The Revival And Influence Of Chinese Indonesian Religious Beliefs In Post Suharto Time

Bintan Island is the seat of Tanjung Pinang,the capital of the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia,and originally belonged to Riau Province,Sumatra.Although far away from Indonesia’s political and economic center,Bintan Island has become a monarchical center since ancient times because of its geographical proximity to Singapore and Johor Bahru,Malaysia.It played an important role as an international trade transit port in the 18th century.It not only left a strong impression in the history of Sultanate of Malacca and Sultanate of Johor,but also left footprints in the history of China’s maritime Silk Road.After the opening of the new sea route,a large number of Chinese immigrants came to Bintan,planting gambir,pepper,and mining tin,thus formed a large settlement scale in Senggarang and Tanjung Pinang.After the Dutch settlers arrived at Bintan Island,the Malay and Buginess people,who had previously dominated the Riau Archipelago,fled one after another,while the ethnic Chinese group chose to stay on the island and continue to use gambir and pepper to communicate with the outside world.In order to protect the interest of the community and prevent piracy,various types of ethnic Chinese secret societies gradually emerged in the river ports and seaports where the ethnic Chinese formed settlements.With the successive opening of Penang and Singapore,the Chinese in Bintan even went north to open up the Singapore-Malaysia region and established a well-established social organization based on the Kang-Chu system.Based on the field visits and expeditions on the existing ethnic Chinese temples in Bintan Island in January 2016,this thesis synthesizes the characteristics of the existing ethnic Chinese temples in Bintan Island based on the collection of relevant oral and newspaper materials to the distribution of temples and Chinese Religious Beliefs.At the same time,it analyzes the historical reasons why the ethnic Chinese temples in Bintan Island are concentrated in the reconstruction and expansion of the post-Suharto period in light of the religious policy background of each period after independence of Indonesia,so as to reflect the revival and spread of the Chinese religious belief.The interaction between temples and local Chinese communities as well as ethnic Chinese leaders and Chinese entrepreneurs are also introduced to emphasize the influence of Chinese temples in the Riau Islands-Singapore-Malaysia Sacrifice Circle and the celebration of God’s and daily donations.In the relevant activities,the formation and consolidation of the above interactive relations are analyzed,and the dynamic scene of Bintan Island Chinese society is presented with the temple as the carrier.Finally,from the perspective of the development of tourism economy,this paper analyzes the development trend of temple culture tourism and the development direction of ethnic Chinese temples in Bintan,and reflects the enhancement of the cultural functions of temples,so as to make inferences about the development of temples in the future.This paper focuses on analyzing the functions of Chinese temples in the post-Soharto era,in perspective of the cross-regional belief community,the collective cultural memory of ethnic Chinese groups,the social capital of Chinese businessmen and ethnic Chinese political leaders,and the heritage of Chinese cultural tourism.On the basis of this small case,this thesis will provide a new perspective for the Chinese temples in Indonesia and the revival of Chinese religious culture in Indonesian and even in Southeast Asian.