Chapter 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia

Transcription

1 Chapter 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia Chad F. Emmett 63.1 Introduction The varied religious landscape of Java is a testament to Indonesia s rich religious history. On the plains of Central Java that surround tempestuous Mount Merapi, the magnificent Hindu temple of Prambanan and Buddhist temple of Borobudur stand as silent reminders of the first post-animist religions to reach the fabled Spice Islands. On the northern coast of Java, the Grand Mosque at Demak and the Protestant church in old town Semarang represent some of the first places of worship established for Muslims and Christians. In Surakarta (Solo), a much later addition to the landscape is the first chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (Mormon) to be built in Indonesia (Fig ). From Hinduism to Mormonism, migrants and missionaries were certainly part of the process, but merchants also played a key role. Often times it was pious merchants, willing to share their beliefs, who first paved the way for later, more formalized forays from the likes of Brahmans, Sufis, and Jesuits. These merchants brought about religious change through example, teachings, marriage and perceived or real opportunities. Their efforts, intentional or not, were not centrally coordinated. They seemed to just happen as part of the trading process. Not all merchants were missionary minded. In some cases the bad examples of certain traders proved to be a negative influence which turned locals away for the incoming religion. A merchant is generally defined as a person involved in trade or commerce. For most of the early merchants, that trade was primarily in spices, followed later by other commodities, such as tea, coffee, and rubber. In the case of this article, and in particular with the late coming Mormons, that trade will also include intangible commodities of expertise, education and entertainment. C.F. Emmett (*) Department of Geography, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA chad_emmett@byu.edu Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 S.D. Brunn (ed.), The Changing World Religion Map, DOI / _

2 1190 C.F. Emmett Fig In 1986, after years of meeting in home-churches, the first LDS Church in Indonesia was built in Surakarta. This chapel houses two of the four LDS congregations (wards) of Solo (Photo by Chad F. Emmett) Indonesia is noted as the country in the world with the largest population of Muslims. While Muslims make up approximately 85 % of the population, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism are also all officially recognized religions. 1 The coming of these religions to Indonesia provides an excellent example of the lasting impact of the various types of religious diffusion. Relocation diffusion involves the planting of a religion in a new area and is usually undertaken with deliberate intent by either migrants seeking religious freedom or missionaries seeking converts. In other instances relocation diffusion is not deliberate and can happen incidental to the purpose of the move. It can also be temporary (Park 1994 : ). Merchant missionaries in Indonesia most often fall in the non-deliberate category. Diffusion can also occur via expansion diffusion in which a religion spreads within the same area. This can happen via hierarchical diffusion 1 When Indonesia declared its independence in 1945 one faction wanted to create a state based on Islamic law. Another faction led by Sukarno and other nationalists was more pragmatic. They realized that because of the rich religious history of the islands (thanks to the many merchant missionaries), no one religion should dominate. This means, for example, that it is legal for Christian missionaries to teach Muslims and for Muslims to change religion. Legalities aside, religious minorities in Indonesia still have difficulties, including the silencing of Ahmadiyyas and the burning and bombing of Christian churches (Harsono 2012 ). Many Christian congregations are finding it difficult to gain permission to build new churches. In the Jakarta suburbs of Bekasi and Tanggerang, LDS congregations, like many other Christian congregations, have not been able to secure multi-level bureaucratic permissions to build a typical chapel and so the congregations meet in renovated store/homes ( ruko ) hidden in the remote reaches of strip malls (Emmett 2009 ).

3 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1191 where important rulers and leaders convert first or via contagious or contact diffusion where the process happens at a more intimate level via everyday contacts with family, friends and neighbors. Conversion through intermarriage is a part of this process (Park 1994 : 100; Sopher 1967 : 89). This chapter will focus on the role played by merchants in spreading religions to Indonesia. Some of these merchants came for just a season, while others came to stay and to even marry. Most were not concerned about spreading religion, but it happened nonetheless through their example, their discussions and their everyday interactions. In some instances merchants were quite deliberate in their efforts to proselytize as they shared their beliefs with top leaders and next door neighbors. Historical records, as noted below, are non-existent on the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism and very limited on the spread of Islam. Examples from more recent eras, particularly among Christians, give dialogue and description to a diffusion process that in many ways has probably not changed much over the centuries Hinduism and Buddhism Little is known about the arrival of Hinduism to the archipelago of Indonesia other than the fact that it is thought to have been introduced to Indonesia at the beginning of the first millennium through trade contacts with India (Proudfoot 1998a : 42). It is a similar story for Buddhism, which spread throughout Southeast Asia alongside Hinduism. The first know recorded mention of Buddhist merchants in maritime Southeast Asia are found in fifth century inscriptions (Proudfoot 1998b : 50). The process by which these traders introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to Indonesia is not known. In his book The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, G. Coedes ( 1968 : 22) quotes Gabriel Ferrand s hypothetical reconstruction of how he thinks Java was Indianized. He explains: The true picture must have been something like this: two or three Indian vessels sailing together eventually arrived at Java. The newcomers established relations with the chiefs of the country, earning favor with them by means of presents, treatment of illnesses, and amulets.... The stranger must be or pass for a rich man, a healer, and a magician. No one could use such procedures better than an Indian. He would undoubtedly pass himself off as of royal or princely extraction, and his host could not help but be favorably impressed. These migrants then learned the language and married the daughters of the chiefs. These wives would often convert and in doing so they became the best propaganda agents for the new ideas and faith (Coedes 1968 : 22). Coedes goes on to explain that this first stage of Indianization consisted of individuals or corporate enterprises, peaceful in nature, without a preconceived plan, rather than massive immigration (Coedes 1968 : 23). These early migrants and merchants were then followed by higher cast Brahmans and Buddhist monks who were more direct in their teaching of religion.

