Online Waisak: Celebrating Discrimination of Indonesian Buddhists
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Abstract
This paper scrutinizes the Waisak celebrations in Indonesia. Ethnographic methodology was conducted by participating the national ritual in 2016 and observing the online live-streaming ceremonies arranged by various Buddhist groups in 2020. It sought to answer (1) how Indonesian government supports and oppresses religions, schools of Buddhism in particular, and (2) when the celebration had been moved to online platform, how the relationship between the state and religion go on. It found that (1) though the discourse of national unity becomes the theme of Waisak festival every year, the celebration does not reflect the unity of different Buddhist organizations as previously claimed. In contrast, the state’s partiality has been marginalizing some Buddhist groups. (2) When the celebration had been moved to online platforms due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the state-supported ritual was canceled, which unintentionally allowed all Buddhist organizations to equally celebrate the Waisak in their personal ways. Religious discrimination was therefore increasing blurred, however, it still exists because religious groups are not free from the state’s gaze, and they seem to perform rituals to satisfy the state policy. Thus, the online space is not separated from the offline world, they are the continuity of spaces used in different times.
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