Singing to Buddha: The Case of a Buddhist Rock Band in Contemporary Indonesia

Abstract

This article uses the case of True Direction to explore the development and performance of Buddhist music in contemporary Indonesia. I argue that although True Direction’s music in many ways resembles contemporary Christian music, the organization does not produce contemporary Buddhist songs—or “Buddhist rock” as I call this form of religious music—to replace Buddhist devotional practices with Christian-style worship service. While Irvyn Wongso and his colleagues, like their Christian counterparts, rely on religious rock music as an evangelical tool to attract a younger audience, they consider contemporary Buddhist music as complementary, rather than alternative, to existing Buddhist devotional practices. This study reveals that Indonesian Buddhists are “local geniuses” in the selective adaptation of popular music to present Buddhist doctrine and attract young followers in contemporary Indonesian society.