Tanah Karo Online [ Tanahkaro!Foundation ]

THE POSITION OF HINDUISM IN karo SOCIETY (NORTH SUMATRA)
Tulisan ini telah diterbitkan dalam buku berjudul 'Hinduism' in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion Between Local, National and Global Interests, Martin Ramstedt (editor), RoutledgeCurzon, 2003: halaman 226-241

This chapter examines the position of Hinduism (Hindu Dharma Indonesia) in Karo society. It argues that Hinduism among the Karo provides a continuation of the pre-colonial ways of life, which were determined by certain relations between people and land. The first section of this chapter analyses these relations between the Karo and their land as well as the relations between the various descent groups. The second section shows how these relationships formed the conceptual basis for religious diversity among the Karo. The third section discusses the position of Hinduism in the present context of religious diversity among the Karo.

Karo land and its people

Karo society appears to its members as a particular society that constitutes relationships between the Karo land and the Karo people. The land of the Malays, the land of the other Batak (Toba, Simalungun), and the Alas of Aceh surround the land of the Karo. The world outside usually sees the Karo as one of the Batak subgroups. But the Karo people see themselves more as a special society consisting of five merga (Ginting, Karo-karo, Perangin-angin, sembiring, and Tarigan) than as a subgroup of the Batak. Merga is a category that encompasses a number of different 'clans' related to each other as Senina (sharing the same bride). The relationship between merga is that of 'bride-taker' (anak beru) to 'bride-giver' (kalimbubu).

Members of different merga may relate to each other as 'sharing the same bride' when they together relate as 'bride-taker' or 'bride-giver' to members of yet another merga. A Karo 'clan' is a patrilineal descent group that forms a unity with the land of a particular urung. The founder of the urung becomes the ancestor of the clan. People that originate from the same urung relate to each other as sembuyak (sharing the same womb). People that originate from different urung may relate to each other as 'sharing the same bride' or as 'bride-taker' and 'bride-giver' but never as 'sharing the same womb'. The land of an urung encompasses a number of different villages. Each of the villages (kuta) was jointly founded by different descent groups originating from four 

different 'clans'. Thus, a village represents a bond of four different urung. The founding descent groups together are called 'the village founder' (simantek kuta). One of the four 'clans' represents the womb of the village (sembuyak), one the 'bridetaker' (anak beru), another the 'bride-giver' (kalimbubu), and the fourth those 'sharing the same bride'.

The land of the urung, however, forms a whole with the 'clan' that founded the urung. It requires one of the four village founding clans to be the same as the one that founded the urung. The 'clan' that founded the urung usually becomes 'the womb of the village'. Occasionally, it may also become the 'bride-taker', the 'bridegiver', or the one representing those 'sharing the same bride'. The clan that founded the urung has a special position in the village. The villagers that belong to this clan are conceived of as a special descent group with a status quite apart from the other village founders. This descent group is called pemena (pioneer) or si lebe merdang (that which starts the planting season of rice). None of the villagers may plant rice in his or her field before this group has performed the ritual planting of the rice.

The special status of the descent group called 'pioneer' (pemena) demands that its members are not to be excluded from the various groups of 'village founder' (simantek kuta). Therefore, the clan that founded the urung always plays a double role in the village. The double role occurs since the 'pioneer' and the 'village founder' represent two different groups that oppose each other. The 'pioneer' refers to the village as a group of farms (barung-barung) developed by particular descent groups that originate in older villages. It conceives of the village as a farming area of older villages. Conversely, the 'village founder' refers to the village as a royal house (rumah) built together by different descent groups that relate to each other through marriage. It conceives of the village as originating in a particular marriage rather than in other villages. According to this, the village is seen as independent from any other village.

From these two perspectives it follows that a village is seen as constituted by the village land and the village house. The village land is represented by a farm owned by a couple that belongs to the founding clan of the urung. All people that inhabit the land are considered as the couple's workers. The couple's patrilineal descendants inherit the ownership of the land and, therefore, they succeed the couple as patrons of the other villagers. The village house is represented by a royal house, which is inhabited by the patron couple and a number of other couples that share the patron couple's bride price. These couples represent the three other 'village founder' descent groups that relate to each other as 'sharing the same bride', 'bridetaker',  and 'bride-giver'. Each of the couples is considered as a 'rich man' (sebayak).

The difference between the village seen as being constituted by its land and the village seen as being constituted by its royal house is the following: in the first case, the couple representing the clan that founded the urung relates to the rest of the villagers as a patron to his clients. In the second case, however, it relates to the rest of the villagers as a rich man to other rich men. Relations among villagers are thus simultaneously structured by notions of equality and inequality. The village land and the village house are, however, complimentary to each other. A village represents a particular piece of land of a certain clan that has become part of the clan's particular urung land. However, a piece of land can only become village land when a village house has been established, in which members of different clans may be considered as people of the same royal house.

