanese including archaic, ancient Javanese called Kawi.

Purbo Asmoro points out that the audience may not get all the linguistic content of a performance but they will be familiar with the broad outlines of the stories and part of the enjoyment comes from the gathering itself. During a show people are not expected to sit quietly, but mill about, and chat. Indeed, at the wayang I attended in Tangerang, an itinerant masseur was busy kneading people’s back and shoulders, while food vendors were doing a brisk business selling roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes.

Purbo Asmoro is a Muslim, and his vast audiences are usually Muslim too. How do he and his fans reconcile their faith with the stories that he performs on stage? The dalang waves his hand dismissively. “These stories are allegorical. They are symbolic. None of us takes them as the literal truth,” he replies. Because Hindu Gods and Goddesses are shown in the epics as having human failings it is relatively easy to de-deify them and re-cast them as mortals involved in protracted moral plays. Moreover, the stories only confirm values that are affirmed by Islam, according to Purbo Asmoro. I ask for examples, and he mentions the loyalty, courage, and integrity of characters like Ghatotkacha and Bhima.

Islam, as practised in Java, has had a subtle influence on wayang stories. For instance in one of the Javanese versions of the Mahabharata, the five Pandava brothers are interpreted symbolically as the five fundamental principles ( rukun ) of Islam. Mystical elements of Sufism, which stress looking for God inside of oneself, have also seeped into many of the stories. But, it is Javanisation, rather than Islamisation, that accounts for most of the divergences between the original Indian epics and their Indonesian versions.

There are several characters unique to the Javanese versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata including important figures like Semar, a brother of Shiva, who is sent to earth in disgrace and gives advice to mortals and Gods alike. Different Javanese renditions also develop embellishments and distinctive side-stories for well-established protagonists like Bhima and Arjuna. Draupadi, who in the Indian Mahabharata is famously married to all five Pandava brothers, is — in some Javanese versions — married monogamously to Yudhisthira. The examples of divergences are voluminous.

In fact, in the mid-19th century, Ronggowarsito, a poet from the royal palace in Solo in central Java, wrote a history that traced the lineage of Javanese kings to the Pandavas, with the result that people came to believe that the epics were situated in Java, rather than India. It’s still not uncommon for people to be convinced that places like Kurukshetra and Mt. Meru are located somewhere in Java, and Indonesians have a real sense of ownership over these stories.

And so I received instruction from Pak Suharto, an observant Muslim, who is my driver, about an episode from the Ramayana. At the Tangerang wayang, he had joined the audience. Later, as we drove back home, he was agog with excitement. “I am too much liking Rahwana, madam,” he grinned, taking his hands off the wheels, alarmingly, and holding up 10 fingers. “Do you know that he is dasamukha ? It means, he has 10 heads.”

It was T.N. Subramaniam who first introduced (discovered in 1956) an inscription from Quanzhou, to non-Chinese readers, according to Noboru Karashima (“Behind China’s Hindu temples, a forgotten history,” July 20). Once a famous port in south China, Quanzhou had flourishing trading ties with south India. Y. Subbarayalu and Noboru Karashima (Ancient and Medieval Commercial Activities in The Indian Ocean: Testimony of Inscriptions and Ceramic Sherds) studied the text of the inscription engraved in two broken parts of a stone. The inscription said that a Tamilian, Champanda Perumal, also known as Thava Chakaravartikal, installed an idol of Shiva as the main deity in a temple he built. He named the temple Thirukaniswaram, after King Chekachi Khan who donated the land.

K.R.A. Narasiah,
Chennai

During my visit to Beijing in 1995, I visited a well preserved Hindu temple in Wuta Si. The temple houses several sculptures similar to those mentioned in the report, as well as Vaishnavite sculptures of fish, boar, etc.

No one was able to say in which century it was built or what the temple meant to the local population. No prayers were offered at the temple.

Gayatri Chandrashekar,
Bangalore

Indians tend to see themselves as unique, in terms of both the achievements, and dilemmas, related to their bewildering social and cultural diversity. Partly this is because the Indian mental map of the world has tended to focus on the countries of the West, with the addition of our relatively homogenous neighbour, China, in its updated version.

But, if we “Look East,” as our foreign policy mandarins are supposed to be, this exceptionalism is diluted, particularly in the case of a country like Indonesia. India and Indonesia share more than a similarity of names. Both are colourful tapestries of multiple languages, geographies and religions welded together by the imagining of a state where unity coexists with diversity.

India’s diversity is commonly linked to the “unique” characteristics of Hinduism: its ability to accommodate, reinterpret and absorb the other. But Muslim-majority Indonesia has similar claims to openness. In fact, for all of “Hinduism’s” vaunted tolerance, it is arguably better to be Hindu in Indonesia, than Muslim in India.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country and its third largest democracy. Spread over 17,000 islands, if superimposed end-to-end on the map of Europe, the country would span the distance from Ireland to the Caspian Sea. The archipelago is home to some 700 languages, and features fauna from both sides of Wallace’s line. And although around 210 of its 242 million citizens, are classified as Muslims, Indonesia also accounts for substantial numbers of other religions.

Demographics

Hindus comprise two per cent of Indonesia’s population and form close to a 90 per cent majority on the island of Bali. The Hindu faith is however, far from limited to Bali. The 1960s and 1970s saw substantial conversions to Hinduism on the island of Java, by groups of people inspired by the imagined glories of the region’s past, which was dominated by Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms until the 16th century.

