Wetu Telu

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Wetu Telu Mosque in Bayan, Lombok

Wetu Telu , or earlier Waktu Telu ( Indonesian : "Three Times"), is a religious community among the Sasak on the Indonesian island of Lombok . The Wetu Telu are nominally Muslim . However, their religious culture - which is also known as Wetu Telu - mixes elements of Islam , Balinese Hinduism and the local animistic religion . The Wetu-Telu culture has similarities with the Javanese- Islamic syncretism ( kejawen ), as it is lived by the Abangan .

Within the Sasak ethnic group, the Wetu Telu are only a small minority; most of the other Sasak are ordinary Muslims. Due to persecution and proselytizing, the number of Wetu Telu has decreased significantly in the past decades. While in the 1930s the inhabitants of several places in central and west Lombok such as Sembalun and Narmada still identified themselves as Wetu Telu, today this community is almost exclusively limited to the remote northern mountain regions and the extreme south of the island. The number of Wetu Telu has decreased from 76,000 to around 5,000 people in the same period. The most important center of the Wetu Telu today is the northern Bayan region with the towns of Kandang Kaoq, Bayan and Tanjung.

Waktu / Wetu Telu and Waktu Lima

Until the 1960s, the name Waktu Telu ("Three Times") was used exclusively for the Wetu Telu . The term corresponded with the term Waktu Lima ("Five Times"), which is applied to Lombok for the followers of Orthodox Islam. The origin of these two names is not clear. Today's Waktu-Lima Muslims believe that the Wetu Telu were so called because, in contrast to themselves, they say not five but only three daily prayers , namely the morning prayer, the evening prayer and the night prayer. Today's Wetu Telu do not pray any of these daily prayers, but in the 1930s there was actually the opinion in some Waktu-Telu places that the Kiais, the Wetu-Telu clergy, had to perform these three prayers.

The names Waktu Telu and Waktu Lima for the two Sasak groups can only be traced back to the 1920s, but the division of the Sasak into the two groups goes back to earlier times. It is historically explained by the fact that the two groups were proselytized from different sides at different times. While the Islamization of the Waktu Telu can be traced back to the missionary efforts of Sufis from East Java who came to Lombok at the beginning of the 16th century, the Waktu Lima are said to have been converted to Islam by missionaries from Makassar at the turn of the 17th century were more intolerant and forced them to give up the adat . While the Waku Telu lived in the north and west of the island, the main settlement area of ​​the Waktu Lima was in the center and east of the island. With the Sasa Boda there is a very small third group of Buddhist Sasak on Lombok, who completely escaped the Islamic mission.

Why the name Wetu Telu has replaced the old name Waktu Telu since the 1970s and what exactly the meaning of wetu is has not yet been clarified. While the Waktu-Lima Muslims regard the word wetu as a synonym for waktu (“time”), the Wetu Telu themselves derive it from the Sasak word metu , which means “to rise, to come out”. The name Wetu Telu should therefore refer to the fact that there are a total of three ways in which living beings arise, namely 1.) Live birth; 2.) hatching from the egg; and 3.) vegetative reproduction. The Finnish anthropologist Avonius, on the other hand, received information from a religious leader of the Wetu Telu that wetu had the meaning of "law" or "border". The name Wetu Telu was explained to her by saying that the essence of this culture was based on three indivisible principles: loyalty to the government ( pemerintahan ), loyalty to religion ( agama ), and loyalty to the adat . Avonius suspects that the replacement of the term waktu by wetu in the self-portrayal of this community was made with the aim of removing the stigma of a syncretic and religiously deficient community.

Religious peculiarities

Religious and social organization

A structural peculiarity of the Wetu Telu is the dual organization of its clergy . One class of religious personnel represents Islam, the other local customs. The two classes are equally important and complement each other:

  • The so-called Kiais are responsible for the Islamic rites . These rites include prayers , fasting during the month of Ramadan , marriages and divorces, burials, and worship in the mosque. The Kiais are led by a Penghulu .
  • The so-called Pemangku s are responsible for the local rites . They act as mediators between the human world and the spirit world, make offerings ( kramat ) to the gods , perform the ancestral rites, look after the sanctuaries of the Wetu Telu and keep the sacred objects.

Both positions are passed on in the male line. Those sons who want to take over the office from their father must undergo an ordination rite.

The Wetu Telu society is, like that of the Balinese Hindus, divided into four castes (Datoe, Raden, Buling, Jajar Karang). A council of elders ( toak lokak ) watches over the worldly fate .

Doctrines and sacred texts

The Rinjani volcano , seat of the Dewi Anjani

The Wetu Telu recognize Allah as God and Muhammad as His Prophet. They are familiar with the two-part Islamic creed , but only in an expanded form that contains several old Javanese formulas. More important than Muhammad's prophethood is his role as a contact person between God and man.