Several  royal houses may be built in the same village house, so the village house may encompass several royal houses. The village house itself is part of the village land. The first royal house established within the village house represents the construction of the village house. Yet, the village house itself does not always have to be a building. It may also be an earthen ground where members of different clans relate to each other as people of the same royal house.

The actual construction of a Karo royal house varies as it consists of four, six, eight, twelve, sixteen, and twenty-four sections, each of which represents a clan. In spite of this variation, the four corner sections of a royal house encompass all the other sections. One of the corner sections represents the clan of the chief of the house, and the other corner sections represent the clans of its bride-taker and its bride-giver as well as the clan of those who relate on the same terms to the  chief of the house, the chief's bride-taker, and the chief's bride-giver. The same order is applied to the village house. The village house is built as a royal house within which the four founding clans of the village are represented by the four corner sections of the house. One of them represents the chief of the village founders, etc.

The chief of the village founders may occasionally belong to the clan that relates as bride-taker, bride-giver, or as sharing the same bride to the clan of the pioneers. Hence, the village house relates to the village land as bride-taker, bride-giver, or sharing the same bride. In most cases by far, however, the chief of the village founders belongs to the same clan as the pioneers. Thus, he also belongs to the group of pioneers. In this case, the chief of pioneers and the chief of the village founders relate to each other as the oldest and youngest sons of the same couple. The village land and the village  house relate to each other as those sharing the same womb. A conflict between the two chiefs may cause an epidemic in the village, which then necessitates a war game between the party of the village land and that of the village house. For this ritual, the pioneers may divide themselves into two groups: that which supports the party of the village land and that which supports the party of the village house. The chief of the group that wins the game becomes the village chief until the game is played again when the village is haunted by a new epidemic. Epidemics and war games are thus important factors in the succession of the village chief.

The construction of a fence underlines the distinction of the village house from the village land. It encircles the village house and sets its ground apart from the rest of the village land. Rituals performed on this ground must relate to the four different clans as the sections of the same royal house. Therefore, the participants can be considered as people of the same royal house. A clan may perform its own rituals without the participation of other clans, but only in the part of the village land that lies beyond the space encircled by the fence. Here, a clan may enact its own tradition without considering its relation to another clan. The difference between the village land and the village house can be traced to the village foundation. A village can only be founded in an area that has become the farming land of a certain urung. The couple that built the first farmhouse in a certain place within the boundaries of a certain urung is acknowledged as the pioneer. Other people who then also erected a farmhouse there are considered as the pioneer's workers. At this stage, the village represents a couple's farm. The next stage is building a royal house and a fence encircling its ground. The four corner sections of this royal house represent four clans that relate to each other as the womb, the bride-taker, the bride-giver, and the one sharing the same bride.

The third stage is the integration of the village house into the village land by means of ritual hair washing at the bathing place of the village. There is no larger descent group in Karo society than one whose members are patrilineal descendants of the founder of an urung and whom we call 'clan'. Relations between clans occur only through marriage. Marriage itself, which is called erjabu (having a section in a royal house), implies the inclusion of a couple within a royal house. Therefore, relation by marriage is the same as that between sections of the  same royal house. This relation, however, is irrelevant for the relation to the village land. From the perspective of the relation to village land, the wife and children of a man belong to his clan, whereas from the perspective of the royal house, the husband and children of a woman belong to the wife's section in a royal house.  Relation between the sections is the same as relation between women that own the sections. The difference between village land and village house is applied to the division of Karo land into regions. Karo land is divided into Karo Gugung and Karo Jahe. The Karo Gugung is further divided into four sections: Karo Julu, Karo berneh, Karo Gunung-gunung, and Karo baluren. A divergent meaning of the geographical designations jahe and julu in the sub- egions Karo Julu and Karo Berneh make the geographical division relative and transitive. In Karo Julu, the words jahe and julu respectively mean the downstream and upstream parts of a river. In this perspective the two main regions of Karo land, i.e. Karo Jahe and Karo Gugung, refer to  downstream Karo and Karo highland, and the four sub-regions of Karo Gugung to upstream Karo, Karo lowland, Karo mountainous land, and Karo gorges.

From the perspective of Karo Berneh, however, the words jahe and julu respectively refer to the West and East. Thus, the two main regions are referred to as western Karo and Karo highland; and the four sub-regions of the Karo highland to eastern Karo, Karo lowland, Karo mountainous land, and Karo gorges. An understanding of the cognitive principles of this division is the key to understanding  the transformation of the relationship between Karo clans into the relationship between recently established religious organizations among the Karo. In connection with that, three further points deserve our attention. First, the division of Karo land into two main regions deviates from ethnographical reports on Southeast Asia that for the most part assume the importance of dual oppositions such as those between downstream and upstream, lowland and highland, or between east and west. Second, the two divergent semantic notions of jahe and julu allow no single line to be drawn between the Karo land and its surroundings. The semantic notions of each of the two names are such that each name actually represents different areas. For example, Karo Julu is, according to the notion of the Karo Berneh referring to eastern Karo, a part of which may be considered as being part of Simalungun land. But according to the notion of Karo Julu, it refers to upstream Karo that exclusively belongs to Karo land. This brings us to the third and last point. The difference between the two notions can be traced to two movements progressing along the jahe–julu continuum. The Karo Julu notion refers to the flow of river water and the  Karo Berneh notion to the course of the sun.

