Asia Times: Chinese culture colors Indonesian life


	January 5, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Chinese culture colors Indonesian life
By Andi Asrun

JAKARTA - They make up a tiny proportion of the Indonesian population and have been the subject of local ire and political repression for decades. But Chinese-Indonesians can still pride themselves with the fact that the culture of their racial ancestors has had significant impact on Indonesian arts and architecture and even some traditions.

Indeed, some scholars here acknowledge the Chinese influence evident in local mosques, and even note that there were Chinese traders who played a role in the Islamization of Indonesia.

Of course, it was mostly due to contacts with Muslim preachers and traders from lands other than China that Indonesia has ended up as the biggest Muslim country in the world. Yet there was also a time when southern China had a flourishing Islamic community, and many traders from there sailed to Java and Sumatra in a dual role as businessmen cum Islamic messengers.

Husein Umar, a well-known Muslim preacher here, says that local people easily accepted the new religion because of the need to have trade with the Chinese. "While teaching the new religion, the Chinese traders bartered silk and other luxury goods with local commodities," Husein says.

University of Indonesia Political Science Professor Bachtiar Aly adds that traders "usually communicate easily ... with other people" and are good at convincing others, even of things that they personally believe in, "including religion".

Chinese merchant vessels began visiting islands that now belong to Indonesia some time between AD 250 and 400. But scholars figure that the Chinese Muslim traders were particularly busy preaching in Java and Sumatra during the 10th Century. Aly also says that Chinese Muslims traders were vital figures in Demak, which became the first Islamic sultanate in Java some time after the end of the Sriwijaya kingdom's hegemony in the 12th Century.

Chances are, however, that the Chinese influence on Indonesian culture would still be as evident even if there had been no Muslims among the Chinese traders. After all, Chinese ships kept landing on the many Indonesian islands for centuries before and after that period, mainly to trade. This is why the Chinese influences are strongest in the port cities, since these are also the places where the Chinese merchants settled and frequently married the local women.

Historians even say that Chinese Buddhists had a role in creating the kingdom of Sriwijaya - which happened to be Hindu - in the South Sumatran capital of Palembang. To this day, the Chinese touch can be seen in Palembang's distinct red-and-black lacquerware, furniture and containers for jewelry and betel nut.

To be sure, the goods and crafts that the Chinese ships brought were so admired that local artisans soon tried to imitate them, or at least adopt and incorporate some of the designs in their handiwork. In Cirebon, West Java, for example, many of the designs on the Chinese ceramics and paintings brought to Java as trade items began to show up in the local palaces and mosques. Today, visitors can still find the gateway to the sultan's palace that is festooned with cloud, rock, garden and animal motifs common to Chinese crafts.

Ornamental Chinese plates are also embedded in the interior walls of the palaces and mosques in Cirebon, perhaps in an attempt to simulate the Moorish penchant for tiles. But Husein says this makes the architecture of Indonesian mosques distinct from that found elsewhere in the Muslim world. He also observes that in Java and Sumatra, many mosques even sport Chinese-inspired stupas as their towers, adding that Chinese temples themselves can be found in cities and small towns alike across Java and Sumatra.

Chinese motifs can also be seen at many mosques in the West Java town of Banten and the East Java towns of Demak, Kudus and Jepara. In the north Java coastal town of Tuban, the use of red and gold in the intricate woodwork that the place is known for is attributed to the Chinese as well, as are many of the designs used by local craftsmen.

But the Chinese influence extended beyond the arts, with the traders introducing several customs, including the use of firecrackers during communal celebrations. In the suburbs of Jakarta, for example, firecrackers usually welcome a newly married couple into their brightly lit home as attendants recite passages from the Koran.

Husein also says that in the South Kalimantan capital of Banjarmasin on the island of Borneo, the bride and groom wear "Chinese-like clothes" as they are encircled by people reciting verses from the Koran.

The irony, however, is that the descendants who brought all these to Indonesia have not managed to be as welcome.

Historians say that the local resentment toward the ethnic Chinese began some time during the Dutch colonial era, when the latter were often the merchant middlemen. The Chinese-Indonesians again became the target of local ire right after the Sukarno era, largely because they were perceived to be siding with the Indonesian Communist Party that was believed to have plotted to take over the government.

The government of strongman Suharto, who succeeded Sukarno, suppressed Chinese-Indonesian customs and practices as a result. But rich ethnic-Chinese businessmen were nevertheless perceived to be favored by the Suharto administration.

Shortly before Suharto stepped down in May 1998, Chinese-Indonesians, who make up some 3 percent of the country's 210 million population, found themselves at the receiving end of many acts of violence, including the razing of many of their homes and stores, as well as physical abuse.

(Inter Press Service)