Religions in Bali

There were and are many authors who wrote numbers of books about Bali and million of people believe that Bali is a Hindu island. YES it is, but NOT 100%. So far I did not find a single book, or may be there is who wrote about the Christian of Bali, about the Buddhist of Bali and or Moslem of Bali, though numbers are not comparable with Hinduism.

Today, I come to you with a story of religions and each believers who are all Balinese leave in harmony in a community or some of them are in a family. There are about 90% Hindus, 5% are Christian, 3% are Moslem and another 2% are Buddhist. Most of them are originally Balinese, some are Javanese, Flores, Timor, Sumba, Sumatra, Celebes, Irian Jaya who were born in BALI or leave in this Island for years.

Hindu was the oldest religion in the whole country of Indonesia includes BALI, brought into these islands about 3000 years ago by our ancestors from South East of Hindia, it might be today are: Yunan-China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam who rafted or boating via Mekong River to the Hindia Ocean and spread into islands which is now called Indonesia. In 12 (twelve) century there were most of Gujarat traders came to Indonesia who brought Moslem Religion, and in 16 (sixteen) century the Portuguese came into Indonesia who brought Catholic believe while the Protestant believe followed in 19 century.

When the Hindu Kingdoms in Java were finally conquered by the Moslem Kingdom, especially in East Java, many of the Hindus did not want to be Moslem, therefore they ran away, some to the mountains and some to the east, cross the ocean and reached BALI island, finally decided to leave there. But Moslem Kingdom still tried to conquered BALI, therefore there are some villages on the North and West of BALI today where we can find some Moslem villages.

Christian came into BALI in 19 century and have the followers in the villages near by Denpasar such as the villages of Dalung, Tuka, Tangeb, Bukbuk and on west part of BALI where a district called Palasari which is become the center of Catholic Religion while Malaya as the center of Protestant.

Although they are Moslem and some of them they are Christian but they still use Balinese name such as; Wayan, Made, Nyoman, Ketut as the first name then followed by Moslem name like Mohammad, Dahlan, Imron or Christian name like: Wayan Stephanus Wirya, Putu Paulus Ishwara, Ni Putu Maria Sumarni, Ni Made Christina Sasih and others.

The Christian Churches also have some ornaments, carvings and decoration which similar in the Hindu Temple since they are Balinese and their ancestors were Hinduism. How is about Buddhist? Their ancestors were in BALI at the same time with those who are Hinduism. We can find the fact that in Goa Gajah – the Elephant Cave in Bedulu nearby Ubud there is a cave which was used both by Hindu followers and Buddhist followers for meditation. There are Buddha Statues can be found near by the cave. Some Buddhist believers are Chinese descendant.

Well, I think I already took 5 minutes from you. Please continue your work. Thank you for reading this story. You can share this story with your family, friends and your clients if you wish.

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