Abstract
Multiple forces vie to control the narratives of the Lingsar festival, a major annual event initiated about 350 years ago that uniquely brings together the indigenous Muslim Sasak and the migrant Hindu Balinese on Lombok, an island east of Bali in Indonesia. This attention to the festival is not surprising because governments, political and religious figures, commercial interests, and tourist industries compete to define and benefit from such events worldwide. Since 1983, I have noticed a variety of changes in religious beliefs, ritual personnel and protocol, interreligious relationships, sociocultural identities, founding narratives, and performing arts over time. Once, this festival featured beliefs and performing arts that were localized, neither truly Hindu nor Islamic, and ingrained into the natural, ancestralized environment. However, the festival had to Islamize and Sasakize (that is, become more Sasak) to retain relevance among the Sasak, and had to Hinduize and Balinize to remain relevant among the Balinese. Despite these changes and increasing pressures from reformist organizations, the festival continues; in fact, it has grown in popularity and, by 2019, attracted up to 50,000 people. A tolerance of ambiguity—allowing for changing and contradictory artistic narratives, multiple ritual positions and interpretations, new positionings of interreligious relationships, and deviation from public rhetoric—has been crucial to maintain the Lingsar festival into the 21st century.
Highlights
Multiple forces vie to control the narratives of the Lingsar festival, a major annual event initiated about 350 years ago that uniquely brings together the indigenous Muslim
Sasak and Balinese parties have distinct narratives of the temple’s founding: Balinese hold that Balinese ancestors discovered Lingsar and Sasak believe that a Sasak or Javanese
While in the 1980s the performance program at Lingsar was distinct to the local Balinese and traditions there, it is indistinguishable from most programs at temple festivals on Bali
Summary
Multiple forces vie to control the narratives of the Lingsar festival, a major annual event initiated about 350 years ago that uniquely brings together the indigenous Muslim. Lingsar—and its sacred water springs and festival—has centralized divine powers and fertility, legitimized rule, harmonized ethnicities, and irrigated vast rice fields Today, it reconnects Sasak with their imagined history and expresses contemporary socioreligious identity while it reconfirms local Balinese as peoples of both Lombok and. An event like this festival takes on new or greater significance as it reshapes to meet the challenges of rapid social change resulting from a mélange of global, national, and local forces. These forces destabilize cultural identity and major events, revise or restate and articulate that identity for the benefit of the participating community. A tolerance of ambiguity—allowing for changing and contradictory artistic narratives, a multiplicity of ritual positions and interpretations, and deviation from public rhetoric—has been crucial to maintain the Lingsar festival, the participating communities, and interreligious relationships into the 21st century, and likely contributes to the rising numbers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call