4 1192 C.F. Emmett 63.3 Islam Indonesian Historian M.C. Ricklefs ( 1998 : 12 13) notes that the origins of Indonesian Islam are much disputed, probably fruitlessly. Like the two religions it supplanted, little is known about the spread of Islam, particularly in the early stages. Ricklefs surmises that: The Islamisation of Indonesia took place over a long period of time, during which Indonesia was a major crossroads of international trade, it is probable that Muslims from many parts of the Islamic world were present and played a part in the spread of Islam. The means by which Islam spread has similarly been the subject of much conjecture and scholarly argument. There can be no doubt that trade and traders were of central importance, for it was by this means that communication was established between Indonesia and the Islamic World. Through trade, Indonesians came into contact with Muslims and for whatever reason decided to convert. Also through trade foreign Muslims (Arabs, Indians, Chinese etc.) settled in Indonesia and married local woman who also chose to convert (Ricklefs 1993 : 3). In describing the process of Islam spreading throughout Southeast Asia, noted historian Marshall Hodgson ( 1974 : 546) suggests that [e] very merchant was a missionary. An Indonesian high school history text describes the spread of Islam as taking place through trade, dakwah (religious proselytizing), intermarriage, art and architecture. In reference to trade it states: Because of the influence of the monsoons, traders who came to Indonesia had to wait for a while for the reversal of the winds. While waiting for the winds to change, the traders would live in the settlements. They would visit with the locals and exchange ideas. From these discussions the locals would come to know of the common practices including the ways in which the merchants worshipped. Through this process the locals learned about Islam and eventually some of them converted (Indratno et al : 28 29). One contemporary Muslim scholar from Indonesia describes the process this way: Indonesia was not conquered by Muslim armies for Islam; rather, it was won by the piety and good examples of immigrant scholars, traders, and Sufi masters (Shihab 2006 ) Christianity Historical accounts offer greater details about how trade helped (and sometimes hindered) the process of Christianization. Most of the accounts focus on missionaries, with Spaniard Saint Francis Xavier (co-founder of the Jesuit order) being one of the most noted. Missionary-minded merchants and colonial administrators also helped in the process. At the colonial administrative level, conversions happened at the clan level as a means to gain power over rival Muslim clans (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 32) and at the individual level through gifts and in hopes of gaining greater opportunity

5 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1193 Christians in Indonesia Christian population by kabupaten (district) Jakarta Tangerang Bekasi Bogor Bandung Semarang Magelang Surakarta Surabaya Jawa Yogyakarta Malang Sterling Quinn, BYU Geography Fig Distribution of Christians in Indonesia (Map by Sterling Quinn, BYU Geography, for the author) and access to the colonial economy (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 107, 124). The misconduct, tyranny, and corruption of both Portuguese and Dutch colonial administrators also did much to stifle the spread of Christianity and in some instances resulted in many locals (re)turning to the greater stability and support of Islam (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 29, 50). The Portuguese had most of their success on the islands of eastern Indonesia where spices and sandalwood were plentiful and Islam was not as firmly planted. The lasting impact of these early conversions is readily seen in the contemporary distribution of Christians in Indonesia (Fig ). On the southeast islands of Solar, Timor and Flores, Portuguese merchants had plenty of time to interact with the natives while waiting for weeks or even months for a change in the monsoon winds to take them back to Malacca. On the sandalwood producing island of Solar, some of the visiting traders were described as pious men who talked about their faith in Christ with the indigenous providers of wood and thus helped to plant the seeds of Christianity (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 74). Similar religious discussions occurred on other islands as traders awaited the monsoon winds. On Timor and neighboring islands, a supposed chaplain to a merchant vessel, Fr. A. Taveira OP, is said to have baptized five thousand people and on Flores a lay worker named João Soares converted around two hundred people (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 74).

