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Abstract
Ancestors have often played an important role in the exercise of politics in Indonesia. However, from a situation in which they were highly influential and present in ritual, as well as in the everyday lives of both commoners and kings, ancestors and traditional lifestyles have been increasingly marginalised through the impact of secular politics and Islamist movements. An era of political reformation began after the fall of Indonesia's former political regime, Orde Baru. Reform meant the decentralisation of political power, and this led to a revival of local traditions. This article takes this revival of tradition as a framework to understand meetings that took place with ancestors at local pilgrimage sites on West Java. It is concluded that meetings of this kind are not simply about fulfilling personal goals, but they also show features of resistance and subversion in relation to the dominant political and religious leadership in Indonesia.
Notes
1The Sundanese constitute the ethnic majority of the region. In this article I do not deal with differences between Sundanese and Javanese ethnicity. This is an important distinction in certain respects. However, when it comes to transcendental communications and how national policies of heritage preservation have affected the groups, similarities dominate.
2In Javanese juru kuncen is spelled and pronounced juru kunci. For reasons of simplicity, I have chosen to use the Sundanese term juru kuncen throughout the article.
3In the article, the term ‘spirit’ is used as a general concept that includes different forms of transcendental powers, such as Islamic deities (as jinn), chthonic forces and ghosts, of which ancestors are a specific category.
4Using the same citation from Acciaioli, Foulcher places the creation of a cultural heritage in a process of nation-building where traditions were ‘incorporated and disempowered rather than denied’ (Foulcher Citation1990, 302). The regime exploited local ‘cultures’ for values that would be useful for promoting nationalism, modernisation, and their economic and political interests.
5If a visitor experiences dreams or other signs from a transcendental reality, the juru kuncen helps to interpret them and provides an official exegesis.
6TMII (Taman Mini Indonesia Indah) in Jakarta is probably the best illustration of how traditions are converted into standardised symbols (Hellman Citation2003). In this theme park each ethnic group that is officially recognised by the Indonesian authorities is represented.
7 Dhanyang is connected to a place and a village, while the karuhun (Sundanese for ‘ancestor’) is either a deceased relative of an individual or a deceased prominent religious or political figure. However, both categories can be addressed using kinship terms (Pemberton Citation1994, 265) and the definitions glide in and out of one another (Wessing Citation2006).
8Willford and McGeorge (2005) provides a comparative perspective on Southeast Asia.
9For details see Barker Citation(1998); Campbell and Connor (2000); Konstantinos Citation(2006); Siegel Citation(2006); Herriman Citation(2012); Sidel Citation(2007).
10The debates about Islam and tradition have moved from Snouck-Hurgronje’s (1906) view of Islam as a varnish on competing traditional world views, through a view of Javanese religions as the syncretism of tradition and Islam (Geertz Citation1960; Beatty Citation1999, in different ways) to the contention that what is usually accepted by researchers as tradition is in fact various forms of Islam (Woodward Citation1989).
11I have restricted this discussion on Islam to Hefner’s analysis of the disappearance of abanganism to illustrate the tensions between Islam and traditions. This section could have been substantially extended by using different examples such as sharia-like regional by-laws, conflicts evolving about ritual celebrations or the media debate on moral behaviour in public space. The Islamic history in Java is very rich and complex and constitutes an important context for the tradition of local pilgrimage. In this section I will only bring forward one example of the kind of tensions that arise when local traditions are reformulated in terms of culture or religion.
12It was not the dhanyang as such that withdrew, but the borders and borderlands between secular and transcendental realities were redrawn and this forced meetings with spirits out of the village.
13Describing the ancestors as ‘relatives’ of the one described by Pemberton alludes both to the fact that the mountain region of West Java is inhabited by Sundanese rather than Javanese, who constitute the ethnic majority of Central and East Java. It also alludes to the fact that the ancestors encountered were not the same guardian spirits as those that were forced out of the villages by the regime, but rather a class of deities that resembled these spirits.
14This is similar to how fasting is used to improve life opportunities (Hellman Citation2006).
15 Ibu means mother and is an honorific title used to address women (similar to Mrs).
16 Pak is short for Bapak, meaning father, which is a honorific title used for addressing men (similar to Mr).
17I followed Pak Abah on one trip to Sancang and participated in several sessions at his house where he became possessed by Siliwangi.
18The teachings (often termed nasehat, guidance) are given in Sundanese. These excerpts were recorded at a nightly session at Abah's house and were later translated together with an exegesis by Adeh, one of Abah's followers. According to Adeh, the teachings of Siliwangi usually revolve around the same themes, but employ different examples.
19However, the pilgrims are not in absolute opposition to these normative aspirations. They do include notions of reverence, prayers and other elements present in practices developed at the official pilgrimage sites and which have become part of the Islamic canon.