"Chinese Religion" in Modern Indonesia: Focusing on the Trend Toward Systematization in the Post-Soeharto Era

Tsuda Koji (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

After the fall of the Soeharto’s regime in 1998, socio-political conditions surrounding ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have drastically improved, and the governmental supervision against religious institutions has been getting weaker. This article focuses on relatively inconspicuous yet significant on-going change regarding “Chinese Religion (Agama Tionghoa)”.
In the early 20th century, Peranakan Chinese intellectuals discovered Confucianism and “Three-teaching (Sam Kauw)” in their effort to seek for “a spiritual pillar for Chinese”, stimulated by the Chinese nationalist movement on the one hand and Christianization of ethnic Chinese on the other. “Three-teaching”, or “Tridharma” in Indonesian, was conceptualized as a holistic “Chinese traditional religion” encompassing Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as well as ancestral worship and folk religious practices in Chinese temples. Since mid-1960s under the Soeharto’s regime, however, the organizations holding up Tridharma have functioned just as protectors of Chinese temples, and have done few so-called “religious activities”. In this Post-Soeharto era, following the change in the landscape of “Chinese Religion” caused by, among others, the re-acknowledgement of Confucianism as the officially recognized religion, the Tridharma organizations are beginning to reinforce their raison d'etre by establishing doctrines and standardizing rituals.
In this article, after overviewing the above-mentioned historical process since the beginning of the 20th century, the author reviews those recent substantial attempts of religious systematization made by Tridharma organizations, two main ones in West Java (Majelis Agama Buddha Tridharma Indonesia) and East Java (Perhimpunan Tempat Ibadat Tri Dharma se-Indonesia) and the latter’s branch in Central Java (PTITD Komisariat Daerah Jawa Tengah). Also, this article analyzes their sources of religious knowledge that support these systematizing movements.

Full paper available for download here !