Abstract

Bali is strongly related to the concept of Hinduism or Indic culture, since most of the Balinese culture and its civilization have been characterized by the influences of Hinduism that have been started in the beginning of the century. Though Hinduism has been considered to spread in the beginning of the first century in the Indonesian archipelago, but it is still unclear about when it was exactly the spread of Hinduism outside Bali and what kind of challenges that the people have faced in the context of integration in the modern Indonesian times. It is commonly said that Hinduism not only strengthens the Balinese culture, but also other cultures outside Bali, namely in certain parts of the Indonesian archipelago, especially Sulawesi, Borneo and Sumatra. However, it does not mean that there is no other culture prior to the arrival of the Balinese migrants in these regions, which has been embedded in long process of their local histories.

Therefore, in order to understand this process, it is crucial to understand the historical and migration process on how Hinduism or Indic culture have already strengthened the local culture in the Indonesian archipelago, in which many policies in relation to the transmigration policies in the modern Indonesian have played a dominant role.

There are some questions that need to be addressed in this paper: firstly, how can we understand the influence of Hinduism in the outside Bali island? What kind of issues that the people must face in relation to the issues of integration? And thirdly, what kinds of policies that need to be implemented in order to strengthen the Hinduism in accordance with the concept of multiculturalism in the Indonesian archipelago. Through these questions, it is expected to have a better understanding on the issues of social, cultural, economic and political identities, which are related to the strengthening of multicultural society in the Indonesian archipelago. These are some significant questions that will be discussed in this paper. By looking at this analysis, it is expected to have a better understanding on the dynamics of the Balinese Hinduism in Makassar in the Eastern part of Indonesia, and in Jakarta in the western part of Indonesia.

Keywords: Local culture; The balinese; Hinduism; Multicultural society and Indonesian archipelago