This article examines the correlation between Pancasila, which is Indonesia’s state ideology, and human dignity. Indonesians, since gaining independence in 1945, have established Pancasila as their state ideology and political philosophy, which encompasses the rights and responsibilities of its citizens without discrimination based on religion or creed, gender, race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status or whatsoever. Derived from Sankrit, the name “Pancasila” means ‘the five main principles’. The five principles are: 1) Belief in the Unity of Deities; 2) Just and civilized humanity; 3) Unity of Indonesia; 4) Democracy led by wisdom through deliberation of the elected representatives; 5) Social justice for all Indonesians. The article therefore discusses the five main principles that have governed the people of Indonesia for 75 years now, owing to the veracity of the universal message that Pancasila aspires to. The founding figures of the nation seemed mindful of the diversity of the people and their multitude of traditions and beliefs.

This article seeks to describe the way in which Gusti Ayu Made Rai, an eighteenth-century Balinese princess from Badung became Raden Ayu Siti Khotijah, one Indonesia’s few widely recognized female Muslim saints. In so doing I develop an alternative reading of the dynamics of the history of religion in Bali, countering the common view that it is a static monolithically Hindu tradition. Rather than turning inward as the surrounding areas embraced Islam, Balinese kingdoms sought to include Muslims and elements of Islam in scared narratives and geographies. Two distinct theoretical approaches are used in this analysis: the structural approach to indigenous Southeast Asian states pioneered by Robert Heine-Geldern in the early decades of the twentieth century and the performative approach to ritual studies developed by Victor Turner in the 1970s.

The issue of religious spiritual groups (Islam) in Indonesia rarely encounters the relation with non-Muslim contexts in the way how they perform religious ritual. Conversely, the Wahidiyah Foundation as Islamic organization representing Sufism, opens to non-Muslim without any requirement for conversion when practicing zikr ritual toward the formula of shalawat wahidiyah. This research examines the cases of Hindu Balinese performing zikr without violating their Hindu’s identity. It links to the question on how Hindu Balinese modify zikr toward shalawat wahidiyah performance in the way they adapt it according to their own belief and why the emergence of tension occurs between a minority group of Hindu Balinese and internal community of Muslims within the Wahidiyah Foundation in local level of Bali during the practice of zikr ritual. By using ethnographical approach, process of collecting data is conducted in six regencies of Bali. This article uses Bell’s ritual perspectives as the basic assumptions and tendencies in thinking about ritual activities in broader context. This research tries to counter the prejudice of religious conversion through the interpretation of other religious teachings in ritual activity representing a universalistic idea in Indonesia context.

Socio-political reality is often brought into being through performative acts. To say that religio-cultural identity stakes its claim on the socio-political through performative utterances is to also state that socio-political realities appear as effects of articulated ideology. It has been well acknowledged that socio-political ideology presents itself as if it were offering some ‘deeper, extra political truths’ of being and becoming that are constant. This brings forth a believing community, which functions as a stabilizing occurrence for these ‘deeper, extra political truths’ of being and becoming. Assertions of essential religio-cultural identity constitute one such discursive practice that brings into effect communities that nurture binarizing abstractions such as what it is to be ‘Indian’, the idea of who is a ‘Hindu’ and the notion of nationalism that elects an umbilical connect to the Hindu Vedic lineage. It is to understand the processes that are involved in the crafting of these extra political truths of being and becoming, to examine whether these truths are in fact extra political, and to come to an understanding of how the believing communities which are effected preserve an abstraction of pure national identity that this study engages shared sacred spaces that have been claimed by Hindu right-wing assertionists in India. In such an effort, the juxtaposition-ality of these shared sacred spaces of grace that harbor a substratum of generosity and sharing, marks the essentializing procedures of right wingers and their aggressive mining for a pure Indianness. Except that the ground they mine is amorphous.

The epic tale of Mahabharata in the Old Javanese language contains various values, several of which are conveyed through its figures especially Pandawa and Korawa. The value of dharma is addressed through Pandawa who always has a quality of being good, honest, and courageous, with courteous behavior in speaking and actions. The Korawa figure more dominantly expresses adharma such as being less praiseworthy, coarse, with an evil disposition, wanting to dominate and get rid of his brothers on the Pandawa side, moreover even not hesitating to wish to kill them. The Kicaka Geguritan text in the Balinese language, from the Wirataparwa section of the Mahabharata, often reveals the value of dharma and adharma through the figures of Pandawa and from the Wirata kingdom. The author of the Kicaka Geguritan has a dialogue about these values when the figure of Pandawa is in a condition of suffering and alienates himself from the Wirata kingdom. In that episode, Pandawa receives less praiseworthy treatment and is hegemonized by the figures from the kingdom. Through the figure of Yudistira and others the teachings of dharma, also known as darma sadu, are expressed in their thought, speech, and action when dealing with other figures. Therefore, this paper will present the qualities of dharma and adharma as manifested by the figures in the Kicaka Geguritan while also showing that sasuluh awareness of dharma is conveyed through reading geguritan texts in Bali.

