Pegayaman villagers welcome Ramadhan

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.