Meanwhile, many adherents of indigenous animist and tribal religions among the Dayak tribes in Borneo, the Toraja in southern Sulawesi, and the Karo in North Sumatra, also converted to Hinduism.

A final component of the country’s Hindu demographic is the 100,000-plus strong Indian diaspora, largely comprising Tamils and Sindhis, the majority of whom live in the capital, Jakarta, and the city of Medan in Sumatra.

Since the country’s independence in 1945, Indonesia’s Hindus have not been the targets of riots or pogroms. They are not disproportionately backward in terms of education, income or employment. Bali, home to some 3.4 million Hindus, is in fact one of the most economically developed parts of the country, with less than five per cent of the population below the poverty line (compared to a national average of 12 per cent).

Coexistence and intolerance

There are no visible restrictions on the practice of Hinduism, and Bali teems with temples devoted to various Hindu gods. Even in other parts of the country, for instance, the Muslim-majority neighbouring island of Lombok, Hinduism exists in a syncretic embrace with Islam. Lombok is home to the Pura Lingsar temple complex, where both Hindus, and those Muslims who adhere to the island’s unique “waktu telu” tradition of Islam, worship.

It is important to note that some of the effervescence demonstrated by Hinduism, notably the conversions from tribal religions, has been due to the intolerance of the Indonesian state which only recognises six religions: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism and Confucianism. For adherents of religions not on this official list, discrimination by the state is rife, making it difficult to register children for school, obtain wedding certificates and secure employment. Asking to be redesignated as a Hindu is therefore often driven by the harassment faced by believers of indigenous religions, rather than their genuine embrace of Hindu tenets.

In fact, human rights activists claim that religious intolerance, as a whole, is on the rise in Indonesia. The brunt of this trend has been born by so-called apostates like Shia and Ahmaddiya Muslims who have found their places of worship summarily closed down, and in some cases been violently evicted from their homes. Christian groups have also complained of increased harassment.

Hindus have by and large had an easier time, but, Dr. Made Sadguna, a member of the Governing Council of the Bali-based World Hindu Parishad says that devotees sometimes face obstacles in gaining approval from local authorities to construct temples. And despite constitutional equality with Muslims, he adds, “it is widely understood that it would be impossible for a Hindu to become President of Indonesia.”

Reformulation

While not subject to violence, Hindus in Indonesia have had to modify the presentation of their faith in order to comply with the Indonesian Ministry of Religion’s definition of religion as a monotheistic creed, based on a holy book. Hinduism, with its polytheistic character, was rejected at first when it applied for official recognition in 1950. It was subsequently recognised in 1959, after Balinese intellectuals reformulated their faith by presenting “Sangh Yang Widhi Wasa” or the “cosmic law” as the equivalent of “God,” and texts like the Bhagavad Gita as divine revelations conceived by holy seers, similar to the Koran. Hinduism’s myriad gods were explained as corresponding to the angels in Islam.

Country comparison

Comparative analysis is always fraught with the danger that one might be likening apples to oranges. And it is therefore important to acknowledge the differential historical backgrounds of India and Indonesia. Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms ruled much of the territory encompassed by modern-day Indonesia, between the seventh and 16th centuries. Islam spread across the region, largely peacefully, under the influence of Muslim traders and clerics from India and China, as well as the Arab states. More syncretic strains of Islam, including sufi traditions, have historically had a strong foothold here.

By contrast, the advent of Islam into India was a bloodier affair. India moreover, did not convert whole scale to Islam and its population remained Hindu-majority, despite being ruled for centuries by Islamic emperors. Most significantly, Indonesia does not bear the scars of a cataclysmic religion-based trauma like the partition of India in 1947. There is therefore no historical memory of large-scale violence between religious communities.

There are some, including stalwarts of India’s Hindu right, who claim Indonesia’s broadly tolerant mindset to be the result of its Hindu past which makes Indonesian Muslims, coconut-like creatures, with a Muslim outer shell, but with a beating Hindu heart. This is an idea that would gravely offend most Indonesians for whom a moderate, and sometimes syncretic, approach to faith, does not in any way detract from a strong Islamic belief. The idea that to be a “real” Muslim one must subscribe to a wahabist interpretation of what it means to be a Muslim, or else be described as a closet Hindu, is itself a fundamentalist one.

And so the fact remains that on most objective criteria, a Hindu in Indonesia is better off than a Muslim in India. And while this should not let Indonesia off the hook on its record of religious tolerance, it does highlight India’s enormous problems with its own record.

Keywords: Hindu culture Indonesia, India Indonesia ties, Look East policy, minority rights Indonesia, communalism India Indonesia

The author makes strange contardictory comments. In one breath, she says that the Hindu religion was unrecognized until 1959 (remember that this was a time of great friendship between Nehru's India and Sukarno's Indonesia); that they had to fundamentally change their polytheistic religious beliefs into monotheistic belief as dictated by the Government and thus change their very nature of religion (Conversely if any country makes a reverse dictate to Muslims in order to be recognized, how would the author and human rights activists feel ? Remember that we are even unable to implement a uniform civil law in our country); she talks about the implied impossibility of a non-Muslim becoming Indonesia's President; she makes a reference to the difficulty of building a new temple etc. On each one of these most important parameters, India stands completely liberal to non-Hindus. How did the author, in one simple sweep, claim that "a Hindu in Indonesia is better off than a Muslim in India" ?

Paul wrote:She is also Mani Shankar Aiyar's niece.