Hindu Javanese Tengger and Islam Indonesia: Robert W. Heffner Perspectives

by Alpha Savitri

I am Javanese and often visit Bromo Mountain and the Kampoong of Tengger people. I think, Robert W. Heffner gives worthly contribution for myself and others to know well who is Tengger People, how about the history and how about their culture. Heffner also explains how Tenggerese maintains their tradition in the modern era, how Tenggerese live among different religion people especially the Islam. The last is most interesting topic for me.

Tenggerese are the descendants of the Majapahit princes. Their population of roughly 600,000 is centered in thirty villages in the isolated Tengger mountains (Mount Bromo) within the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East-Central Java.

Some Tengger people believe that they are directly descended from the Majapahit Kingdom, with the name of their tribe having its origin in the legend of legendary Majapahit nobles Roro Anteng and Joko Seger. The legend says that Joko, a young man of the Brahmana priestly caste, and Roro, a lady from a noble family during the reign of the Brawijaya dynasty, got married and opened up a settlement in Tengger area.

The Tenggerese generally profess Hinduism as their religion, although they have incorporated many Buddhist and Animist elements. Like the Balinese, they worship Ida Sang Hyang Widi Wasa (Roughly "Big Almighty Lord") for blessings in addition to other Hindu and Buddhist gods that include the Tri Murti, namely Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and Buddha. (A. SAVITRI)

How Experts Say About The Book?

The most important study of Javanese religion since Clifford Geertz's Religion of Java (1960). An ethnographically rich and historically detailed portrait of the last Hindu enclave in Muslim Java, Hefner's work is also a compelling account of the symbolic processes involved in religious conversion. . . . This is a brilliant study which is certain to appeal to readers concerned with post-structuralist theory as well as specialists in Asian Studies, Hinduism, and Islam. (Choice )

Elegantly written, convincingly argued, and painstakingly researched, this study of a Javanese mountain people is the most paradigmatic work in the anthropology of religion to appear since Nuer Religion. (E. Valentine Daniel Religious Studies Review )

[T]he description of ritual, the priestly role, and prayer in the contemporary setting is careful, subtle and original. The challenges from and reactions to Islam are well delineated.
(R. H. Barnes Times Literary Supplement ) 


FOR FURTHER INFO PRODUCT:
Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam