This paper is presented at International Conference on Chinese Indonesian Studies 2015
Greysia Susilo, S.E., S.Sn., M.Hum.
CHINESE DIASPORA TRADITION IN INDONESIA NATION BUILDING: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES at Maranatha Christian University, Bandung, Indonesia
INTRODUCTION.
Klenteng is Indonesian particular name of Chinese Temples. It is religious building for Hua2 religion, a kind of diffused religion3 that originated in China and spread out into Southeast Asia, and still practiced by many Chinese Indonesian. According to Claudine Salmon (2003:107-110), Jakarta have around 50 Chinese Temples built around 17th Century until 1949. It means the vast development of Chinese Indonesian community, in term of quantity and quality. We can see from 50 temples, 31 of them still intact and fully operated without significant changes in architectural and interior terms. Those 31 temples are based of this research, while the others are either destroyed, moved from original place and built in more modern settings, or lost in time.
LITERATURE FINDINGS.
Emile Durkheim is popular with his writing that identified social origin of religion (Calhoun: 2002, 106). Durkheim explain that religion was bring people together as form of solidarity. Durkheim’s notion was
about the institution itself, and Chinese Temples as manifestation of its religion, then it also mirrored this social function. Religion is a major element inside community structure because religion is main source of social norms, and contains worship responsibility (Coleman, 2004).
C.K. Yang (1967:81) wrote about public religious observance:
“Whatever the occasion of the public religious observance, whether it was the holding of a temple fair, praying for rain, or celebrating a popular festival, religion came to serve as a symbol of common devotion in bringing people out of their divergent routines and orienting them toward community activities. The polytheistic nature of leading temples in every locality was probably developed to meet the requirement of community integration as a function of religion.”
Yang identified that local temples around China were the perfect sites for organized temple fairs, rituals, and popular festival. Temple fairs here were arranged to host business transactions held periodically to boost economy, attract more people coming to religious place, and to bring out people from their routines and get together. Big and mass rituals was held like praying for the rain, Deities carnival to repel bad omen, community crisis, drought, or epidemic out of city. Religious festivals of Hua religion consist almost every month of a year, but it split into major and minor festival. Major festivals begin with Chunjie (Spring Festival), Qingming (Ancestor Day), Zhongqiu (Mid-Autumn Festival). Minor festival are Duanwu (Dragon Boat Festival), Zhongyang (Double Ninth Festival), Dongzhi (Winter Solstice Festival).
Cangianto (2014:2) propose several social and community function of Klenteng, such as: conducting
meeting for community afffairs, taking care of death ritual of community members, nursing homes,
education, business affairs, and sometimes as public defense base.
Defense and political activities.
There are many ways Chinese Temples is used as defense and political activities. Yihe Tuan Movement emerged in Li Yuan village, centered on the incident in Yuhuang Temples. Starting up as small resistance group against West dominations, it mounts up manifold into big revolution known as Boxer Rebellion at the end of 19th Century. The movements are organized and spread out from small villages Chinese Temples.
Chinese people’s uprising frequently begun at villages, and emerged between social and informal eetings in their temples. In fact, many temples affiliated with Triad 三合會, resistance group against Qing Dynasty and promoted the return of Ming Dynasty. There are many village temples housed Xuantian Shangdi, Protector Deity of Ming Dynasty, in particular position of sitting with legs form a triangle, a symbol of Triad. This Deity is believed appear in front of Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), founder of Ming Dynasty.
Overseas Chinese that immigrated to Southeast Asia grouped themselves around special organization named Kongsi 公司, a benevolent organization for individuals with the same surname / same clan. This organization helping newcomers to settle down and overcome their economic difficulties in their adopted countries, conduct economic and business practices minimize social isolation and oppression in new setting. Kongsi built many Chinese Temples as part to fulfill their ancestral and clan duties, and sometimes added their business and social offices inside the complex.
Yang (1961:105) acknowledge that there is sanctioning function in relationship between religion and Chinese government, where government attempt to control religion as well as the active participation of religion in the struggle for political power. Many ordinary but strategic temples are promoted into state funded, higher ranks temples, and become member of institutional religion by conferment special name plate given by imperial state. Xi He Gong Temple, Semarang, was given imperial name plate from Qing dynasty, most probably in Guangxu Era (around 1880).
