Regulating Ritual: Spiritual Aspiration and Religious Governance on Lombok

Kari Telle (Chr. Michelsen Institute)

Attempts to regulate religion for political purposes were integral to Indonesia’s New Order regime (1966-98). These policies heightened the importance of ‘religion’ (agama) as an identity marker, making adherence to a state-approved religion a requisite of citizenship. This variety of secularism has been challenged since 1998, when Indonesians began ‘identifying with freedom’ (Day 2007) and initiated a process of democratisation and decentralisation. Seeking to unsettle the religious-secular binary, this paper examines spiritual aspiration and politics in post-New Order Lombok. The paper examines the conflict erupting in 2007, when members of Lombok’s Hindu Balinese minority made plans to build a large public temple. Despite the fact that this temple failed to receive a construction permit, province-level authorities have also found it necessary to restrict ritual activity at the controversial site. While the justification for restricting ritual centred on the (secular) need to maintain ‘public order’, I suggest that these efforts were informed by an understanding that rituals have powerful transformative effects, thereby obliquely acknowledging the reality of the ‘spiritual’. The paper concludes by showing how contemporary modes of religious governance and the preoccupation with ‘public order’, works to the disadvantage of religious minorities.

Full paper available for download here !