[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-45544-en":3,"doc-seo-45544-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},45544,16904993612988,"Olivia Brown","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",9,"Religion & Spirituality","Borneo Tribe Practices Its Own Kind of Hinduism","A report details how the Dayak community in Tumbang Saan, Indonesia, preserves ancestor-worship traditions amid pressure from the state’s six officially recognized religions. Villagers adopt a government-linked rebranding strategy, forming Hindu Kaharingan, while explaining it as cultural survival rather than doctrinal conversion. The article contrasts growing institutional presence with limited reach in remote upriver areas, highlighting tensions over funding, legitimacy, and competing Christian and Muslim narratives.","ASIA PACIFIC  \nBorneo Tribe Practices Its Own Kind of Hinduism  \nBy AUBREY BELFORD SEPT. 25, 2011  \nTUMBANG SAAN, INDONESIA—In this village near the heart of Borneo’s great, dissolving rainforest, Udatn is regarded as a man of deep spiritual knowledge.  \nOf all the people in this tiny settlement, he speaks better than any other the esoteric language of the Sangiyang, the spirits and ancestors of the upper world, known simply as “Above.” His is a key role in the rituals of Kaharingan, one of a number of names for the ancestor-worshipping religion of Borneo’s indigenous forest people, the Dayak.  \n“In the beginning, when God separated the darkness and the light, there was Kaharingan,” said Mr. Udatn, as he sat smoking a wooden pipe on the floor of his stilt home. (Like many Indonesians Mr. Udatn uses only one name.)  \nThe Indonesian government thinks otherwise. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority country is no Islamic state, but it is a religious one. Every citizen must subscribe to one of six official creeds:  \nIslam, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism. Kaharingan, like dozens of other native faiths, does not officially exist.  \nEven in this village, a frontier where land clearing and mining is fast erasing ancient forest, people have long seen their faith under threat from officialdom.  \n“When I was in school I was a Catholic,” said Mr. Udatn.“For us, if someone wanted to keep going to school then they had to convert to another religion.”  \nNow, however, things are changing, and the missionaries are being held at bay. That is because villagers have seized on a strategy being used by many Dayak: They are re-branding. On paper at least, most of the people of Tumbang Saan are now followers of Hinduism, the dominant religion on the distant island of Bali. Few here could name a Hindu god or even recognize concepts, like karma, that have taken on popular meanings even in the West. But that is not the point. In a corner of the world once famed for headhunters and impenetrable remoteness, a new religion is being developed to face up to an encroaching modern world and an intrusive Indonesian state. The point, in short, is cultural survival.  \n“The Hindus have helped us,” said Mr. Udatn.“They’re like our umbrella.”  \nWhat exists in Tumbang Saan is a strange compromise, born of the Indonesian religious system, where government functionaries play a key role in allocating funding and guiding religious doctrine.  \nCalled Hindu Kaharingan, it is a religion for the Dayak of Central Kalimantan, one of the four provinces  \n3  \nARTICLES REMAINING  \nHindu Kaharingan polarizes opinions. Some see it as a fake faith, invented for appearances; others hail it as a rediscovery of long-lost beliefs. But in both government offices and remote villages, Hindu Kaharingan leads a precarious existence.  \nAt the complex that houses Hindu Kaharingan’s Grand Council in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan, the head of the advisory board of the religion, Lewis Koebek Dandan Ranying, bristled with suspicion at questions.  \n“Christians are the ones who are pushing hardest into Central Kalimantan, and we’re still in a fight to the death with them now,” Mr. Lewis said.  \nGovernment officials in Jakarta, he alleged, routinely ignore Hindu Kaharingan’s existence in the province, while Christian and Muslim bureaucrats at all levels deliberately undercount the religion’s adherents so as to limit its funding and political influence.  \nIn Mr. Lewis’s view, the Dayak people have been Hindus for centuries; theyjust did not know it. The beliefs of the various Dayak tribes, he says, descend from the Kutai kingdom, an eastern Borneo state dating from the fourth century whose religion was imported from India. Over time this was lost amid colonization by the Dutch, and the Christian missionaries who came with them.  \n“That’s what the Dutch, what Westerners do: divide and rule,” Mr. Lewis said.“We don’t want that to happen again. ","cbCaitlcj6QvYSP0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitlcj6QvYSP0","pdf",147603,1,3,"English","en",105,"# Official religions and the Dayak faith\n## Re-branding as Hindu Kaharingan\n# Institutional tensions and competing claims\n## Funding, legitimacy, and political influence\n# Life in Tumbang Saan: rituals and place of worship","[{\"question\":\"Why do villagers in Tumbang Saan re-brand their faith as Hindu Kaharingan?\",\"answer\":\"They use a strategy shaped by Indonesia’s requirement that citizens follow one of six official creeds, aiming to protect their tradition and maintain cultural survival under government pressure.\"},{\"question\":\"What is Hindu Kaharingan according to the article?\",\"answer\":\"Hindu Kaharingan is a compromise religious form for Dayak people in Central Kalimantan, linked to Indonesia’s system where officials influence funding and guide religious doctrine.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Hindu Kaharingan vary between administrative centers and remote upriver villages?\",\"answer\":\"It shows more traction in places like Palangkaraya through weekly services, while remote upriver areas described in the article show fewer roots due to isolation and limited 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