Javanism

Javanism (/ˈd͡ʒɑːvɑːnɪzəm/) is an umbrella term referring to the Javan folk religion, traditionally adhered by the main Javan ethnic (the Javanese), invented and originally practiced in the central–southern (and eastern) hemisphere regions of the Indonesian island of Java. The Javanism has two main religious denomination, namely Kapitayan and Kejawèn. Javanism is one of the legal recognized folk religions in its own origin country (Indonesia), as well as another countries with significant Javanese diaspora population, such as Suriname in South America. Javanism has complex religious virtues and values deeply rooted from the ancient Javanese cultural traditions and philosophy. Adherents of Javanism are called Javanists.

Javanists believe that human race was evolved from the single ancestral source who were sent down to earth from the sky above. In Javanism belief, the word "jawa(h)" (ꦗꦮꦃ) itself, which is the endonym term commonly used as an ethnonym could be roughly translated as "descended [from the sky]", simply because the Javanese believes that their ancestor descended from the sky above; apart from ethnonym and designated as their native island's name, it is also still used (in Modern Javanese) to describe anything that comes from the sky (such as rain, meteors, etc.).

According to the Javanism religious belief, the Java Island back then was not located in its exact location as it is today, it is believed that Java was adrift on the ocean until it hits to another stable and wider landmass. That is also how mountainous regions were formed in Javanism belief, as recorded in various ancient Javanese manuscripts. This is the reason why the Javanists usually would held a huge charity of harvest annually, as a form gratitude because the Java Island finally landed safely and produce abundant of natural resources due to its fertile volcanic soil. Interestingly, these Javanism religious belief is in-line with the modern Pangaea theory.

Nomenclature

The term Javanism reconstructed from "Javan" (lit. 'relating to Java') + "-ism" (lit. 'suffix'), it is originally a direct translation of Kejawèn or Kajawèn (ꦏꦗꦮꦺꦤ꧀), a native Javanese word referring to one of the religious denominations of Javanism. With its wide range of complexity and intricacy, Kejawèn is arguably the most popular denomination of Javanism adhered by the Javanese people (and its diaspora abroad), thus the term became popularly used.

Kapitayan

Main article: Kapitayan

According to the local Javan folk belief, Javanism of Kapitayan denomination considered as the original form of Javanism before the foreign influences came into contact with the native Javanese society. These denomination focused on its monotheism value, although its complexity may be varied to one another regions. The main deity of Kapitayan Javanism is known as Taya, a genderless and invisible deity, worshipped by the Javanese people since ancient times. In orthodoxy sense, the Kapitayan Javanism might be considered as a form of Orthodox Javanism, although in reality there is no such thing as "Orthodox Javanism", simply because the Javanese people see both denomination as generally equal (although critism does occur within society).

Kejawèn

Main article: Kejawèn

Unlike the Kapitayan Javanism, these denomination has more complexity and intricacy due to influences that drawn by various foreign religious movements, such as Dharmic (Hinduism and Buddhism) and Abrahamic (Islamism and Christianity). In Kejawèn Javanism, one might possessed completely different religious values, but still unified under the same cultural Javanese traditional phylosophy values. The one that unites the adherents of this denomination is, the similarity in utilizing or preserving Javanese cultural elements, which may contradict to the religious standards of each affiliated religions (either it is Dharmic or Abrahamic). For instance, although the Abrahamic religion of Islam considered the practice of polytheism as haram (lit. 'forbidden'), however, the Kejawèn Javanism religious practice might exhibits the normalization of polytheistic worship.

Subgroups or denomination branches

These denomination has multiple subgroup, for instance, the Kebatinan branch drew its religious value from Islamism (which might be influenced by the Sufism), the nomenclature of those branch itself has an Arabic-origin root word, bāṭin (بَاطِن‎), which means "inner", "internal", or "within", referring to the exclusiveness of Kebatinan branch which considered by the Javanese people as esoteric in nature. According to the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), the Kebatinan religious branch of Kejawèn denomination was officially held its first congress in 1955, attended by 618 Javanese nativists from 47 organizations and gathered at the Ashoka Building in Semarang, they were mainly discussing about the mysticism or Kebatinan religious movement, to define its notion and understand it in the context of the principles contained in Pancasila as the ultimate national ideology of Indonesia. The congress resulting the Kebatinan to be officially and lawfully declared as one of the branches of Kejawen denomination, which known natively as aliran Kebatinan (lit. 'Kebatinan branch'). In Suriname, the adherents of Javanism mostly identified as Kebatinan Javanists.

Impacts

As the result of continous social contacts that occured for thousands of years between Javanese and non-Javanese, the Javanism has affected the belief system of non-Javanese people. For instance, the Kaharingan folk religious movement in central–southern Kalimantan might drew its influence from Javanism, which follows its predecessor in Bali, who have almagamated their Indic-based Hinduism and Buddhism beliefs with Eastern Javanese Majapahit-based Javanism earlier, which later resulting a new syncretism religious identity commonly known as the Balinese Hinduism.

See also

• Javanese mythology – the mythology in Javanese culture
• Kaharingan – the native Dayak folk religion of central–southern Kalimantan-origin
• Balinese Hinduism – a form of Hinduism adhered by the native Balinese

Further reading

• Finding balance in the mountains: Inside the spiritual word of "Javanism" – The Washington Post