Responding Curiousity

By Yustiwati Angu Bima

My encounter with Stube-HEMAT continued again in Yogyakarta after a long vacuum from activities in Stube-HEMAT Sumba. I take part in Stube-HEMAT, not in Sumba anymore but in Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta. I am Yustiwati Angu Bima, usually called Yusti, from East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT), a Sabu girl who was born and grew on the island of Sumba, and studying from elementary school till finishing college on the same island. Initially I got to know Stube-HEMAT Sumba while studying theology at Theology College of Sumba Christian Church (STT GKS) in Lewa, East Sumba. At that time I joined a handicraft training and journalistic training which I continued to develop the benefits of training during my study and daily life.

Now, I study Postgraduate Theology at Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) Yogyakarta, majoring in Biblical study and having minor study in Peace Building, and now I am still completing my thesis and personal studing at one church in Sumba island related to theory of generation and its impact on peace-building for young people. My other activities are full-time mentors for theology student at campus dormitory and freelance-writers at buset-online.com, one of Indonesia's online magazines in Australia. In pursuing my master degree, I continue to sharpen my writing skills, which makes me competitive in academic quality with other friends who have achieved bachelor's degrees from other famous campuses. Apart from the scholarship, I got an additional allowance to support my study needs by working, and being a writer is one of them.

In Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta training that I participated in from March 6-8, 2020 at Wisma Pojok Indah with a theme ‘Together, Compiling Indonesia" I classified it as an inter-religious activity because it involved participants and facilitators who had different regional and religious backgrounds and this is correlated with peace building that I learned. In one of the exposure sessions, I chose Poncowinatan Temple to get to know Confucians there, to respond my curiousity to visit it. The fact that occurred in the past is known that the discrimination against Chinese ethnic and Confucian beliefs can not be separated from the history of Indonesia at the end of the New Order. But since 1999 Confucianism was recognized by the government as a religion no longer a belief, so since then Confucian believers have been free in worship.

In the context of peace building, Poncowinatan temple is a good example to follow. Besides Confucius, Buddhist and Taoist, the temple is also open to all religious communities to pray to God or the Creator and learn about the history of the temple and Confucians. I also found new knowledge that Confucianism which is closely related with Chinese identity also experienced acculturation, as the main altar is dedicated to Kongco Kwan Tie Koen, usually the main altar gods of each temple is various according to the geographical location of the temple itself. Kongco Kwan Tie Koen is a god or guardian of the South Coast, so the naming and interpretation of the main altar is an effort to contextualize Confucian theology into Javanese culture. In addition, the ceremonies for Confucian’s holy days are often carried out in Javanese context and the names of Gods or Goddesses on each altar are written using Javanese scripts. So as a theologian, I conclude that not only Hinduism, Christianity and Islam did acculturation of their theology, Confucianism and even Buddhism do the same thing as efforts to ‘land’ religious teachings into diversity in Indonesia.

At the end of the training, as a series of internalization and transfer of knowledge, participants were encouraged to design further activities related to Multiculture and interfaith dialogue conducted individually or in group. I and some friends from East Sumba built a commitment to initiate interfaith youth gatherings in East Sumba, especially in Waingapu, so that young people in Waingapu from various religious backgrounds have experience to meet together and to have interfaith dialogue without prejudice.

The experiences that I have found make me appreciate much the activities held by Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta by providing a learning space for students and they are very fortunate to have inter-religious knowledge and experience early as part of peace building. I encourage every student who has been involved in Stube-HEMAT to develop the material obtained into ethical actions of daily life and strengthen the commitment to continue the Stube-HEMAT activities, as a respond of curiousity in all fields, not only the wealth of educational material but also the characteristics of the facilitators and personal performance of the participants. Hail Stube-HEMAT. (Yustiwati Angu Bima).