Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with 87% (about 228 million) of the total population of 262 million people believing in Islam.
Indonesia, also known as the "Land of Ten Thousand Islands", has 17,505 islands, the most influential of which is Java, which is not only the capital and the largest city of Jakarta, but also concentrates more than half of Indonesia's population (about 145 million).
For foreigners, when they think of Indonesia, the first thing that comes to mind is not Java, but Bali, a world-renowned tourist destination that receives millions of world tourists every year.
▲ Java and Bali
Located on the southern edge of the central part of the Indonesian archipelago, it covers an area of 5,620 square kilometers and has a population of 3.15 million, accounting for only 1.2% of the total population. However, tiny Bali is home to more than 60% of the country's Hindus (4.67 million).
So how did Bali become a Hindu island surrounded by the Islamic world?
▲Map of the distribution of religion in Indonesia
1. Southeast Asian Buddhist countries
The island of Java, with its wide plains and fertile land, has been the political and economic center of Indonesia since ancient times. Around 1500 BC, the ancient Malays of Java islands traveled throughout the Indonesian archipelago, forming hundreds of peoples and unique cultures that worshipped a wide variety of gods.
Around the 2nd century, Buddhism, which originated in South Asia, first spread to China and Southeast Asia, and 300 years later to the Indonesian archipelago. The Chinese cultural circle with China at its core has transformed Buddhism and made it its own use.
▲ The transmission path of Buddhism
Southeast Asia, on the other hand, was still in the transition stage of primitive tribes to feudal states, and almost completely accepted Buddhism, making it the underlying culture of these countries, with no less piousness than South Asia, and Sanskrit even became one of the lingua franca of the upper classes.
After the introduction of Buddhism, it took less than two hundred years to make Buddhism widely accepted in Myanmar, Thailand, Chenla (Cambodia) and other countries. The burgeoning kingdom of Srivijaya on the island of Java in the late 7th century, also based on Buddhism as the state religion, was the first country in Indonesian history.
▲ The territory of the Srivijaya Kingdom at its peak
The name "Sri Buddha's Death" comes from Sanskrit, and Chinese history books call it "Srivijaya", which shows that this country has deep roots with Buddhism and is an out-and-out "South China Sea Buddha's Country".
At its peak, the territory included all of Java, most of the Malay Peninsula and the western part of Kalimantan, as well as many smaller surrounding islands. Due to its proximity to the island of Java, Bali can be considered a subsidiary of the island of Java in any way.
▲ Bali and Java are only separated by a few kilometers wide strait
At the same time as srila buddha's kingdom flourished, Buddhism was also widely spread in China and has become one of the mainstream religions. In addition, the Srivijaya kingdom controlled China's maritime trade routes with Southeast Asia, so it maintained very good relations with China.
Second, come later
Buddhism was born in South Asia and once held an absolute dominance, but it has not been able to maintain this status forever. Buddhism blossomed in china, Southeast Asia and other exotic regions on the one hand, and was replaced by the late Hinduism in South Asia.
South Asia has been repeatedly conquered by foreign peoples such as Persia, Greece, and the Great Moon, and the new conquerors always have to face a large number of conquered people who are not of their own ethnic or ethnic group, and the core doctrine of Hinduism, the racial system, requires all strata of society to keep to themselves, which is just suitable for the ruler to maintain a strict hierarchy, which greatly reduces the resistance of the conquered.
▲ At that time, Master Xuanzang took the scriptures from Nalanda Temple
Compared with speculative and ascetic Buddhism, the teachings of Hinduism are more popular, easily accepted by the masses at the bottom, and their polytheistic nature is more inclusive, and various primitive religions can be directly attracted to Hinduism, thus having an extremely broad mass base.
As a result, Hinduism gained widespread support from top to bottom in South Asia, and soon completely replaced Buddhism as a complete one. After the rise of Hinduism, it was also necessary to spread outward, but the times were different, and the foreign transmission route of Buddhism in that year was no longer applicable.
