Ghostly thoughts

Written: A while ago

Full disclosure moment, I’m writing this blog after reading another ETA’s posting (Katie Bosdorff has a really entertaining blog at katieinindo.blogspot.com ). Katie brought up a good point about how common a belief in ghosts is here, and not just a passing ‘yeah there might be ghosts’, more along the lines of ‘A ghost just closed the door and I better appease him or I’ll die’.
In fact some people take ghosts real enough that they list that as a main reason not to live or even hang out alone. Armchair Anthropologist Tangent: to my critiquing mind that sounds an awful lot like a social construct made to keep everyone in line with the strong communalistic notions that dominate this country, but hey maybe I’m just a bitter only-child from America (making me stereotypically perhaps the least communal category on Earth) who misses his privacy. Side story off of that, my counterpart apparently thinks it is ok to open my door (without any warning) at 8am (actually at anytime). I only have one room, so that’s like walking into a person’s bedroom. Then again, I guess doors are still a bit of a new concept (traditional Bugis homes don’t have proper doors between interior rooms, sometimes there is a cloth that hangs down).

Ok back from the tangents to the spirits. Beyond the fact that I don’t believe in that sort of thing, I found it a bit surprising considering the strong Muslim beliefs in Indo; I mean one of the 5 pillars of Islam is that there is one and only God. Apparently no one sees an issue here though.
That brings up a good point though, the intermixing of Islam/any of the 5 recognized religions in Indo (a person MUST choose one of the 5 choices and it’s listed on their identity card; as I’ve said before, religion plays a more prominent role in Indonesian’s lives). A mixture of religion and beliefs is actually the norm here (to me at least) over a strict adherence to only one belief.
It’s actually a little refreshing to see something like that. In a world that is constantly being torn apart by ‘religious conflicts’ it’s very pleasing to see that there is a location where religions not only get along, but freely mix beliefs. I’m not sure why that is here, but I suspect it has something to do with the Dutch being too busy exploiting natural resources to be preachers as well, and Islam being brought by traders, not clergy.
Those that know something about Indo might ask how just how nicely the religions play here; there have been uprisings and conflicts between religions at various times in the fairly recent history. To my limited knowledge it seems that most of these conflicts started with some other provocation and then people started grouping together along religious lines (hey there are only 5 groups you can join there). I also have a sneaking suspicion that this is how many ‘religious conflicts’ get started, but I’ll avoid hopping up on a blog soap box : )

Anyways that’s just a little insight to life over here that I thought people might find interesting. Thanks to Katie for giving me the idea and for letting me share her blog with people.