Buddhism in Indonesia: A Study of Multiple Revivals

n Buddhism in Indonesia: A Study of Multiple Revivals, Roberto Rizzo reveals how Buddhism rose, developed, and survived in Indonesia, despite the domination of Islam and Christianity.The revivals to which the subtitle refers are the processes of Buddhism's integrating traditional teaching with local community practices.The book leads us to see Indonesian Buddhism as not just a religion inherited from the past, but a living phenomenon that continues to develop, taking various forms in village communities and large cities.Rizzo explains the significance of the role of young Buddhists in the Surjosari and Temanggung areas and provides ethnographic data on the integration of Buddhist and local culture.By emphasizing plurality, he provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles Buddhism plays in people's lives as spaces for social exchange, identity formation, and economic activity.Rizzo's introduction provides a relatively long description of the history of the development of Buddhism in Java.Rizzo portrays the history of Buddhism in this part of Southeast Asia as continuous.Its foundation was laid by two large kingdoms, Sriwijaya and Majapahit (16), which once made Buddhism a crucial part of the Indonesian social and political order.However, this narrative is now often drowned out by more recent Islamic and Christian Indonesian historical narratives.For Rizzo, Buddhism survives, whether in the form of cultural heritage or current religious practice.In chapter one, Rizzo focuses on Buddhism's second revival in Surjosari, which followed a period of decline after the fall of the Sriwijaya kingdom.The first revival occurred when Mahayana Buddhism spread across Java in the seventh to tenth centuries, but waned with the rise of Hinduism and Islam.Chapter two describes Buddhism in Surjosari as a form of resistance to the homogenization of Islamic culture and religion (46).Buddhism in Surjosari blends with local traditions, creating a more Javanese Buddhism.This awakening involves community activities that strengthen social solidarity.Buddhism thus becomes part of a regional identity that persists amidst social fragmentation.This chapter is essential for understanding how the integral religious factor and local social-political dynamics influenced the revival of Buddhism.That said, the chapter could use more attention to the potential for conflict between Buddhism and aspects of local culture, as discussed in Parker Gumucio (2008), or the specifics of this conflict examined in Ricklefs (2012).Chapter three treats the revival of Buddhism in the mountains of Java in various forms.Here, Buddhism often interacts with local beliefs, creating an inclusive religiosity not tied to any one teaching.This chapter also highlights the role of youth in Buddhist revival, allied to efforts to preserve aspects of Javanese cultural identity threatened by modernity and Islamization.Younger generations are using Buddhism to fight for their