▲ The largest Buddhist building is the Borobudur in Indonesia
The Arab Islamic civilization that rose from West Asia is expanding into Central Asia and the West, and the next step is about to impact South Asia, and this route is completely impassable. The Buddhist culture on the Peninsula of Southeast Asia, which has been deeply rooted over the centuries, has deprived Hinduism of its space to spread.
It is also important to note that the feudal states of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia have been established and matured, and they are full of vigilance against Hinduism and the South Asian forces behind it, and have begun to reject the spread of Hinduism in order to prevent South Asian forces from entering the Southeast Asian peninsula.
▲ The distribution of religions in Southeast Asia, the red arrow refers to bali as Hinduism
Only the Indonesian archipelago had special conditions, with Hindu merchants being able to reach them directly by sea, not to mention the large number of islands, and there were always weak links in the kingdom of Sri Buddha and Buddhist rule.
As a result, Hinduism first spread among some islands and pirates, and slowly gained a foothold. Because Hinduism was able to tolerate the original local gods, it spread slowly but with remarkable results, and by the 12th and 13th centuries many feudal lords had converted.
▲ The largest Hindu Prambanan temple in Indonesia
By this time the kingdom of Srivijaya had declined, the influence of Buddhism was much worse than before, and even the lords of Java converted to Hinduism, forcing the kingdom of Srivijaya to move its capital to Sumatra.
According to historical records written by Chinese and Europeans, in the early 13th century, the pirate-born Hindu Ken Alo established the kingdom of Chinhasari in East Java, renamed it majapahit in 1292, and destroyed the srivijaya kingdom of Srivijaya, becoming a new hegemon in the Indonesian archipelago.
▲ The territory of the Majapahit Kingdom at its peak
The Majapahit Kingdom reached its peak at the end of the 14th century, far outstripping the kingdom of Srivijaya, with the exception of a few eastern islands, where almost the entire Indonesian archipelago was under its rule, and Hinduism naturally replaced Buddhism as the state religion, with Buddhism almost completely withdrawing from the Indonesian archipelago.
Indonesian archipelago Hinduism, which embraces local gods and culture, is actually quite different from South Asia. Like Bali, which clings to the island of Java, it has converted to Hinduism with the Majapahit Kingdom, while retaining many of the gods and customs handed down from its ancestors. A similar situation is prevalent on other islands.
Third, the cycle of history
The Indonesian archipelago is arguably the most successful region of Hinduism outside of South Asia, and the Majapahit Kingdom not only has a vast territory and great power, but also defeated the Mongolian Yuan army head-on and preserved the country's independence.
The reason why Hinduism has been able to break through the monopoly of Buddhism in Southeast Asia is largely due to maritime trade and the special terrain of the Indonesian archipelago. Unexpectedly, these two conditions will soon be exploited by the latecomers, ending the Majapahit kingdom and Hinduism.
▲ Islamic transmission routes
They were Muslims from Arabia and Persia, and for hundreds of years after the rise of Arab Islamic civilization, they were busy with land expansion, with West Asia as the core, conquering Persia, Central Asia, and North Africa, and establishing a vast empire.
The Arab Empire did not stop there, following in the footsteps of historical conquerors, first conquering the northern part of the South Asian subcontinent, which is today northern Pakistan, and then establishing multiple Islamic regimes in the Indus and Ganges valleys.
▲ Islamic mosques in Indonesia
Muslim rulers soon discovered that Hinduism was good for them, being able to appease the large numbers of natives and reduce their resistance to the rulers. As a result, South Asia formed a situation in which Islam and Hinduism coexisted.
Muslims were also very good merchants, they set out from Arabia and Persia, sailed to China and Southeast Asia, while doing business while spreading Islam, China's Quanzhou and Guangzhou and other places have formed Muslim merchant settlements, the number of which once exceeded 100,000.