In addition to Allah, the Wetu Telu also believe in the goddess Dewi Anjani, the goddess of the Rinjani volcano . The Wetu Telu believe that their ancestors live in the world of spirits, which, as the sacred world, is opposed to the profane, visible world. Like the Muslims, they see Adam and Eve as their first parents.

Bousquet observed in the 1930s that the Wetu Telu revere the Koran as a sacred text, but are unable to read it because they have no knowledge of Arabic. In addition, the Wetu Telu also have various Lontare in Old Javanese, one of which is called Jati Swara. In the religious ceremonies, supplications and poems in Javanese and Sasak, which are performed with flute ( suling ) and spit violin ( rebab ), play an important role.

Festive calendar and religious practices

The Wetu Telu use the Islamic lunar calendar to calculate their festivals . They pay particular attention to the month of Ramadan . The spiritual preparation for Ramadan, which they consider to be the “holy month” ( bulan suci ), begins in the previous month of Shaʿbān with two rituals that serve internal purification. They take place on the first Shabān (called Rowah Wulan ) and on the last Friday of the Shaʿbān (called Sampet Jumʾat ). Ramadan itself is characterized by a compulsory fast, but this is limited to the kiais, which do not fast every day. After sunset, the Kiais gather for the Tarāwīh prayers in the mosque in Ramadan . On the night of Ramadan 16, a ceremony of thanksgiving takes place, which is known as Maleman Qunut after the qunut prayer held on this occasion . Other thanksgiving ceremonies, called Maleman Likuran , take place on the last five odd nights of Ramadan. The Ramadan cycle ends with the festival of the breaking of the fast , on which the kiais perform a prayer in the mosque and receive part of the harvest as zakāt al-fitr from the simple believers . The penghulu also holds a chutba on this occasion .

In addition to the festival of breaking the fast, the Prophet's birthday is celebrated on the 12th Rabīʿ al-awwal , which the Wetu Telu call Maulud Adat. The celebration begins at midnight, a special yellow rice is prepared and special supplications are recited. The focus of the commemoration at this celebration is not the prophet, but the first parents Adam and Eve. Two other holidays specifically dedicated to commemorating the creation of man are the Bubur Peteq on the 10th of Muharram and the Bubur Abang on the 8th Safar .

The most important animistic festival of the Wetu Telu is the Gawe Urip at the old mosque of Bayan, in which holy cloths and holy water play a particularly important role. On this occasion, numerous rites of passage are performed , such as the naming ceremony ( buang au ), the first Haircutting for children ( ngurisang ), circumcision of boys ( ngitanang ), teeth filing for boys and girls ( merosok ) and sometimes weddings ( ngawainang ). The Wetu Telu circumcise boys between the ages of 12 and 15, although they only cut a small triangular piece out of the foreskin. A female circumcision is unlike the Waktu Lima not take place. Marriages and burials take place according to the Islamic rite. Here the Shahada is recited in its expanded form.

A difference to ordinary Islam is that among the Wetu Telu the duty to perform ritual prayer is limited to the Kiais. However, the Kiais do not all prayers, but only the Friday prayers , the funeral prayer , the tarawih prayers for the feast and prayers for Eid al-Fitr . All of these prayers are performed in the mosque , with ordinary believers usually attending the ceremony to be blessed in this way. The Wetu Telu are not obliged to make a pilgrimage to Mecca .

The slaughter of the Wetu Telu takes place according to a special rite in which Arabic and Javanese formulas are spoken. The Islamic ban on alcohol does not apply to them.

Sacred places and objects

The holy pond in the temple of Lingsar in a picture from the Dutch colonial times .

The Wetu Telu have several holy places. This includes in particular the temple of Lingsar on the way from Mataram to Narmada, which they share with the Balinese Hindus. The Wetu Telu have a sacred pond here where they ask for rain for the harvest. Egg donations are offered to the eels that are in the pond. The Wetu Telu also bring heavy stones from the Rinjani volcano as offerings. They are wrapped in white or yellow cloths and displayed there with careful alignment.

The Wetu Telu also have several holy graves. Purification rituals and rituals to solicit the blessings of the ancestors ( leluhur ) take place at these graves . One such sacred tomb is on the Medane reef west of Tanjung. A good luck effect is ascribed to the stone, which lies in a recess in the grave slab.