Karo land is thus either referred to as a land that is defined by the flow of water or as a land defined by the course of the sun. These two notions concerning how Karo land is defined correspond to the Karo classification of the two divisions within each settlement, i.e. the perlajangen (the domain of bachelors) and the kemulihen (the place of return). Perlajangen refers to the place where a person is not considered as being part of any royal house, whereas kemulihen refers to the place where a person is integrated into a certain royal house. This classification is also applied to the division of Karo land into  Karo Jahe and Karo Gugung. They are called 'the domain of bachelors' and 'the place of return' as well. Some authors assumed this classification to refer to a wave of Karo migration from Karo Gugung to Karo Jahe. On the basis of this assumption, the colonial officers had restricted Karo land to Karo Gugung and had declared Karo Jahe as being part of the territories of Malays of the Langkat, Deli, and Serdang sultanates. They ignored the perception of the Karo themselves, who basically apply this classification to the relational movement between people and  not to the geographical movement of the people themselves. According to the perception of the Karo, a person may be considered as being in a domain of bachelors even though he or she inhabits a village in Karo Gugung. Similarly, a person may be considered as being in a place of return when he or she is visiting his or her royal house of origin in Karo Jahe.

The most important difference between the domain of bachelors and the place of return is the following: in the domain of bachelors, a person is solely associated with his or her clan and therefore may enact his or her own clan's tradition in this area. In the place of return, a person is associated with a  section of a royal house and thus no clan-specific ritual may be carried out there. Hence, Karo Jahe as 'the domain of bachelors' corresponds to the village land, and Karo Gugung as 'the place of return' corresponds to the village house. Therefore, Karo Jahe and Karo Gugung should be seen as  complimentary to each other. Belonging to the place of return, all urung in Karo Gugung are associated with different sebayak (rich men). The sebayak on their part relate to each other as different sections of a royal house. Therefore, every Karo Gugung clan is associated with a certain clan in Karo Jahe. Urung in Karo Jahe are independent from each other, so each of them forms a particular 'nation' that can make its own decisions without any confirmation from another urung. Interdependency arises, though, when an urung in Karo Jahe follows its Karo Gugung counterpart to relate to another Karo Jahe clan as sections of the same royal house.

The two corresponding urung in Karo Jahe and Karo Gugung usually carry the same clan name. They are differentiated from each other by adding the name of their urung to that of the clan. They may relate to each other as sharing the same bride, but never as sharing the same womb. In a relationship with another Karo clan, they point at Karo Gugung as their origin, but in relation to a particular land they point at Karo Jahe as their origin. This suggests that the division of Karo land into the domain of bachelors and the place of return corresponds to the two different aspects of a clan, i.e. its  independent particularity and its interdependency within a larger network of clans. This also applies to the distinction of the pioneers (pemena) from the founders (simantek). The pioneers point at the village as part of an older village, through which it is considered as part of an urung. Conversely, the founders point at the village as a particular bond of different urung, which sets it apart from any other village. The next section will demonstrate how  such a pattern of relationships was established between a religious group called Pemena and another religious group called Hindu Karo.

Religious diversity among the Karo: the perception of Agama
What the Karo mostly perceive as agama today is not much different from what was understood by their grandparents or great grandparents when they had been introduced to the 'first' agama, Christianity, or Agama Kristen. Historians may say that Islam had been introduced prior to Christianity, but we need to take into consideration that the Karo did not know the word agama before Christianity was introduced as an agama simbaru (new religion). Furthermore, the word Islam was not much known among the Karo at that time. What historians use to designate as pre-colonial Islamic groups or Muslims are those who were called 'Jawi' by the Karo. 'Jawi' refers to different groups of people such as the Malays of the east coast of Sumatra or the Acehnese in the north of Sumatra who inhabit a land called Taneh Jawi (Jawi land). Islam, on the other hand, now appears to the Karo as one of several agama. The Karo perceive agama as a kind of universalist belief system that connects people to the global world and does not imply a specific relationship with land. This perception of agama can be traced to what was conceived of by the Karo as kalak Kristen (Christian people). Before the introduction of Christianity, the word kalak (people) was mostly used to indicate a specific relationship between people and land. Kalak Jawi (Jawi people), for instance, could be traced to Taneh Jawi (Jawi land).

