The Cultural Strategy of the East Nusa Tenggara Community in Maintaining Harmony

Abstract

This article is one part of research on religious perceptions of religion in the era of social media conducted in the city of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). One of the conclusions of this study is the operation of cultural mechanisms in maintaining good relations between religions, especially Catholicism and Christianity as the dominant religion with mainly Islam, besides Hinduism and Buddhism. There are many cultural strategies that they play, including utilizing local wisdom, building kinship and starting life with cultural language. Whereas NTT has a very unique diversity of customs, ethnicity, culture, language, and religion which if not managed properly will produce a conflict, a problem that was also experienced by NTT during the Kupang riots in 1998, and Indonesia in general. The harmonious pattern of life in NTT is also confirmed by the results of the Survey of Religious Harmony Index which always places NTT as the top national province. This research is based on the paradigm of social construction which is phenomenologically approached with qualitative methods.