Sacred cloths called kemali and made using two different weaving techniques have a particularly great symbolic meaning for the Wetu Telu. During the Dutch colonial period, several scholars studied the rites associated with the weaving and use of these sacred cloths by the Wetu Telu.

history

By the middle of the 20th century

During the Balinese rule over Lombok (1740-1894), the followers of the Wetu Telu provided the local leadership on the island and occupied the most important administrative offices. The Waktu Lima, on the other hand, were marginalized. In 1894 they called the Dutch to the island, who, after the conquest, filled public offices with people from their ranks because they were less loyal to the Balinese. The Waktu Telu, on the other hand, were increasingly marginalized after the conquest of Lombok by the Dutch. Some of them then emigrated to Bali, others launched an uprising in the 1920s, the leadership of which they attributed to the goddess Dewi Anjani herself.

As early as the 1930s, the reformist Muhammadiyah organization, which ran a school in Mataram , made efforts to convert the Wetu Telu to an Islam that had been purified from local customs. GH Bousquet, who traveled to Lombok in 1938, reports of a process of displacement of the Waktu Telu by the Waktu Lima that was visible everywhere: numerous villages had been transferred to the Waktu Lima in the years before his visit.

After Indonesia was founded in 1945, many members of religious minorities, including the Wetu-Telu Lomboks, joined Sukarno's Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI), which aimed at an ideological synthesis between Islam, communism and nationalism.

Persecution during the Orde Baru regime

After the anti-communist Orde Baru regime came to power in 1966, many Wetu Telu were killed for their support for land reform . During this time, too, many Wetu-Telu places such as the village of Lingsar converted to Islam. When in 1967 the Indonesian citizens were obliged to profess one of five supranational forms of religion (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism), the Wetu Telu felt compelled to register as Muslims. In 1968 the Wetu Telu Faith was officially declared dead, and the Indonesian Religious Affairs Authority placed the followers of the Wetu Telu under educational programs that taught them the importance of correct religion ( agama ) as a sign of civilization, modernity and loyalty to the state should convey. At the same time, reformist Sasak declared the followers of Wetu Telu "infidels" ( kāfir ), gangs of Muslim youth hunted down Wetu Telu clergy, destroyed shrines and destroyed Lontar texts of the Wetu Telu. In the summer of 1972 the spiritual leaders of the Wetu Telu wrote a letter to the police station in Mataram, in which they called on the government to take measures to ensure that their religious freedom was also guaranteed in practice.

In the 1980s, the Indonesian government stigmatized the Wetu Telu as an "isolated ethnic group" ( suku terasing ), which lagged behind the general development of Indonesia. The Wetu Telu identity was further weakened by the resettlement of Muslims from other regions of Lombok in the Bayan region as part of the Transmigrasi program.

Reformasi period: continuation of missionary efforts

After the end of the Suharto regime in May 1998, as part of the reform process and the gaining of regional autonomy in Lombok, the state promised to give more weight to the Adat as a local system of norms of social organization and to build a new society based on participation and transparency is established. However, the hopes that this could also lead to an appreciation of the Wetu Telu have not been fulfilled. According to Western anthropologists, the Wetu Telu are just as marginalized as before, and their number continues to decrease every year.

The Tuan Guru who operate the Islamic mission in Indonesia also continued their conversion efforts aimed at the Wetu Telu. They see their religion as a syncretistic cult that needs to be eliminated or purified from un-Islamic elements. To bring the Wetu Telu to “pure” Islam, the Tuan Guru maintain pesantren schools and mosques in Bayan. One of the leading personalities within this "movement for the purification of Islam" ( gerakan permurnian agama Islam ). is TGH Safwan who maintains the Pesantren Nurul Hakim in Kediri in the city of Kediri in West Lombok. He has assigned Dāʿīs who are specifically responsible for proselytizing the Wetu-Telu villages in North Lombok.

In recent times, however, there have been a few Tuan Guru who have changed their strategy towards the Wetu Telu. They include them in ecological and social development programs in order to enable a more harmonious coexistence between the various religious groups in Lombok.

