Jakarta (Indonesia): In many places of Jakarta and Indonesia, one would expect to see the statue of Sukarno, the founding father of Indonesia. But no; there is the Hindu god Lord Rama and even in some places there are statues of the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati, glowing white and gold.
Why would Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with Hindus accounting for a mere 1.7 per cent, choose Hindu gods. This is the nation’s respect for religious freedom. Indonesia is a secular nation.
Indonesia has the fourth largest Hindu population and the highest numbers of Hindus are from Nepal and Bangladesh. When Indian traders travelled to Indonesia as early as the beginning of the first millenium ce, they took with them the story of the Ramayana as recorded by the Indian poet Valmiki around the seventh century bce. Indonesians loved the epic that expounded human values as well as philosophical concepts.
Thus the story of the Ramayana took on an uniquely Indonesian flavor as it was reconstructed by ancient Indonesian poets and scholars.
According to an article, “The ancient Indonesian scholars were much influenced by Bhatti’s version of the Ramayana, the Ravanavadha (The Slaying of Ravana) or Bhattikavya, as the poem was known.”
The story of Rama has become so immersed in Indonesian culture that some Indonesians do not recognize it has Indian origins. The article explains, “Through the transformations, Rama has become a fully Indonesian hero.