Figure 2.2 Imperial Name Plate of See He Kiong, Semarang (http://klenteng-indonesia-chinese-temples.blogspot.com)
Defense function of Chinese Temples is not always means literal. Special temples also built in particular geographical sites to repel bad energy (煞氣) such as roads intersections, and spooky places. It is also common practice nowadays in Taiwan to held political campaign in Chinese Temples, and management affiliated to particular party.
People Gathering and Meetings.
Chinese Indonesian community need to meet together for a certain communal or clan activities, such
as elders’ meetings to discuss day-to-day civil affairs, clan’s tribunal meetings, and any other public interests meetings. Some of these formal meetings automatically used temples’ ground as the biggest communal space available in village. In the more informal setting, temples’ spacious open or semi open ground are perfect site for relaxing, mingled for elders and safe playing ground for children in afternoon or late night; especially in village setting or super dense settlement area.
Boarding Functions.
There are many Chinese Temples have ample space for letting common people to sleep over while they doing pilgrimage and coming from very far. In Java, Klenteng Tuban and Klenteng Pacet Lama are
common examples for boarding function. In China itself, there are special kind of temples functioned as
monastery, where monks lived there to learn in secluded place, such as Shaolin Temple.
There is one feature inside Chinese temples that indicate if the place can let people board there or stay over. Special Deity Wei Tuo statue will have his armour (club) in vertical position if the temple policy is not allowed people to stay overnight; but if the armour of the Deity is put horizontally inside his hands, and other hand in Anjali position, people can stay.
Several Chinese Temples are used as informal orphanage or nursing homes. Beside as an ordinary
orphanage that opens to all, there are also temples with special orphanage for girls. Since small kids, these girls are trained in special skills of cai gu / cai ci / cai ma (female prayers) and live in vow of celibacy. Vihara Tjandra Sasana (Jin Fu Tang) and Viraha Buddha Sasana (Xian Qing Tang) are examples of cai gu temple in Jakarta area.
Moral Strengthening and Education Functions.
Chinese Temples, especially the ones that also functioned as Clan Temples, are used by elders and community to strengthen and enforced moral, civic norm, and religious values. It is common for a ‘low moral’ member of the clan was punished by kneeling in front of ancestors’ altar inside temple to contemplate their mistakes. Chinese temples are place where those values are concentrated and spread out to all community, by direct teaching and by examples.
There are many temples built affiliated school, especially in rural area. In the past, their graduated students that are not passed imperial examination will end up teaching these schools. The school (yishu
義塾) usually free charge, focused on needy people. Cangianto (2014:5) quote Zhong and Yu in Southeast Asian Chinese Religions and Contemporary Values that in 1849, Tianfu Temple in Singapore built Chinese school. According to www.databudaya.net, an interactive website managed by Cultural Directorate of Indonesia, Klenteng Poncowinatan, Jogjakarta are equipped with Chinese Tiong Hoa Hak Tong School; now changed its name into Sekolah Budaya Wacana.
Economic and Business Functions.
There are temples that spare its space to let people sell incenses, praying objects, fortune tellers’
services, Chinese calligraphy services and provide offices for social organizations. Other temples let its
spacious open grounds rented as shops, offices, workshops, and even houses.
In more temporary term, temples regularly organize festivals, some are based on religious events through the year, and others are social-economic festival agreed upon between its administrators and community. In most of these festivals (miao hui 廟會), spaces are aside for small business displaying and selling their goods or services. Some have to pay small contributions to the administrators; others are for free (bazaar, exhibitions). Depend on the size of festival and ground temple, small spaces are aside for street vendors to gather and open their business for short time.
Yang (1961:82) explained that North China countryside itself held temple fairs in generally 3-5 days, to facilitate rural trade where economy was insufficiently developed. These fairs displayed distinctly religious color and always organized around a temple, and most of the time was held near the Patron Deity’s birthday. Yang argued that the power of religious worship attracts crowds from community regardless of the individual’s economic and social interests. Indonesia itself has background of multicultural and many formal religions, thus Yang’s concept sometimes happened in opposite way. Economic and social interests attract other religion’s members to contribute and attend temple fairs.
Entertainment and Festivals Functions.
Temples sometimes spare their vast spaces to build permanent or temporary stage for art performances. The popular entertainments are opera, drama, puppets theatre, folk singing and dancing, martial arts, barongsai and lion dances, acrobatics groups, and traditional music instruments group performances.
If the temple built permanent stage, this entertainment centre usually holds regular practices and
courses for the arts. These performances can be organized around religious themes or even the profane ones.