literature

  • Leena Avonius: Reforming Wetu Telu. Islam, Adat, and the Promises of Regionalism in Post-New Order Lombok . Yliopistopaino, Helsinki, 2004.
  • GH Bousquet: “Recherches sur les deux sectes Musulmanes ('Waktou Telous' et 'Waktou Lima') de Lombok” in Revue des Etudes Islamiques 13 (1939) 149–177.
  • Erni Budiwanti: Religion of the Sasak: an ethnographic study of the impact of islamization on the Wetu Telu of Lombok . Thesis (Ph. D.), Monash University, 1997.
  • Erni Budiwanti: Islam Sasak: Wetu Telu versus Waktu Lima . LkiS, Jakarta, 2000.
  • Erni Budiwanti: “The purification movement in Bayan, North Lombok. Orthodox Islam versus religious syncretism ”in Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin u. David D. Harnish (ed.): Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok . Brill, Leiden, 2014. pp. 144-162.
  • Sven Cederroth: A sacred cloth religion? Ceremonies of the big feast among Wetu Telu Sasak (Lombok, Indonesia). Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Kobenhavn, 1992.
  • Sven Cederroth: “The role of sacred cloths in the wetu telu cosmology of Bayan” in Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Ruth Barnes and David J. Stuart-Fox (ed.): Weaving patterns of life, Indonesian Textile Symposium 1991. Museum of Ethnology Basel, Basel, 1993. pp. 305-320.
  • JCC Haar: “De Heilige Weefsels van de 'Waktoe-teloe' op Oost-Lombok” in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 65 (1925) 33-89.
  • David Harnish: “Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories in Lombok. Interactions, Tensions, and Performing Arts at the Lingsar Temple Festival "in Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish (ed.): Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok . Brill, Leiden, 2014. pp. 61-83.
  • Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin u. David D. Harnish: “Introduction: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok” in Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish (ed.): Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok . Brill, Leiden, 2014. pp. 1-32.
  • Albert Leemann: "Religious communities on Lombok" in Geographica Helvetica 29 (1974) 27–36 ( digitized version ).
  • Galih Wijil Pangarsa: "Les mosquées de Lombok, évolution architecturale et diffusion de l'islam" in Archipel 44 (1992) 75-93. Digitized
  • Kari Telle: "Changing Political Landscapes and Religious Politics on Lombok" in Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin u. David D. Harnish (ed.): Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok . Brill, Leiden, 2014. pp. 35-60.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Cederroth. "A sacred cloth religion?" In 1992, p.10.
  2. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 1.
  3. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 152f.
  4. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, p. 32.
  5. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 153.
  6. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 144.
  7. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 2.
  8. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 161.
  9. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, p. 32f.
  10. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 144.
  11. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 134.
  12. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 136.
  13. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 28f.
  14. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, p. 33f.
  15. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, pp. 107, 111.
  16. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, p. 109.
  17. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 156f.
  18. ↑ Cf. “Cederroth: A sacred cloth religion?” 1992, p. 12.
  19. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 157.
  20. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 35f.
  21. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 144.
  22. ↑ See Harnish "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 64.
  23. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 158f.
  24. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 28f.
  25. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 159.
  26. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 149.
  27. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 149.
  28. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 29.
  29. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 165.
  30. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 152.
  31. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, pp. 160-164.
  32. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, pp. 161f.
  33. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 152.
  34. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 163f.
  35. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 199.
  36. ↑ Cf. Cederroth: "A sacred cloth religion?" 1992, p. 13.
  37. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 33.
  38. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 168.
  39. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 158f.
  40. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, pp. 160f.
  41. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 29.
  42. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 163.
  43. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, pp. 162f.
  44. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, pp. 171f.
  45. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 35f.
  46. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 199.
  47. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 30.
  48. ↑ Cf. Cederroth: "A sacred cloth religion?" 1992, pp. 87, 97.
  49. ↑ Cf. Cederroth: "A sacred cloth religion?" 1992, p. 81.
  50. ↑ See Harnish: "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 68.
  51. ↑ See Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish: "Introduction". 2014, p. 11.
  52. ↑ See Pangarsa: "Les mosquées de Lombok". 1992, p. 80.
  53. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 152.
  54. ↑ Cf. Bousquet: "Recherches". 1939, p. 155.
  55. ↑ See Harnish: "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 65.
  56. ↑ See Harnish: "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 65.
  57. ↑ See Harnish: "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 72.
  58. ↑ See Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish: "Introduction". 2014, pp. 11, 14.
  59. ↑ See Telle: “Changing Political Landscapes”. 2014, p. 40.
  60. ↑ See Pangarsa: "Les mosquées de Lombok". 1992, p. 80.
  61. ↑ Cf. Leemann: "Religious communities". 1974, p. 35.
  62. ↑ Cf. Avonius: “Reforming Wetu Telu”. 2004, p. 110.
  63. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Islam Sasak". 2000, p. 64.
  64. ↑ Cf. Avonius: Reforming Wetu Telu. 2004, p. 1.
  65. ↑ See Harnish: "Balinese and Sasak Religious Trajectories". 2014, p. 65.
  66. ↑ See Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish: “Introduction”. 2014, p. 14f.
  67. ↑ See Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish: “Introduction”. 2014, p. 21.
  68. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 144.
  69. ↑ Cf. Budiwanti: "Purification Movement". 2014, p. 155.
  70. ↑ See Hauser-Schäublin / Harnish: “Introduction”. 2014, p. 15.