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Indonesia fixes misspelling of one of its oldest religions
Buddhism was previously spelled on identity cards as "Budha", instead of "Buddha", the correct spelling for the religion in Indonesian.
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After decades, the government has rectified its mistake, correcting the local spelling for Buddhism on ID cards. (Shutterstock/Therd Oval)
A
fter decades, the government has corrected a misspelling of Buddhism, which was previously spelled as "Budha" on identity cards (KTPs) instead of the correct Indonesian spelling of "Buddha".
Buddhism is acknowledged as one of the six official religions in the country. All citizens are required to formally adopt one religion, as ID cards require the mention of one.
The Home Ministry issued on Feb. 6 a letter to announce that its Civil Registry and Population Agency had made the correction.
The vice chairman of the Council of Buddhist Communities (Walubi), Jandi Mukianto, told The Jakarta Post that the Buddhist community had for a long time requested that the government fix the spelling. In its most recent attempt on Dec. 2017, Jandi sent a letter to the Civil Registry and Population Agency and the Religious Affairs Ministry to ask that the change be made.
“The Buddhists are finally getting a proper spelling for our religion on the ID card after a long time,” Jandi said recently.
Jandi also questioned why it took such a long time for the government to fix the misspelling.
“I don’t know whether it was because of the complicated bureaucracy or because there are only a few Buddhists in this country, but it took years to fix the misspelling,” he said.
