Redmill

When we mentioned that we wanted to go to Indonesia a number of people asked if it was safe to travel Indonesia? They had heard from internal disputes and the so called Bali bombings and thought that the country was ruled by fundamentalists. I’m very happy we did persue our wish to meet this fantastic country with fantastic people.

To start with the fundamentalist. Indonesia does have the largest group of islamic people in the world but they are definitely not fanatics. Indonesia has an ancient history of buddhism and hinduism. The peacefulness is deeply rooted in the genes of the people and even though islam has forced itself over the centueries into the indonesian society with a lot of violence, both buddhism and hinduism still have a strong peaceful footprint even within the current islamic indonesians.

The day we arrived in jakarta we found out that this week and next week almost the entire country is celebrating the end of the rammadan, ‘Indul fitri’.  Almost everybody is free, offices and shops are closed, at least those owned by islamic people and  people travel the country to visit their families. With a population of over 240 million people from which 50% is islamic we had expected a harsh regime where it comes to clothing and behaviour but the opposit is true. we see families with three four women, mother, teen daughters, grand mothers andwithin one family the wearing of a scarve differs. Both islamic and non islamic people live, as far as I can see in the street, in perfct harmony together. People travel together, eat together, entertain together. You constantly sense this respect even in a city as crowded as jakarta (16 million people live here).
Yesterday we visited the Burubudur. The Buddist temple was crowded with people. You recognise islamic women and there were lots of them. Funny how they celebrate the end of ramadan by visiting a buddist temple. I talked to many people and what they told me reinforced my first sensing that Indonesian people are very peaceful and will never be fundamentalist. The drop of people embrasing the islam after the bali bombings (75% down to 50%) shows that force and aggression do not work with indonesian people.