Police officers, including Pajangan Police chief Adj. Comr. Sri Basariah, arrived and demanded that the ceremony be stopped to avoid conflict with the residents. 

“This is a form of intolerance. We feel traumatized and our safety was not ensured,” Padma told reporters on Tuesday. The odalan ceremony was organized by Utiek, the head of the local Padma Buwana Hindu-Buddhist community, to pray for her ancestor Ki Ageng Mangir, a mystical figure who ruled the village during the time of the Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit kingdom. 

Utiek said that the ceremony was held every year at the small Hindu temple in the yard of her house, which was built in 2011. She said residents had always resisted it. 

“They don’t want this place to exist,” she said, adding that as a descendant of Ki Ageng Mangir she felt duty bound to preserve his teachings. 

AB Setiadji, a resident of Kediri in East Java, who took part in the ceremony because of his interest in Ki Ageng Mangir, said that late Monday night, local police had summoned Utiek. Citing the lack of a permit, 100 residents had called on the ceremony to be stopped.

“[The police said] the event had to be canceled because the public might be hard to control,” Setiadji wrote on a Facebook post on Tuesday.

The organizers decided to continue with the ceremony, but it was stopped partway through after local residents told worshippers to leave.

“The police acted as the spokespeople of the residents who rejected the ceremony, saying that the event should be stopped to prevent a riot,” Setiadji told the Post.

Utiek said that she had already submitted a letter informing the Pajangan police that there would be an event at her house with about 50 participants.

Bantul police chief Adj. Sr. Comr.  Wachyu Tribudi Sulistyono denied that police had stopped the ceremony.

“We waited until it was finished. Afterwards the police said there were residents who had objections so [we asked] for the event to be sped up or not to be prolonged,” Wachyu said.

He also questioned the legality of the Padma Buwana community that Utiek headed. 

A 2006 joint ministerial regulation requires local resident approval for the construction of any new place of worship. This often becomes an issue when minority religious communities seek to build temples, churches or mosques in areas where residents are predominantly of another faith.

This is not the first case of religious intolerance in Bantul.

In July, residents of Sedayu district protested the operation of Indonesia Pentecostal Church (GPdI) Immanuel Sedayu, despite the church already receiving a permit from the regency administration. Previously, in April, a Christian man was told he could not move into a house he rented in Karet village because a village regulation banned non-Muslims from becoming residents.

Last October, a group of people vandalized the site of a sedekah laut (ocean offering) ceremony in Pantai Baru, resulting in nine arrests.

In January 2017, a group of residents asked the Bantul regent to cancel the appointment of Yulius Suharta, a Catholic, as Pajangan district head.

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