▲ The early Quanzhou mosque that was clearly influenced by Chinese culture
The spread of Islam did not go well in the Buddhist countries of the Southeast Asian peninsula, and the royal families and nobles of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries were Buddhists, and the status of Buddhism was guaranteed by state power from being threatened. Islam, like Hinduism in those days, returned to the Southeast Asian peninsula.
Muslim merchants who came to the Indonesian archipelago almost copied the routes and methods of Hinduism' spread, because the conditions favorable to Hinduism still applied to Islam. With its many islands, it is easy to find weak links in the majapahit kingdom and Hindu rule.
Buddhism has a high status in the peninsular countries of Southeast Asia
Muslim merchants often used preferential terms of trade to attract local influential merchants or nobles to convert, and then gradually expanded the spread of Islam through point by point, and finally won the support of local lords.
Beginning in the 15th century, Islamic sultanates emerged in various parts of Indonesia, including East Java, the birthplace of the two kingdoms of Srivijaya and Majapahit.
Bali, which borders the island of Java, was temporarily ignored by Muslim traders due to its lack of strategic position and little terms of trade, and the island's inhabitants remained Hindu and not Islamized.
▲ Most of Bali is mountainous and has no rare resources
The faster and more widespread Islam spread, the more the Hindu majapahit kingdom declined. History repeats itself here again, and in 1498 the Sultanate of East Java, in conjunction with other sultanates, destroyed the Majapahit Kingdom.
Islam then replaced Hinduism in its place in power in the Indonesian archipelago, just as Hinduism replaced Buddhism 200 years ago. The two religious substitutions in the Indonesian archipelago took advantage of the extremely scattered topography of the Ten Thousand Islands, except that Hinduism took the lower route, while Islam began mainly with lords and merchants.
Fourth, fight to the death
Fortunately than Buddhism, Hinduism did not completely withdraw and found a foothold. The Majapahit royal family and nobles fled to Bali, east of Java, centered on Denpasar in the east, to continue their rule and Hindu faith.
Islam, with the support of the sultanates, soon swept across the Indonesian archipelago, and Hindus converted to Islam. As a "remnant of the former dynasty", the Majapahit royal family, which took refuge in Bali, was not hunted down by Islamic forces. The narrowest point of the strait between Bali and Java is only 3.2 kilometers, which can not stop the Sultan's army.
▲ Ubud Royal Palace in Bali
This is due first and foremost to the self-restraint of the majapahit royal survivors, who are not committed to restoring the glory of their homeland, but are more concerned with building Bali and consolidating Hindu culture, making Bali the last bastion of Hinduism in the Indonesian archipelago.
The main reason for this is that there are no unified kingdoms in the Islamic world like the Mulrubhus and Majapahits, and there are many sultanates coexisting. In addition to East Java, the large ones are Manjah on the Malay Peninsula, Brunei on Kalimantan Island, and so on, and as many as dozens of small ones.
▲ The Sultan of Yogyakarta was the last sultan of Indonesia to have territory
These sultanates, vying for the fertile islands of Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and control of maritime trade routes, often fought against each other, taking into account areas that could not bring benefits, even in the vicinity of Bali.
In addition, Bali itself lacks enough attraction, the island area of 5620 square kilometers, but most of it is mountainous, homegrown food is only enough to meet the needs of the islanders, no important mineral resources, and far from the sea trade routes.
The Dutch East India Company ignored Bali, which had no value
Therefore, the sultans did not care about the "remnants of the former dynasty" and the Hindu fortresses in Bali, so let them fend for themselves, because soon there were more important things for the sultans to worry about, and European colonists appeared.
In 1511, just 13 years after the fall of the Majapahit Kingdom, the Portuguese captured Mandraga, an important port in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula. In addition to the strong guns of the ships, the infighting between the Islamic Sultanates was also the main reason for the Portuguese success.
▲ European colonists' dimensionality reduction attack on Indonesian aborigines
The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch and the British, Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, which were also coveted targets by European colonists. The sultans in these places became "protectors" of the Europeans, losing diplomatic, military and trade rights and becoming colonies.