The term kalak Kristen, however, is the first expression in which the word kalak is used without indicating a specific relationship between people and  land, since it appeared to the Karo that there is no Christian land. When kalak was later used in kalak Islam (the people of Islam), kalak Hindu (the people of Hinduism), and kalak Buda (the people of Buddhism), it also no longer implied a reference to land.

The Agama Pemena

In 1967, some Karo proclaimed to adhere to Agama Pemena. The name pemena has been introduced above as referring to the village pioneer. Like the clan of the village pioneers, Agama Pemena was conceived of as a specific religion that had come to Karo land before the arrival of any other religion. This definition of Agama Pemena, at least, was announced by an organization named Balai pustaka adat Merga Si Lima (BPAMSL), established in 1967 in Berastagi (Karo highland). It was the purge of Communism that had started off in 1965, after the crush of the so-called Communist putsch (GESTAPU) by the Indonesian military, that had spurred these developments.1 At that time, still over 70 per cent of the Karo had embraced neither Islam nor Christianity. In order to escape the accusation of being a member or sympathizer of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), many either entered the Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP) or officially registered as Muslims. But the majority of the people still refrained from adhering to any of the five recognized agama, i.e. Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The BPAMSL provided these people with an organizational framework as well as protection vis-à-vis accusations of being atheist or Communist. Its leaders  contested the assumption that Karo rituals were animistic, claiming that they were part of a specific agama named Pemena.

The foundation of the BPAMSL took place in the town of Berastagi, accompanied by a specific ritual. The ritual consisted of three stages. At the first stage, the participants made offerings and bathed at lau Debuk-debuk hot spring, cleaning their bodies with special herbs. At the second stage, the participants processed from the Lau Debuk-debuk hot spring to the newly built ceremonial hall of Berastagi, where trance dances were performed. At the third stage, the head of the Karo regency officially installed the BPAMSL board members. That ritual was clearly derived from the rituals accompanying the foundation of a Karo village. The Lau Debuk-debuk hot spring had replaced the village bathing place, which represents the village land, whereas the ceremonial hall of Berastagi corresponded to the village house. The official installation of the board members resembled the third stage of the village foundation ritual by which some men or women are initiated as shamans. One of the shamans becomes the village shaman (locally called guru kuta, literally 'spiritual teachers/leaders of the village') that mediates between the village pioneers and the village founders.

The establishment of the BPAMSL was connected to two main issues, which in the beginning were rather unconnected. One of the issues was concerned with the status of Berastagi as a Karo settlement. The town had originally been a market place that was developed by the Dutch colonial administration. By 1967, the town had grown into a settlement resembling a Karo village, but the inhabitants still had to return to their respective village of origin for performing certain rituals, as the settlement did not possess a royal house. Therefore, it could not be considered a proper Karo village yet. The other issue arose during the preparations for the ritual transformation of the settlement into a proper Karo village. People feared accusations of being Communists should the ritual be performed in the traditional manner. The fear was mainly expressed by those inhabitants who had already converted to Christianity. In response to this, the Karo branch of the Trotskyite Party (Parte Murba) instigated all those Karo who did not adhere to any agama to establish the BPAMSL in order to strengthen the Karo society against foreign influence.

At the time, many likened the condition of Berastagi to the condition of the first Karo settlement ever established in Karo land. Berastagi was already representing a group of people, but there was still no clear relation among the people because the group itself had not yet been integrated with the land. This condition caused a particular problem for the inhabitants. No part of the land could be used as a place for a ritual exchange between different clans, which was crucial for the royal  marriage (erdemu bayu) and royal mortuary rites (nurun-nurun cawir metua). People were, of course, allowed to perform a ritual exchange but only in their village of origin. In this condition, the town was considered more as a group of farms (barungbarung) than as a proper Karo village (kuta). The inhabitants still had to build a royal house before the settlement could be considered a proper kuta.

The Karo perceive of Karo land as originating from a group of farms developed by people who came from various places beyond the boundaries of Karo land. Each of the farms constituted a patron–client relation between the owner  and his workers, which was not yet based on clan differentiation. Karo society came about when a royal house was constructed, after which clan differentiation became important. According to a myth, the autochthonous 'people', called umang,2 built the first Karo royal house as a bride price given by the chief of this 'people' to the chief of Si Pitu Kuta urung. The royal house was a gift of the chief of the umang for his marriage with the daughter of the Si Pitu Kuta urung chief. The wedding was celebrated together with the inauguration of the royal house itself.

After the wedding, the new couple moved to live at the top of Sibuaten Mountain, the highest mountain in Karo land. On the basis of this myth, the Karo direct their offerings to Sibuaten Mountain when they are opening a new farm. The 'pioneer' represents a group of villagers that precede other villagers in their relation with this couple. The couple itself represents an integration of the autochthonous people with the Karo as the allochthonous. It occurred to the people that the ritual transformation of Berastagi into a proper village would represent the return of Karo society to its very early condition, turning the 'founding' ritual into a kind of pilgrimage. This was of great interest not only to the inhabitants of Berastagi, but also to many other Karo living either in other parts of Karo land or beyond. The participation of Karo branches of various Indonesian political parties and the regent of Karo regency in that event contributed not only to the people's trust that Agama Pemena was a legal religion, but also to the people's trust in  the BPAMSL's ability in linking the Pemena to the national state.

