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Honors for a king's protector
Familial worship: This family temple dedicated to Buddha, Confucius and family ancestors was built in 1977 on the grounds of an original temple, believed to be the first in Karangasem
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span class="inline inline-center">Familial worship: This family temple dedicated to Buddha, Confucius and family ancestors was built in 1977 on the grounds of an original temple, believed to be the first in Karangasem.
When opium merchant Lie Sing Hwat sailed into Singaraja's port he could never have imagined that his descendants would be paying him homage two hundred years later.
Opium trader Lie Sing Hwat, who arrived in 1823 to settle in Bali, is being revered five generations later as the trader's great grandson, Lie Po Liang, and his family prepare to celebrate the anniversary of their family klenteng (temple) and pay respect to their ancestors in the mountainous village of Nongan in Karangasem.
'I am a fifth-generation Indonesian. Family history says my great grandfather came here to Nongan before 1830. He had arrived in Singaraja as an opium trader in 1823 with no plans, no destination. Eventually he was called here by the king of Karangasem to help protect the kingdom's borders. Maybe he had special martial arts skills. We don't know,' says Lie of the border skirmishes between Karangasem and Klungkung kingdoms that were rife at the time, and of the trust placed in his ancestor by the king.
'The stories are all we have left of our history,' says Lie sitting on the verandah of the klenteng dedicated to his ancestors, Buddha and the Confucian beliefs that have continued down his family line over the centuries.
Lie is the temple's guardian. He remained when many Chinese-Indonesians of his village returned to China following World War II, establishing in that country a village named 'Kampung Bali', says Lie.
Now lost to history is the first temple begun by his great grandfather, which was the earliest Confucian temple in Karangasem, believes Lie. This replacement temple with its corrugated iron roof and red paling fence was built in 1977.
Gold and silver prayer papers are being prepared for the upcoming ceremony and dancing in the breeze are bright red Chinese lanterns hanging from the temple's eaves. The gold papers will be burned as offerings to Kwan Kong and Kwan Yin, the silver to family ancestors.
Soon hundreds of extended family members will arrive from Klungkung and Denpasar at this temple to share in the celebrations.
'In the past, before the Reform Era, we were not allowed to use those lanterns. Back then only on our holy days,' says Min Hwa The. Now in her early 50s Min Hwa gives thanks to former Indonesian president, Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid, who repealed the 1967 law banning the public display of Chinese religious and cultural traditions, such as the iconic lanterns.
She adds that as a Balinese of Chinese descent, she follows both Hindu and Confucian rituals. 'Maybe because we live in Bali, over the generations we have adjusted to the culture here, so our temple is a mix of Confucianism, Hinduism and Buddhism,' says Hwa.
Her grandchildren play a game of rounders in the temple's dusty forecourt; like their grandmother they know little of either their family history or the complexities of Confucianism.
'The stories of our family are lost, because they were never told to us as children. As to Confucian beliefs, because we have already adapted to the Balinese religion we offer incense and cakes at the altar. For our ancestors at the family altar we offer cooked foods. We believe that without ancestors, we don't exist, so they are the most important to honor,' says Hwa, who like many Indonesians had her Confucian belief nullified by the New Order in 1979, according to Helen Pausacker of Inside Indonesia. She writes, 'In 2006, Confucianism was again officially recognized as a religion in a Religious Affairs Ministry circular that stated there were six official religions in Indonesia, including Confucianism.'
This loss of religious freedom had its beginnings in the mid 1960s. Few here at the temple are old enough to remember the communist purge of 1965; a blighting period in Indonesian 20th century history when it is alleged hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were killed by militia. These allegations are currently the subject of a People's Tribunal in The Hague.
Even though he was just seven years of age, Lie Po Liang does remember those frightening days. 'The house next door was burned. It had a thatched roof. That family was not in the Indonesian Communist Party [PKI], but it was a very sensitive time and maybe people were jealous or angry at them. I was afraid to go out of the house. I was not allowed by my parents to go out. That sensitive time went on, maybe, for three months,' says Lie adding his village was safer than other areas, perhaps due to its remoteness and nearness to Mount Agung that had erupted so ferociously just two years earlier.
'At night the volcano was not so bright. The sky was raining stones the size of salak [snakefruit] and the ash was centimeters thick morning and night. At night it was very dark. By 6 p.m. you could not go out because it was so dark,' says Lie.
Isolated in his mountain village and busy with preparations for the temple celebrations later this month, Lie and his family seem unaware of calls on the government to apologize to victims and their families of the 1965 massacre that engulfed parts of Indonesia, or the later privations on their rights as Indonesian born citizens.
'Freedom came under Gus Dur. I feel Gus Dur gave freedom to all Indonesians of Chinese descent. He opened the door to celebrate our culture and our religion,' says Lie two centuries after his great grandfather arrived in Indonesia and protected a kingdom.
' Photos by JB Djwan