The Dutch, too small and weak to fight the more powerful British, were forced to give up most of their colonial interests on the Asian continent and concentrate on the development of the Indonesian archipelago. After two or three hundred years of exploration by the Dutch, the Indonesian archipelago was kneaded into a whole, shaping the prototype of the modern Indonesian state.
▲ Dutch Indonesian flag with the logo of the East India Company
As early as the end of the 16th century, the first Dutch people landed in Bali and found that there were no valuable spices and rare trees here. According to Dutch estimates at the time, there were 300,000 people in Bali, all staunch Hindus, and it was obviously not easy to conquer them. As a result, the Dutch also temporarily ignored Bali.
In 1619, the Dutch captured the island of Java, forcing the local sultans to submit. The establishment of Dutch Indonesia in 1800 meant the initial completion of the integration of the Indonesian archipelago. The Dutch intended to impose more effective and deeper rule, including the promotion of Protestantism and the Dutch language, and the fundamental transformation of the local culture.
▲ Agricultural self-sufficiency has made Bali lack interest in foreign exchanges
However, the Dutch cultural transformation plan was not smooth and eventually had to be abandoned. Because Islam has a strong unifying effect, the extremely scattered geographical characteristics of the Indonesian archipelago have greatly increased the cost of promotion, and the weak Dutch really can't afford it.
Having nothing to do with the Muslims, the Dutch turned their heads to the Hindus in Bali. The Dutch attempted to establish diplomatic relations with Bali in 1818, but the Balinese rulers were not interested in this and tried not to have contact with the Dutch.
▲The light red and pink parts are Dutch Indonesia
This situation dragged on for nearly a hundred years, and in 1906 the Dutch finally lost patience and decided to use force to conquer this independent island nation and forcibly promote Protestantism. Faced with the advanced Dutch army, Bali fell.
To the surprise of the Dutch, bali's princes and nobles took an unusually strong form of resistance, burning their palaces and committing suicide in Denpasar en masse to express their cherishing of independence, freedom and Hindu beliefs, known as the "Denpasar Massacre".
▲ Hindu culture has penetrated into all aspects of Bali
The Denpasar massacre shocked Europe and forced the Dutch to resort to moderation, and although Bali was still brought under the jurisdiction of Dutch Indonesia in 1908, it did not force the balinese population to convert, which allowed Hinduism to be preserved here.
5. Xanadu
The Dutch ruled Bali for only 34 years, was occupied by Japanese fascists in World War II, and became the province of Bali in 1949 with the independence of Indonesia, with the capital being Denpasar City. Although Indonesia is a muslim-majority country, it is highly secular and allows people freedom of religion, and Bali's Hinduism is not affected.
From the beginning of independence, Bali has encountered bottlenecks in development. Only agriculture, lacking in industry and commerce and minerals, does not see any potential. Therefore, in the early 1970s, Bali set tourism as the most important development direction, and hired European and American experts to make a tourism development plan for up to 30 years.
▲The Uralai International Airport, which was built in 1969, is old
In 1969, the Uralai International Airport was completed, and in 1972, tourist resorts were opened on many beaches in the south and north of the island, and then expanded to the entire coastal area. So far, Bali has thousands of high-end hotels with excellent tourism facilities.
The Indonesian government has not restricted Bali because of its Hindu faith, and has taken many measures to help it develop, especially the listing of Bali as a tourist visa-free/visa-on-arrival port, and many countries that cannot enter Indonesia without visas (including China) can enter Bali visa-free/visa-on-arrival.
▲Bali, a wonderland on earth
Here, visitors can enjoy not only the beach and the sun, but also the wonders of volcanoes, rainforests and oceans, as well as exotic Hindu cultures. Attracting more than 6 million visitors from around the world every year, Bali is a world-renowned destination.
"Paradise Island", "Poetry Island", "Immortal Island", "Thousand Temples Island", just a few of these nicknames given by tourists, you can appreciate the charm of Bali, which is a paradise away from the hustle and bustle of the world.