ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the results of my research project ‘Negotiating Identities: Hinduism in Modern Indonesia’, which I conducted as a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) between December 1997 and February 2001. My discussion is mainly based on the fieldwork I conducted between October 1998 and February 1999 in the province (propinsi) of South Sulawesi. This particular field trip was to complement the data I had already gathered or would yet have to accrue in other ‘Hindu’ regions in Indonesia. It was my first research in South Sulawesi, and I totally relied on the introductory letters of Professor Ngurah Nala, then director of the Indonesian Hindu University (Universitas Hindu Indonesia, UnHI) in Denpasar (Bali), and Dr I Ketut Subagiasta, at that time first assistant director of the State Academy for the Education of Teachers of the Hindu Religion (Akademi Pendidikan Guru Agama Hindu Negeri, APGAHN) in Denpasar, in entering the field. These letters were very well received by three influential Hindu officials, who in the course of a few days opened many doors for me: Dr I Wayan Budha, head of the branch office of the Directorate for the Guidance of the Hindu and Buddhist Community in Indonesia (Direktorat Jenderal Bimbingan Masyarakat Hindu dan Budha) in Ujung Pandang, the capital of South Sulawesi, which would soon after my sojourn have been renamed Makassar; Simon Samuel, head of the Hindu section of the branch office of the Ministry of Religion (Kantor Wilayah Departemen Agama, KanWil Depag) in Makale, the capital of Tana Toraja; and Sellek, head of the Indonesian Hindu Youth Organization (Perhimpunan Pemuda Hindu Indonesia, Peradah) in the village of Messawa, the centre of Hindu activities in the district of Polewali-Mamasa (Polmas).