The distinction between Adat and Agama
The BPAMSL became at once the largest religious organization in Karo land. Many who had earlier joined the Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP) had left that Church by the late 1960s and now declared themselves to be adherents of Pemena. This made the GBKP aware that the fear of being accused as atheists and thereby as Communists would no longer bring new Karo members to the Church. Therefore, in 1969 new board members of the GBKP launched a new strategy that aimed at rendering the GBKP more attractive to the Karo. In order to understand this new strategy, it is helpful to recall the main stages of the historical development of the GBKP in Karo land. During the colonial period, Christians appeared to the Karo as people belonging to a foreign society.

At the time, the Dutch Missionary Society (NZG) had established itself in Karo land in order to introduce Christianity to the Karo. The name Gereja Karo (Karo Church) used by the NZG's first church in Karo land designated more a field to which missionary activity was directed on the part of the NZG than a church owned by the Karo. During the Japanese occupation, newly baptized Karo Christians established the Gereja Batak Karo Protestan (GBKP) as an independent Church. At the time of the first and second Dutch political actions (1947–9), the GBKP joined the Dutch by supporting the Federal State of East Sumatra, while most of the Karo supported the national state led by Sukarno. In 1949, the victory of the national state over all the Dutch-supported federal states caused some difficulty for the GBKP. As it had supported the federal state, most Karo accused the Church of being a 'traitor'. The GBKP tried to change this image by adapting itself to Karo society. To this end, it discriminated between secular and religious principles in Karo society. Classifying so-called adat (custom, tradition) practices in the secular domain of Karo society, the GBKP determined kiniteken (belief, trust) as the religious sphere. Based on this classification, the GBKP allowed its members to participate in the adat practices of Karo society, but prohibited them to participate in matters of kiniteken.

In the mid-1960s, the GBKP's discrimination between secular and religious, i.e. adat and kiniteken, spheres of society became a subject of conflict among the Karo. After an increase in membership in 1966, the GBKP tried to apply its concept of separate spheres to the Karo village. Using the power of the government and its fear of GESTAPU activities, the GBKP started to isolate aspects of kiniteken from the Karo village, reducing the village to just a matter of adat. This strategy evoked resistance and eventually led to the establishment of the BPAMSL in 1967.

The BPAMSL induced non-Christian Karo to combat the GBKP's attempt to secularize the village. In the name of Pemena, non-Christian Karo banned members of the GBKP from participating in the establishment of a village house, causing them to lose their access to the village land.3 This aroused fear among the GBKP  members, leading many to abandon the Church in favour of Pemena. The GBKP's new strategy handled the distinction of adat and kiniteken more clearly and precisely. In the first instance, the GBKP suggested the separation of the Church from the village as belonging to a different society, and, in the second instance, it spurred its members to participate in both societies, i.e. the Christian and the Karo society. This strategy not only seemed to satisfy the GKBP's own members, but also to the adherents of Pemena. The latter were now more willing to isolate kiniteken aspects in village rituals. Thus, Christians could experience and participate in them as a matter of adat.

A general consensus about adat and kiniteken

The tolerance shown by the adherents of Pemena resulted in a general consensus about the continuity of Karo society on the basis of religious diversity. The consensus  entailed the acceptance of the concept that Karo society is constituted by adat and kiniteken. Adat referred to a social institution that unites the society with the land, whereas kiniteken referred to another institution that integrates the society into a specific order of the universe. This allowed people to affiliate with Karo society in terms of adat and with another society in terms of kiniteken. This discrimination between two societies or social groups, however, was not a new invention by the GBKP. It can be traced back to the relationship between the different Karo clans. As I have mentioned above, all Karo clans are grouped into five merga (Ginting, Karo-karo, Perangin- angin, Sembiring, Tarigan). People belonging to the same  clan relate to each other as sharing the same womb. People belonging to different clans either relate each to other as sharing the same bride, as bride-taker, or as bride-giver. Membership in one of the five merga and engaging in the kind of relations implied by the traditional patterns of social communication among the Karo do not mean that a Karo cannot also be part of another society. All Karo clans,  in fact, trace their origin to another society. In doing so, each Karo clan represents another society that differs from Karo society.

The distinction of the village house from the village land corresponds to the alliance of each of the Karo clans with two different societies. With regard to the village land, a clan may act as a specific society that differs from Karo society. With regard to the village house, a clan should act as part of Karo society by pointing to a royal house as its origin. The same conceptual pattern was applied to the various kiniteken or agama. Adherents of any agama may act as a specific society apart from Karo society, but only on the village land. Within the boundaries of the village house all adherents of any agama are part of the village house in which every new relation should adapt to the relationship between the four founding clans of the village.