Other Social Functions.
Social, cultural, medical institutions or even business organizations sometimes borrow or rent temple
grounds to perform community services such as: free medical check-ups and medicines, blood donation, distribute or selling subsidized groceries, social campaigns, or organized fundraising events. Vihara Tanda Bhakti Jakarta regularly team up with medical labs to perform free or low cost medical check-ups that attracted hundreds people.
Some temples use their ample spaces to make large dining area and provide daily meals for people
every day. Vihara Tuban’s large kitchen regularly provides vegetarian meals for everyone in need.
There are some temples are built as part of bigger complex, such as hospitals, wet and traditional markets, schools, or universities. Thien Fa (Tian Hua) hospital in Bangkok begins from Chinese traditional medical clinic and tended need people. Inside its complex there is large and famous Tian Fa – Guanyin Shrine.
CHINESE TEMPLES SETTINGS.
Buildings are physical manifestation of human’s norms, enjoyed inside its community. Religion, business, craftsmanship, and art are visible parts of building’s physical structure in Chinese society. Buildings can be analysed as part of its history and contains previous generations’ ideas (Kohl, 1984: xvii -xviii). Chinese architecture (Kohl, 1984) is a direct and automated reflection of its folk culture and norms. Chinese architecture is also a manifestation of desire, spirit, and hope of its people.
Emile Durkheim proposed that all form of religion have common characteristic. Religion classifies all
tangible and intangible parts of human culture form into two classes: sacred and profane. Human’s
attempt to build and preserve religion needs more than ritual and dogma. It needs physical form, a sacred area that separate human’s thought and action from profane area. Temples are one physical form of religion that built by human and were divided into sacred and profane area (Eliade, 1958:71).
METHODOLOGY.
This research is using descriptive interpretative methods, with structuralism approach of de Saussure, and explained in qualitative way. This research positioned Chinese Temples as artefacts. Using archaeology as basic tools to interpret the findings, this research start from specify the attributes important to examine social functions within temples, and then classify the attributes to certain divisions of social functions. After classifications are made, then the results are matched with documents and literature, to find more explanations of the theme.
Architecture played as important knowledge to identified building into physical attributes and structures, so archaeology can interpret those attributes and ready to be examined.
The purpose of this research are finding prove and application that Chinese Temples in Jakarta plays
important part in social and community activities, either exclusively between Chinese community, or
inclusive – embracing all diverse elements in local communities around the site.
DATA FINDINGS.
Data findings were begin with gathering data from the temples sites. Researcher documented the temples’ surrounding and making careful measurement and layout sketches of site plan. Temples’ interior elements were photograph.
Literatures are gathered mainly from previous researches conducted by French researcher Claudine Salmon and Dennys Lombard. Beside those individual and overseas researchers, Departemen Pendidikan Nasional (Indonesian Ministry of Education), also conducted a series of comprehensive research to gather data of Chinese Temples around Jakarta as part of its culture, heritage and conservation obligation and projects.
Small interviews were conducted with temples’ authority to gather more valid verbal data about social functions applied in temples’ grounds now and then.
The research findings shows 3 temples (10%) do not have any social functions. Those three are smaller temples, very limited spaces are given for the important religious function, and placed in very dense neighbourhood, so there are no spaces left for other functions.
There are no or very limited evidences and records that Chinese temples in Jakarta have political and defence functions. Lacks of evidences are probably because those areas are sensitive issues for Chinese Indonesian people. It might happen very rare or not recorded properly, and people do not want to talk about it.
Gathering and meeting functions are easiest to apply, only need small spaces to accommodate a group of people chatting and doing informal gathering while for the more formal one, you need bigger capacity. Eleven Chinese Temples in Jakarta (35%) have more than enough spaces for doing informal and formal meetings and gatherings.
Boarding functions that include permanent or temporary living spaces provided by temples for free or low cost are the most common functions findings in this research (14 temples / 45%). It indicate that old Chinese Temples historically acted as helping hands for their society, especially new comers from China or the ones failed to adjust with the new situations. From 14 temples, 8 of them are special temples for cai gu / cai ma, women group living together in celibacy and worked as death ritual prayers. They adopted orphaned girls to maintain survival of the group. In more modern situation, the growing settlements of Jakarta made some temples rented their spacious space formally rather than occupied by strangers and beggars without permission.
