Pegayaman villagers welcome Ramadhan

Metriani, Contributor, Buleleng, North Bali

Pegayaman village in Buleleng regency, North Bali, is not physically different from other hamlets in Bali.

Entering the village, visitors pass through a gate built in the form of a candi bentar -- a split gate ornamented with refined stone carvings.

If you are coming from Bali's provincial capital of Denpasar, you will have to pass through Pancasari village in the Bedugul resort area, down through Sukasada village in Buleleng regency. The overall distance is 80 kilometers north from Denpasar.

But unlike other villages in Bali, Pegayaman is a Muslim village and one of the largest of its kind on the island. You will find dozens of mushalla (small mosques) in the village instead of pura (Hindu temples), which attract hundreds of men especially during Ramadhan.

Like other Muslims around the world, the villagers of Pegayaman are fasting during the holy month.

With about 900 families, the village comes alive during the holy month with various religious activities.

"Ramadhan is regarded as the most important month for us. It is a month full of God's blessing and forgiveness. Everybody in the village is involved in prayers, Koran recitals and other good deeds," said Wayan Abdullah, a religious teacher.

In Pegayaman, the holy month is usually observed with a series of customary rituals. A day before Ramadhan, villagers sent trays of food (called rowahan) to ulemas, relatives and close neighbors.

At night, the majority of the male villagers perform medurus, or Koran recitals, after performing the tarawih, the Ramadhan evening prayer.

Women are never involved in prayers at the mosque, instead they pray at a local or family mushalla.

The men usually perform the tarawih at about 10 p.m. and extend it with the medurus until sahur, or the predawn breakfast, at 3 a.m.

Every family voluntarily send trays of food to the men who stay at the mosque. Women usually recite the Koran at home and prepare meals for their families.

These religious and social activities will continue until Idul Fitri, which falls on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26 this year.

The first day of Idul Fitri marks the end of Ramadhan. As with other Muslims, the people of Pegayaman hold the Shalat Ied (Idul Fitri prayer) to mark the start of Idul Fitri.

Mothers and daughters will prepare food, sending some to ulemas, family members and neighbors early in the morning before Shalat Ied.

Afterward, men will pray at the mosque while the women wait at their family mushalla.

The people of Pegayaman have successfully preserved their traditions and religion for hundreds of years while living among the Balinese Hindu community.

Bali is home to thousands of Muslims who originally came from East Java and Madura island, as well as the Bugis people from South Sulawesi. They have lived side by side with their Hindu neighbors for centuries.

"Our ancestors lived here for more than two hundred years and we have kept our Islamic traditions alive," Wayan Abdullah said.

No one knows when exactly the people of Pegayaman came to Bali. There is no written historical evidence and little information on the origins of this particular Muslim community. But a number of scholars like American Clifford Geertz and Indonesian Erni Budianti have mentioned the village in their work.

Budianti wrote a doctoral thesis about Pegayaman which was later published as a book titled The Crescent Behind the Thousand Holy Temples: An Ethnographic Study of the Minority Muslims of Pegayaman North Bali.

The history of Pegayaman is passed on from one generation to the next through folklore and tales told by parents to their children and religious teachers to their students.

According to the story, the Muslims of Pegayaman originally came from Blambangan, East Java. It is said that during the early 17th century, King Panji Sakti of the Buleleng kingdom waged a fierce battle with Mengwi kingdom in the southern part of Bali.

The Mengwi troops were too strong for the Buleleng king, so to defend his territory King Panji Sakti sought military support from the ruler of Blambangan, East Java, with whom he had a good relationship.

With this military assistance, Panji Sakti regained control of his kingdom and awarded the area from Pegayaman to Pancasari to the Blambangan soldiers.

"I am very proud that our forefathers helped the king of Buleleng keep his kingdom," commented I Nyoman Ali, a local farmer.

Budianti said the historical account of their ancestors created a strong cultural and religious identity among the residents of Pegayaman. She theorized that this identity helped in the preservation of Islamic religion and culture in the village.

"I am a Balinese who follows Islam as my ancestors did. Most of us in the village feel that we are real Balinese because we do not speak Javanese," Ali said.

The Muslims of Pegayaman identify themselves as Balinese who are Muslims (Nak Bali Selam). They speak Balinese and many of the men have married indigenous women who converted to Islam.

Most people in Pegayaman have Balinese names that convey the rank of birth, such as Wayan for the first child, Made for the second child, Nyoman for the third and Ketut for the fourth. Yet they do not use Hindu names after their first names, but Islamic names such as Abdullah, Ali and Syaifuddin for males, and Siti and Aisyah for females.

On the other hand, the local Balinese still regard the people of Pegayaman, like other Muslims in Bali such as the Bugis and Javanese, as Nyama Selam. Nyama means brother or relative, Selam means Islam or Muslim.

"We (the people of Pegayaman and indigenous Balinese) are brothers and we respect each other's religion and culture. That's why we are able to maintain harmony here," Abdullah said.