Outcry over interfaith prayer
villagers stop hindu-buddhist ceremony citing lack of permit
JAKARTA: Buddhist pandita (priest) Padma Wiradharma was leading an arga tranta (water tribute ritual) during an odalan (village temple ceremony) when a group outside the home started yelling for the event to be stopped and the worshippers to go home.
Padma was performing the ceremony at the home of Utiek Suprapti in Mangir Lor village, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, on Tuesday.
Poice officers from the Pajangan district police precinct, including precinct chief Adj Comr Sri Basariah, arrived and asked the ceremony to be stopped to avoid conflict with the residents
“This is a form of intolerance. We feel traumatised and that our safety was not ensured,” said Padma on Tuesday.
The odalan ceremony was organised by Utiek, the head of the local Padma Buwana Hindu-Buddhist community, to pray for her ancestor Ki Ageng Mangir, a mystical figure who ruled the village during the time of the Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit kingdom.
Utiek said that the ceremony was held every year at the small Hindu temple in the yard of her house, which was built in 2011. She said residents had always resisted it.
“They don’t want this place to exist,” she said, adding that as a descendant of Ki Ageng Mangir she felt duty bound to preserve his teachings.
AB Setiadji, a resident of Kediri who took part in the ceremony, said that on Monday night, local police had summoned Utiek.
Citing the lack of a permit, 100 residents had called on the ceremony to be stopped.
“(The police said) the event had to be cancelled because the public might be hard to control,” Setiadji wrote on a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The organisers decided to continue with the ceremony, but it was stopped partway through after local residents told worshippers to leave.
“The police ... said that the event should be stopped to prevent a riot,” said Setiadji.
Utiek said that she had already submitted a letter informing the Pajangan police that there would be an event at her house with about 50 participants.
Bantul police chief Adj Sr Comr Wachyu Tribudi Sulistyono denied that police had stopped the ceremony.
“We waited until it was finished. Afterwards the police said there were residents who had objections so (we asked) for the event to be sped up or not to be prolonged,” Wachyu said. — The Jakarta Post/ ANN