page_title: Hinduism in Indonesia
section_title: Hinduism in colonial era
hierarchical_section_title: Hinduism in Indonesia / History / Hinduism in colonial era
caption_attribution_description: Aum symbol from Bali
context_page_description: Hinduism in Indonesia, as of the 2010 census, is practised by about 1.7% of the total population, and by more than 83% of the population in Bali. Hinduism is one of the six official religions of Indonesia. Hinduism came to Indonesia in the 1st-century through traders, sailors, scholars and priests. A syncretic fusion of pre-existing Javanese culture and Hindu ideas, that from the 6th-century synthesized Buddhist ideas as well, evolved as the Indonesian version of Hinduism. These ideas continued to develop during the Srivijaya and Majapahit empires. About 1400 CE, these kingdoms were introduced to Islam from coast-based Muslim traders, and thereafter Hinduism mostly vanished from many of the islands of Indonesia.
  In 2010, the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Government of Indonesia estimated that about 10 million Hindus lived on Indonesian islands, in contrast to the 2010 Indonesian official decadal census of over 4 million. The Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia disputed the decadal census methodology, and estimated 18 million Hindus lived in Indonesia in 2005.
  The Bali island in Indonesia has a Hindu majority where the largest number of Hindus living in Indonesia.
context_section_description: Sunni Muslim traders of the Shafi'i fiqh, as well as Sufi Muslim traders from India, Oman and Yemen brought Islam to Indonesia. The earliest known mention of a small Islamic community midst the Hindus of Indonesia is credited to Marco Polo, about 1297 AD, whom he referred to as a new community of Moorish traders in Perlak. Four diverse and contentious Islamic Sultanates emerged in north Sumatra (Aceh), south Sumatra, west and central Java, and in southern Borneo (Kalimantan).
  These Sultanates declared Islam as their state religion and against each other as well as the Hindus and other non-Muslim infidels. In some regions, Indonesian people continued their old beliefs and adopted a syncretic version of Islam. In other cases, Hindus and Buddhists left and concentrated as communities in islands that they could defend. Hindus of western Java, for example, moved to Bali and neighboring small islands. While this era of religious conflict and inter-Sultanate warfare was unfolding, and new power centers were attempting to consolidate regions under their control, European colonialism arrived. The Indonesian archipelago was soon dominated by the Dutch colonial empire. The Dutch colonial empire helped prevent inter-religious conflict, and it slowly began the process of excavating, understanding and preserving Indonesia's ancient Hindu-Buddhist cultural foundations, particularly in Java and western islands of Indonesia.
caption: The Balinese Om symbol
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