The general consensus allowed Pemena a position equal to other agama. But it had not given Pemena a superior position vis-à-vis the other agama, equivalent to the status of the clan of the pioneers compared to that of the other clans. A widespread desire for such religious superiority seemed to open a way for Hinduism, which was perceived by the Karo as being Pemena's counterpart.

The rise of Hinduism among the Karo

From 1972 onwards, many Karo who had openly declared themselves as adherents of Pemena began to officially register as Hindus, owing to the fact that the BPAMSL was transformed into the Association of Karo Hinduism (PAHK), after the government party (Golkar) had won the general elections of 1972. When the New Order government had frozen all the activities of the Trotskyite Party a few months before the general elections of 1972, the BPAMSL faced an organizational crisis. Many important figures in the BPAMSL had joined the government party and had officially declared  themselves as adherents of Islam. Also the chairman of the BPAMSL, who had been an influential politician in the Karo branch of the Trotskyite Party, had joined Golkar and had officially become a Muslim.

During the campaign for the general election of 1972, he had declared the BPAMSL to be a mass organization of Golkar and had demanded that its members support the Golkar campaign in Karo land. Djamin Ginting, the founder of Gakari, the most important national organization of Golkar at that time, had led these campaigns.4 This caused a split of the BPAMSL into two factions, as most of the other board members of the BPAMSL had been members of the Indonesian National Party (PNI). The leaders of the Karo branch of the PNI had mostly been ex-members of the Karo Folk Army called Pasukan Hililintar ('The Thunder Troop'). In the period 1947–9, they  had fought a guerrilla war against the Dutch occupation of Karo land. The leader of this guerrilla troop, Selamat Ginting, had been known to be a fierce opponent of Djamin Ginting in their combats against the Dutch occupation. Now in politics, Selamat Ginting was a PNI leader of national format and Djamin Ginting a main figure within Golkar.

The split of the BPAMSL had stifled its activities. Many Karo shamans continued to perform the Pemena rituals, but no longer under the authority ofthe BPAMSL. At this time, sympathy for and the membership of the Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP) began to increase.

The status of Pemena as a legal agama became threatened since most of the governmental officials and schoolteachers in Karo land were Christians or Muslims. Unofficially, people were required to fill in adherence to one of the five nationally recognized agama (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) in school forms, identity cards, and diplomas. Pemena was not included in the list of agama, because it was usually just seen as kepercayaan (belief). The only way to answer the question of agama was thus to fill in the answer tidak beragama (without religion).

Fear of being accused of GESTAPU activities again increased among those Karo that adhered to none of the five agama, heightened by the fact that the New Order government began to hunt down the so-called 'PKI remainders' (sisa-sisa PKI) in order to put them into jail. Fortunately, on a Sunday, Brahma Putro (the pseudonym of K.S. Brahmana, a Karo of the Brahmana clan) invited some ex-board members of the BPAMSL to have lunch at a luxurious restaurant in Berastagi. He was joined by a rich man of the Indian community of Medan who owned one of the largest schools in the capital of North Sumatra. Brahma Putro happened to be the director of that school.

A discussion took place after lunch that started with the question about the origin of Pemena. The discussion eventually reached the conclusion that Pemena  originated from Indian Hinduism, more specifically in the teachings of Bagavan Br.gu. The conclusion was based on the following assumptions: first, the fact that the names of some Karo clans such as Brahmana, Cholia, Meliala, and Pandia originated from Indian words suggested an Indian contribution to Karo society and culture. Second, a resemblance of some of the Karo rituals performed by the adherents of Pemena with certain Hindu rituals convinced the participants of the discussion that Pemena originated from Hinduism. Third, the name Perbegu, by which Pemena was referred to before Christians and Muslims interpreted it as 'the people of begu (ghost)', seemed to indicate the name of its Indian founder, Bagavan Br.gu (Brahma Putro 1981).

Thus, the discussion in Berastagi became the starting point for promoting Pemena as a branch of Hinduism. On the very same day, the Association of Karo Hinduism (PAHK) was established. Most board members of the BPAMSL – excluding, of course, the chairman of the BPAMSL, who supported Golkar and had become a Muslim – became the board members of the PAHK. Brahma Putro received some money from the rich Indian to write a book on Karo history in order to 'scientifically' elaborate on the way in which Pemena comprises a branch of Indian Hinduism.5 Furthermore, the Indian community of Medan donated money to the PAHK in order to transform all BPAMSL branches into PAHK branches. A few months later, the ex-secretary of BPAMSL, Adhata Bukit, was appointed as the second vice-chairman of the provincial office of the Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI). A Karo journalist, Moksa Ginting, was sent to Jakarta in order to learn more about Indonesian Hinduism. Moreover, the PAHK launched a campaign under the slogan 'Hinduism and Pemena are the same', assuring people that an adherent of Pemena does not have to learn and practise new rituals in order to become a Hindu because all Pemena rituals are already Hindu.

