No, I didn’t just fall off the truck from the nut farm (well,
not yet). The crazy headline and, yes, more scary pictures from
me are completely relevant. Since this week’s topic is
festivals, and since you may have noticed, I love anything
cross-cultural, it’s my way of getting your attention as I
explain yet another example of how Indian culture traveled then
morphed into an entirely new – and fascinating – phenomenon.
First, some quick background. Hinduism was already about 3,500
years old when it reached the Indonesian archipelago around the
1st century A.D. By the 4th century, Hindu kingdoms starting
forming in the region, and over the next thousand years, both
Hinduism and Buddhism spread across the islands until they
reached their apex in the 14th century. Soon Islam spread as
well, and eventually, Java, Bali, Sumatra, and their surrounding
islands became the archipelago’s last remaining Hindu footholds.
Today, Hindus make up less than 2% of the Indonesian population.
While ethnic Indians living in Java