Indonesia is a country that known for its unique specialities. Things like culture, arts, and beautiful traditions are not the things that people should know already. All of them are reflecting how rich this Indonesia country is. Also, the thing that really famous from Indonesia is the diversity of the people. All of them live in a very difference culture based on their origins and their sociality. With some difference, you can not find one single race of Indonesian, but you can witness the true Indonesians that are really different from each other but having one same soul of nationality.
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But, not only that, the thing that is also famous from the Indonesia country is its diversity in religion. In this land, there are some religions that live in harmony, even though they have some difference from each other. Maybe, there are some people that want to know about the religions in Indonesia and the facts behind them. That’s why we here to give you other facts about Indonesian religion that you can see below :
1. A country that has 6 different religions
In Indonesia there are six official religions that consist of Islam, Protestanism, Hindhuism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Catholicism. And of them all, most people in Indonesia are moslem, that’s why Indonesia is also considered a country with the highest population of Islam community.
But, aside from those official religions, there are several traditional religions that some people in the country still have. For examples, there are Kejawen and other religions that spread accross the country. But, the popularity of them is keep decreasing through years.
2. The Acculturation
Almost all religions in Indonesia came from the acculturation between the Indonesian people and the foreigners. The religions came in so many ways, to the trading activity, through social acvitiviy, or via serious way like wedding.
The religions then spreading with those many ways, and making so many people have it eventually. Not only for the traders and priests, the religions are also came from the Colonial Era, where Portugeuse and Destch came in here.
3. Islam the biggest religion in Indonesia
With the believers around 205 million in number, the Indonesia is considered as one biggest moslem populated country in the world. Yep, even the countries in Arab still don’t have that kind of number. That 206 million is actually 13% of overall Moslem community in the world.
For the notice, the moslem in Indonesia has two kinds, the traditional, and the modernist Islam. Well, mainly the modernist is covering all areas in Indonesia, and in the other hand, the traditional only exist in small areas like island near Nusa Tenggara, and also one big island of Papua.
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4. Even though there are so many moslems in Indonesia, it is not an Islam country
Well, the many number of moslem doesn’t mean that Indonesia is considered as Islam country. Different from the Islam country like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia has their own rules that cover the tolerance of religions in this country.
In Indonesia, there are several religion that also live in harmony with the moslem. That’s why, the application of Islam laws in Indonesia is not relevant, because the people who live in Indonesia are not moslem only. There are several minority people who live in Indonesia with their own religion that the moslems should not oppress. That’s why, there was major change in the first sentence of Pancasila.
5. Buddhism and their known heritage
Talking about the Buddhism religion in Indonesia, we can not take out the fact that the religion of Buddhism was really popular during the Kingdom dynasty in Indonesia. Especially, there are several kingdoms like Majapahit Kingdom that has the main population who have Buddhism as their religion.
This religion is living in peace with the other religion of Hindhuism. Based on the records, there was the Buddhist travellers who spread this religion in the land of Indonesia. And talking about its heritage, there is the famous temple called Borobudur Temple, which is one of the worlwide treasures.
6. Hindhuism and their heritage
The next thing beside the Buddhism religion is the Hundhuism religion, which is considerably popular during the Kingdom Era of Indonesia. For the heritage, the example is one big Hindhu Temple known as thousand temples called Prambanan.
If you want to seek the live Hindhu culture, you can go to Bali island, just beside the Java island. In that specific island, you can see directly form of culture that Balinese people always have, because they always do it almost everyday.
7. Christianity in Indonesia
Talking about the Christianity in Indonesia, there is also some stories about how this religion was spread in Indonesia. Starting from the Colonial era, especially in the year of 1511 when Portuguese came to indonesia.
Portugese came in Indonesia to hunt for the unique spices and spreading the Catholicism on the way based on their goals in the 3G. About 70 years later, Dutch landed on Indonesia and started to spread Protestantism this country.
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- History of Christianity in Bali
- Christmas Day Celebration in Indonesia
- How do Indonesian Celebrate Christmas
8. High level of Tolerance
Well, the Indonesia is already famous as country that really famous for its tolerance. The behavior of its people who have a certain level of tolerance is can be considered as the main thing. Because of that people behavior, Indonesia can be a peace country to live.
If you want to see the example, you can see the tolerance between the moslem and Balinese people in Bali island. Another example, is the Jami’ Mosque in Malang City, that located right beside one of the biggest church in East Java. No one hates each other. And both of them really respect each other.
9. Indonesia is having the third largest Hindhu population in the world
Beside having most moslem in this whole world, Indonesia also has the largest Hinduism population, third in this world. The first country is of course India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
10. The country also having the fourth largest Christian Population
Beside having the fact that already told above, Indonesia has the fourth largest Christian Population in the ASIA region. The fact that the number of Christian in Indonesia reaches about 24 million people is amazing. The first three is Philippines, India, and then China.
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11. And that numbers reflecting that there are more Christian in Indonesia than in other several countries
That high number of Christian in Indonesia is considered big. It even surpass the number in several Christian countries like Australia and also Canada.
12. The tolerance effect always being told since kindergarten
Well, the tolerance must started somewhere right? Of course, all that factors started from family, when mother and father, or other siblings tell one individual about how beautiful the tolerance is. That understanding made stronger with the education about diversity in religion that always been told since kindergarten.
Children such a young age should understand how to tolerate each other as a human being, and not seeing the people who are different from them as a threat that needed to be erased from this world. And with that kind of understanding, the teachers can teach the kids about the inner peace and toleration, and when they grow up, they can always apply that understanding to be a better person and useful for them and the country.
After talking about the eleven facts about, we also want to add another list containing the other 99 facts to complete our 20 facts about Indonesian religion. You can see the informations we provided below :
- There are some intolerant people as well
- People have their own right to believe in any religion
- Indonesia was teaching the religion tolerance in Philipine and Thailand
- There was a change in the first Pancasila’s principle
- Afganistan also learning about the religion toleration in Indonesia
- Japan appreciates the people diversity in Indonesia
- The Presiden Jokowi was and still praised by neighbor countries about the religion tolerance
- There is a hope of rebuilding harmony
So that is our full items on facts about Indonesian religion. As you can see, religion in Indonesia is considered an important things in the life of Indonesian people. With this kind of harmony, hopefully they can live in this country with peace.
And as Indonesian people, that is our job to keep the peace, to be tolerance to each other. With the proper actions of tolerance, the people in Indonesia can not be divided with the things like radical teachings and other practices. With the proper way of teaching without spreading hoaxes and hatred, the people can be stronger to face the things that can divide them for their true nationality.