In 1985, the provincial office of the PHDI incorporated Karo Hinduism into a new sub-section called Parisada Hindu Dharma Karo (PHDK). It immediately became the largest sub-division of the PHDI after that of bali. The PHDI claimed to have 50,000 Karo members and about 50,000 Karo sympathizers.

Karo Hinduism versus Hindu Dharma Indonesia

The establishment of the PHDK in 1985 was actually the climax of Karo enthusiasm for Hinduism. It was accompanied by the inauguration of the first Karo Hindu temple in the village of Tanjung (Karo highland). This temple was built in Balinese style under the supervision of a Balinese Brahmin priest (pedanda).

The inauguration ritual was performed according to what the PHDI claimed to be the correct Indonesian Hindu Dharma ritual. At the same time, the  PHDI made it clear to its Karo members that only Hindu Dharma was true Indonesian Hinduism, and that only those rituals taught by the PHDI could be performed as true Indonesian Hindu rituals. This statement totally bypassed the much-publicized assumption that Karo rituals would originate from   India. Surprisingly, the PHDI classified Pemena rituals as 'animistic' and suggested that adherents of Pemena learn the Hindu Dharma rituals. Thus, all of the sudden, the PHDI took the same stance as the Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP) towards Pemena.

This caused a considerable decrease in the popularity of Hinduism among the Karo. Many people who had officially registered as Hindu in 1985 no longer liked to participate in Hindu activities. They continued to practise the Pemena rituals, which they now called cara-cara sindekah (the old ways). Sometimes, they referred to themselves as kalak pemena (the people of pemena) or permerga si lima (part of the five (Karo) clans). Besides, they no longer made a clear distinction between pemena as referring to the group of village pioneers and Pemena as referring to a religious group. These people were in general shamans (locally called guru). Some of them established various 'non-religious' organizations that have aimed at continuing the traditional knowledge of Karo society, such as the Persatuan Pengobatan Tradisional Karo (The Association of Karo Traditional Healing) or the Arisen Perjenujung deleng Sibayak (The Co-operation of Shamans Whose Spiritual Partner Originates from Sibayak Mountain). Others entered one of the Churches established in Karo land, such as the Karo Batak Protestant Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Pentecostal Church, and the Adventist Church, or embraced Islam.

Several Karo have continued their membership in the Parisada Hindu Dharma Karo (PHDK), though. The PHDK has also attracted new members, both from the younger and the older generations. Its members now congregate in four Hindu temples, built in Balinese style and located in various Karo villages. It is only in these villages that Karo still adhere to Hinduism. But there, too, Hinduism is on the decrease. Most of the young Karo who do not live in these villages have never heard about the Parisada Hindu Dharma Karo. Even many Karo who in 1985 participated in the inauguration of the first PHDI temple in Karo land, have forgotten that at the very same event the PHDK was established. Whereas the PHDI considered the founding of the PHDK as an auspicious beginning for the rise of Hindu Dharma among the Karo, the members of the PHDK themselves saw it as the final stage in the process of having Pemena officially recognized as agama. As has been described above, the BPAMSL had aimed at raising the status of Pemena to the equivalent of being the 'pioneer in the planting of rice' amongst all the recognized religions. To this end, the BPAMSL had associated itself with a royal house during the founding ritual that transformed  Berastagi into a proper Karo village. Like the village house representing a bond of different clans, the BPAMSL represented an institution through which Pemena could relate to all the other agama as 'pioneer'.

This strategy was informed by the basic relation between Karo land and its people, on the one hand, and the distinction between kiniteken and adat, on the other hand. It referred to the religions adhered to by the Karo as representing different societies that originated elsewhere beyond Karo land. Like a clan, every religious organization must be allowed to practise its own tradition everywhere outside the boundaries of the village house. Within the village house, each of them must pay due respect to the local bond of the Karo clans as structured by the village foundation. The GBKP and other religious organizations might see the founding of a village as belonging to the secular sphere of Karo society, but the adherents of Pemena would perceive it as the society itself. The model proposed by the BPAMSL is not new to the Karo. The same model has, since colonial times, informed the construction of religious buildings such as mosques or churches outside the boundaries of the village house. This has even occurred in villages like Bukit (Karo highland), where almost 100 per cent of the inhabitants are members of the GBKP.