Only 3 temples (10%) have educational and moral functions. From those 3, only 1 temple used it space for formal government school. Since all Chinese school have to close in force shut down at 1966, there are no modern evidences in Jakarta that temples are affiliated with school. The other 2 temples only have one room arranged as short courses’ class, combine as meeting room.
There are 9 temples (29%) using their spare spaces to be used as business and economic functions. Half of them are used internally; administrators or caretaker of the temples using those spaces for their own business, individually or formally as temple’s own business. The rest are rented professionally by administrators to business owners.
There are only 5 temples (16%) are formally used for entertainment and have ample spaces for conducting big crowd festivals. One interview with administrator resulted that in the past Chinese people using temple’s spacious space to organize wedding reception. In modern time, the trend shifted to function room at restaurant, hotel, or exhibition / convention centre.
The last one is no-category functions. There are 2 temples’ functions fell to this category. Vihara Dharma Bhakti has community medical clinic in its ground while Vihara Padi Lapa have big dining room to provide mass dining.
CONCLUSIONS.
Research shows as much as 44 social functions from 31 temples. This indicates that Chinese Temples
Jakarta plays important parts in social and communal activities. The assortments of functions are connected to their lengthy scale, the wider the grounds, it accommodate more functions.
This research proved that there are still big opportunities to use Chinese Temples socially. There are
more than enough public spaces – the profane ones, can be use inclusively – no matter their religions are.
Temples are not private buildings; it is public buildings that can be used by everyone for good positive
purposes. In some dense population area of Jakarta where most Chinese Temples established, public spaces must be utilized with maximum functions. Chinese Temples should play active roles to solve urban problem of scarce public space.
REFERENCES
- Calhoun, C.J., 2002, Classical Sociological Theory, Wiley-Blackwell.
- Cangianto, A., 2014, Mengenal Agama Hua. In Seminar Makna Bersembahyang di Klenteng, Klenteng Tay Kak Sie, Semarang, Indonesia.
- Cangianto, A., 2014, Menghayati Kelenteng Sebagai Ekspresi Masyarakat Tionghoa, Undergraduate Paper, Philosophy Department, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung, Indonesia.
- Cipriani, R., 2011, Diffused Religions and Prayer, article in Religions Journal, Vol.2, 198-215.
- Coleman, E. B., K. White., ND, Stretching The Sacred, Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, http://press.anu.edu.au/nts/mobile_devices/ch06.html#d0e2613, accessed October 5th, 2014.
- Coppel, C. A., 2002, Studying Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, Singapore Society of Asian Studies.
- De Haan, 1996, Oud Batavia, translation Engineering Department, Tarumanagara University.
- Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2000, Klenteng Kuno di DKI Jakarta & Jawa Barat.
- Eliade, M., 1958, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Sheed & Ward, London & NY
- Eliade, M., 1959, The Sacred and The Profane, A Harvest Book
- Kohl, D. G., 1984, Chinese Architecture in the Straits Settlements and Western Malaya: Temples, Kongsis and Houses, Heinemann Asia.
- Moerthiko, 1980, Riwayat Klenteng, Vihara, Lithang, Tempat Ibadat Tridharma Se-Jawa, Sekretariat Empeh Wong Kam Fu.
- Salmon, C, 2000, Indonesian Chinese Temples and Social History – with Special References to Java and Bali, Seminar Orang Indonesia – Tionghoa: Manusia dan Kebudayaannya.
- Salmon, C., Anthony K.K. Siu, 1997, Chinese Epigraphic Materials in Indonesia: Under the Direction of Wolfgang Franke, Vol II Part 1, South Seas Society, Singapore.
- Salmon, C., D. Lombard, 1977, Les Chinois De Jakarta: Temples Et Vie Collective, Cahier D’Archipel 6 S.E.C.M.I.
- Salmon, C., D. Lombard, 2003, Klenteng-Klenteng dan Masyarakat Tionghoa di Jakarta, 2nd Ed., Yayasan Cipta Loka Caraka.
- Kwa T. H., 2013, Dewa – Dewi Kelenteng, Yayasan Kelenteng Sampookong.
- Smart, N., 1993, Religion of Asia, Prentice Hall.
- Susilo, G., 2006, Tipologi Bangunan Klenteng Abad 16 Hingga Paruh Awal Abad 20 Di DKI Jakarta, thesis Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Indonesia.
- Wang G.W., 1991, China and the Chinese Overseas, Times Academic Press.
- Yang, C.K.,1961, Religion in Chinese Society, University of California