One of the main issues that has been discussed in Indonesia regarding the democracy process in a modern world is about the feminism and gender issues. On the one hand, women are considered to play limited roles, whilst on the other hand, the men have always been considered to play a significant role. This can be traced back in the long process of the Balinese history not only in terms of political aspect, but also in the context of socio cultural aspects. It is important to look at what has happened in the Balinese societies, since Bali is known as a Hindu mozaic in Southeast Asia. The Balinese society has its own culture based on local culture that is strongly influenced by the Indian or Indic culture. The Balinese society is a patrilineal system, in which a man has a higher position, but in fact it was even Bali had a woman princess, who was of mixed Javanese and Balinese heritage, a wife of King Udayana of Bali between the 10th and 11th century. Both of them were considered as the Balinese kings at the same time. In the era of these two kings they were successful in integrating between Hinduism and Buddhism. Until now, the Balinese believe the soul of Mahendradatta as Durga. The main questions that will be addressed in this paper are firstly: how do the Balinese interpret the female deities? Secondly, how do they worship them? Thirdly, what is the meaning of this worship in terms of religious and cultural aspects in the modern and postmodern time? By discussing these issues, it is expected that we will have a better understanding on how the Balinese worship the female deities in the prehistoric, classical, and modern times in the context of a global or universal culture

Character is the values of human behavior associated with God Almighty, self, fellow human, environment, and nationality embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and deeds based on religious norms, law, etiquette, culture, and customs. Character education, according to Thomas Lickona (1991), is the education to shape the personality of a person through character education, whose results that can be seen in the actual actions of a person that are considered good, honest, responsible, respectful of the rights of others, hard work, and others. Building the character of children can be done through a traditional Balinese game called megala-galaan. This game is often played with accompaniment of singing Goak Maling Taluh. The poem Goak Maling Taluh sound simple with rhythm or easy rhythm, and the author was still anonymous until now. Behind the simplicity of his poetry hides a deep philosophical meaning about the nature of karma phala. The megala-galaan game with the singing Goak Maling Taluh implementation of fun learning concepts, a traditional Balinese educational concept that emphasizes aspects of learning while playing, and playing while learning.

India, being the largest democracy and Indonesia, being the third largest democracy in the world, have significant role in their basic attitude toward religious freedom among the world nations. Based on the Constitutions of the both countries, this study focuses on the religious freedom and its derailment in many ways. Religion plays a vital role in the society in moulding and building the civilization and humanity whether people accept it or not. It can affect the growth of the people positively or negatively. I would like to analyze the background of the Constitutional articles on religious freedom. How do the drafters of the Constitutions conceive of religious freedom in their respective countries? What were their dreams and aspirations when they drafted each article regarding the religious freedom in the Constitution? How much are they implemented or realized?

This study examines the importance of cultivating the religious behavior of grhastha ashrama in Sukawati Village based on Tri Hita Karana, founded on the local wisdom inherited from the ancestors. In today’s era of everything instant and pragmatic, certain people’s behaviors deviate from the religious teachings because of the weakening of sradha, or understanding and belief in the teachings of their religion. Thus, it is feared that social anxiety and conflicts will occur in various aspects of life. Tri Hita Karana is one of the local wisdoms of Balinese people which acts as a policy, knowledge and local intelligence that can be used as a reference to cultivate the religious behavior of grhastha ashrama. Grhastha ashrama are defined as krama desa elders, who serves as role models for the community and the younger generation. Tri Hita Karana values must be observed by maintaining harmony with others and with the natural environment. The purpose of this study is to provide scientific description and explanation of the importance of Tri Hita Karana ideology in cultivating the religious behavior of grhastha ashrama, as a catalyst for development of the village community, by preserving the culture to conserve the agricultural environment, because Balinese culture cannot be separated from agricultural life. This study was conducted with case study approach as one variant of the qualitative approach. Data collection was conducted by the techniques of interview, observation, literature, and documentation study. The findings of this study state that the grhastha ashrama tend to display hard working attitude to make ends meet and follow the latest trends. Likewise, krama feel the increasing burden to make ends meet, especially the cost of preserving art and culture that are very expensive. This seems to influence the habits of the Sukawati people who are famed for their enthusiasm in performing art and culture and tend to ignore the religious behavior based on the ideology of Tri Hita Karana.