The aspiration of the BPAMSL to provide something like the 'village house' for the various religious organizations present in Karo land was already indicated in its name, Balai Pustaka Adat Merga Si Lima. Balai (house of council, or meeting place) referred to its function as a meeting place, equivalent to the village house. Pustaka (Karo bark book, or holy book) referred to the 'holy books' of Pemena and the other religions. Adat in this  context was understood as all matters pertaining to the relations between different clans. Merga si lima (the five merga) was another name for Karo society, referring to the grouping of all the Karo clans into five merga. Thus, the name of the BPAMSL indicated that it would represent Karo society by linking the different agama adhered to by the Karo and thereby integrating them with the Karo land. It admonished all Karo to maintain social unity in spite of their different worldviews, offering itself to the Karo as a royal house that mediates between the various religious organizations.

However, the founding ritual performed in 1967 in order to transform Berastagi into a proper village was thought to be incomplete. According to the participants, the transformation of Berastagi into a proper village would only be achieved after the founding ritual had been performed seven times, i.e. annually over a period of seven years. People hoped to perform the ritual for the seventh time in 1973. Unfortunately in 1972, the BPAMSL experienced a crisis after the government had frozen all activities of the Trotskyite Party, and hence it was unable to  organize the seventh performance of the founding ritual. That signified to the people that the BPAMSL had not yet acquired full status as a royal house, implying that Pemena could not yet aspire to the status of 'pioneer' amongst all the other religions.

The transformation of the BPAMSL into the Association of Karo Hinduism (PAHK) in 1972 brought new hope to those who wanted to establish Pemena as the pioneer religion in Karo land. Considering Pemena to be equivalent to the village pioneer and Hinduism to correspond to the chief of the village founders  and thus to Pemena's younger brother, the adherents of Pemena could embrace Hinduism. A new problem arose when the Balinese community of Medan began to dominate the board members of the North Sumatran branch of the PHDI, replacing the Tamil community of Medan in this capacity. The new board members agreed to acknowledge Pemena as Karo Hinduism, but only after the name of the Persatuan Agama Hindu Karo (PAHK) had been changed into Parisada Hindu Dharma Karo (PHDK). The change of name implied that Karo Hinduism would have to become 'proper' Hindu Dharma. At that time, neither the adherents of Pemena nor the board members of the PAHK had any idea that this would lead to a strict separation of Hindu Dharma rituals from Pemena rituals, as is the case today.

Instead, they thought that the foundation of the PHDK in 1985 signified the last stage in the process of establishing Pemena as the pioneer among the other religions adhered to by the Karo. They did not have a clear concept of agama yet, since kiniteken (belief) refers to matters of agama as well as adat.

Conclusion
This chapter showed that adherence to Hinduism among the Karo strongly depends on their attachment to Pemena. The recent board members of the North Sumatran branch of the PHDI, however, who are in general Balinese, ignore this. They seem to have the opinion that Pemena rituals are animistic and therefore deviate from the monotheistic principle of the Indonesian Hindu Dharma. Thus, they do not accept that Pemena rituals are endorsed by the Parisada Hindu Dharma Karo. This has made Hinduism far less attractive to the Karo. In my opinion, the North Sumatran branch of the PHDI should study the recent success of the Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP), if it wants to regain the former interest of the Karo in Hindu Dharma. The GBKP had always lost many members when denigrating Pemena. But since it began to pay more respect to all Karo rituals, it has become the largest religious organization in Karo land.

Pemena seems to be the hidden power in Karo society. In spite of the openness of the Karo to the outside world, the powerful hidden structuration of their society has always caused strong reactions against any new category that threatens the foundations of Karo society defined by its relation to the land. The GBKP has obtained the position as the most dominant religious organization among the Karo since it has presented itself as one among other religions adhered to by the Karo that pays respect, like a clan in a village, to the spirit of the local land.  Moreover, some of the activities of the  GBKP appear to the Karo as aiming at the protection of Karo traditional practices that are classified as kinitiken by the GBKP itself. The PHDI would have to emulate the recent policy of the GBKP in order to regain some of its former status among the Karo.

Notes
1. See also M. Ramstedt's introduction to this volume.
2.  The Karo perceive umang as 'half human, half spirit'. Umang are thought to have inhabited the Karo land before the Karo.
3. Access to the village land is, for instance, acquired through a royal death ritual. As members of the GBKP were not allowed to perform this ritual, their bodies could not be buried in the village graveyard.
4. Djamin Ginting was a Karo who, after the GESTAPU of 1965, had held the highest rank in the Indonesian National Army before Suharto made himself a five-star general (jenderal berbintang lima) in 1966.
5.  The book was published in 1981 under the title Karo Dari Jaman ke Jaman (Karo from Era to Era) (see Brahma Putro 1981).

Bibliography
Brahma Putro (1981) Karo Dari Jaman ke Jaman, Medan: Yayasan Masa.
Ginting, J.R. (1986) Pandangan tentang gangguan jiwa dan penanggulangannya secara tradisional pada masyarakat Karo, Medan: Unpublished examination paper at the Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sumatra Utara (1991) 'Pa Surdam, A Karo Batak Guru', in: Achim Sibeth The Batak:  Peoples of the Island of Sumatra, London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 85 - 98.

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