Javanism
Entry in Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ed. J. Gordon Melton & Martin Baumann, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA.
'Javanism' (kejawen) is a term for diverse spiritual practices of Javanese speakers who prioritize their syncretic ancestral culture above specific religious affiliations. It is almost synonomous with ‘kebatinan’ which refers to Javanese mystical movements. Most Javanists stress that their practices are rooted in perennial indigenous traditions of wisdom, arguing that these predate even Indian influences.
There are several dozen major movements with Java wide and, in a few cases, genuinely Indonesian membership. These include organizations such as Pangestu, Subud, Sapta Darma, Ilmu Sejati, Sumarah and Hardopusoro. It has been estimated that three to five percent of the Javanese population are actively engaged in kebatinan practices, but perhaps a quarter of Javanese speakers (of whom there are over 60 million) empathize with the spiritual style of these movements.
Kebatinan groups existed within the colonial framework but were usually secretive. Arguably they began to adopt modern form in reaction to the crystallization of modernist Islamic organizations. Among those the Mohammadiyah (founded in 1911) was especially anti mystical in its early years. Most movements only surface into public view during the revolution fighting of the late 1940s, while Indonesia was attaining independence. Then, parallelling organizing process in the 1950s through all sectors of Indonesian society, major movements became formally organized. During the early l950s a number of movements argued that they deserved recognition as separate religions, suggesting that in the context of national independence it would be an anomaly if only imported religions received government approval. Some movements maintained that argument into the 1970s, most accepted they were unlikely to get formal recognition.
Within Indonesia these movements are now termed 'kepercayaan', simply meaning 'beliefs'. Other designations have included 'kejiwaan' or 'kerohanian', the first from a Sanskrit root the second from Arabic and both meaning 'spiritual'; or 'kawruh kasunyataan', roughly 'knowledge of Truth'. Whatever the preference (which varies among movements) there is always a disavowal of the association with klenik, black magic and occultism, as that is the charge most often levelled against them by Muslim critics.
In opting for the designation 'kepercayaan' Javanist movements were self-consciously staking a claim to legitimacy within the provisions of the 1945 Constitution. That was readopted by Sukarno in 1959 and has remained sacred under Suharto and even his recent successors. Inclusion of the term ‘kepercayaan' in the constitution was credited to Wongsonegoro, who became the patrom of umbrella movements on behalf of mysticism during the 1950s. The first of these, the BKKI (Badan Kongres Kebatinan Indonesia or 'Congress of Indonesian Mystical Movements') was founded in 1955 by him. In Yogyakarta in December 1970 a successor organization was named the SKK (Sekretariat Kerjasama Kepercayaan) and subsequently renamed HPK (Himpunan Penghayat Kepercayaan).
References
Beatty, Andrew. Varieties of Javanese Religion: An Anthropological Account. Cambridge UP, Cambridge. 1999
Geertz, Clifford. The Religion of Java. U Chicago P, Chicago, 1976
Kartodirdjo, Sartono. Protest Movements in Rural Java. ISEAS, Oxford UP, Singapore, 1973
Mulder, Niels. Mysticism in Java: Ideology in Indonesia. The Pepin Press, Amsterdam and Singapore, 1998
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This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally hosted at freotopia.org/people/paulstange/javanism.html, and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.