6 1194 C.F. Emmett The Dutch also came to the East Indies to trade, but unlike the Portuguese and Spanish they had little initial interest in helping to facilitate the spread of Christianity. This was due in part to the fact that the East Indies was governed from 1602 to 1799 by the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) which was singularly concerned with profitability and therefore only willing to allow missionary work to happen in areas where it would not challenge indigenous Muslims or threaten trade. When conversions did happen, it was usually because it was good for trade. For example, in 1681 the VOC allied itself with local factions on the island of Roti and made it a supply base for surrounding islands as well as a source of slaves. In the eighteenth century the Rotinese began to take advantage of the VOC presence. As they interacted with the Dutch colonists they slowly began adopting Christianity which offered higher social status, freedom from slavery and potential VOC favour. As more Rotinese accepted Christianity, the Dutch agreed to provide them with schooling, thus making the Rotinese an educated elite in the region, which was to give them a leading regional role in the twentieth century (Ricklefs 1993 : 66). The colonial policies of the Dutch government initially followed the model of the VOC and did not support Christianization especially on agriculturally rich Java. Still during the nineteenth century, government economic and political policies unintentionally paved the way for the almost complete Christianization of Minhasa in the northeastern-most region of Sulawesi. The Spanish and then the Dutch were interested in this area because of its abundant rice production. Over time some coastal peoples adopted Christianity, while in the interior pagan beliefs prevailed. As the Dutch became increasingly involved in the region, they helped create a local elite that stifled any opportunities for social mobility. They discouraged local pagan ceremonies which made certain ways of gaining prestige irrelevant and they relocated villages which upset ritual sites, and they implemented compulsory coffee cultivation. According to Henley ( 1996 : 52), one of the effects of these Dutch activities in northern Sulawesi was that many Minahasans began experiencing a transformation in the conditions of their lives which was beyond their control as individuals and which called most of their collective social and religious assumptions into question. These Dutch induced transformations prepared the way for missionaries and mission schools to bring about the remarkable spread of Christianity among the Minahasans during the nineteenth century. Eventually calls in Holland for changes in colonial polices led to a more supportive role from the Dutch government. Missionary work even opened up on Java in the mid-1800s, prompted in part by a more secured Dutch presence (solidified by putting down the Diponegoro rebellion) and by the fact that an indigenous Christian community had already emerged in eastern Java independent of any Dutch directed missionary influence and under the influence of missionary minded Euro-Javanese Christians. In other instances, conversion came through direct contact with Dutch colonists. The first Christian in Indramayu on Java was a Chinese man who converted after reading a New Testament that was given to him by a Dutchman. He then became the founder and leader of a small Christian congregation (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 654). Dutch women acting as lay evangelists had quite an impact on spreading Christianity in Central Java. On the coffee plantation that her husband administered

7 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1195 near Salitiga, Elizabeth LeJolla taught the Javanese workers about Christianity. Her efforts led to baptisms and the founding of a congregation of 50 people. In Banyumas, Johanna van Oostrom, who owned a batik industry, held church services with her female employees which resulted in nine of them being baptized. Johanna Philips, whose husband was involved in the indigo business in Purworejo, also invited workers to learn about Christianity. Her efforts led to the baptism of least 1,000 Javanese between 1860 and All of these women were aided in their efforts to teach and baptize by Dutch missionaries as well as local Christians. Unlike the official missionaries, these women did not feel bound to uphold traditional Dutch views of Christianity and they did not look down on the syncretic form of Christianity practiced by Javanese converts. These lay workers laid the foundation for official Dutch and German missionaries who would come to Java over the next few decades (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : ). Another example of missionary-minded colonists comes from the village of Ganjuran near Jogjakarta in Central Java where the pious Catholic Schmutzer family owned a sugar plantation. After study in the Netherlands, where they had become advocates of the ethical policy which called for better treatment of Indonesians, the two sons, Joseph and Julius, succeeded their father in running the plantation in They put their beliefs in to action with improved working hours, salary increases, vacations, and retirement and health benefits for their many workers. At the time of these changes all of the employees on the plantation were Muslim. Over time the two brothers introduced a health clinic (with the help of Julius wife, who was a nurse) that evolved into a hospital and they took control of 12 primary schools. Teachers at these schools were trained at a Catholic run school and through their efforts many of their students converted to Catholicism. When the Schmutzer family retired from the plantation in 1934 there were already 1,350 Catholics in the area (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : ). There were also come pious Catholic administrators of plantations in the Malang area who sought to teach their workers about Catholicism. One such man was A.W.C. Blijdenstein who was an administrator on a Chinese owned rubber plantation from 1911 to He organized a Catholic congregation on the plantation that upon his departure numbered 700 Catholic Javanese. He then returned to the Netherlands where he trained to become a priest (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 722). In Surabaya a German born watchmaker named Johannes Emde was encouraged by missionary Joseph Kam to help spread Christianity to both the native and Eurasian population in Surabaya. Johannes and his Javanese wife began holding religious services in their home. His wife invited many natives to the services and soon there was a small group of converts (Aritonang and Steenbrink 2008 : 712) Mormonism One of the last religious sects to enter Indonesia was that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon or LDS Church. The Mormon Church has an active proselytizing program throughout the world.

8 1196 C.F. Emmett Since 1970 volunteer Mormon missionaries have served in Indonesia (young men for 2 years, young women for 18 months) and there now are about 7,000 Indonesian Latter-day Saints. Like earlier religions, the work of these formally trained and formally tasked missionaries was enabled and assisted by pious Mormon merchants who through various means also sought to spread their faith. 2 Interviews with some of these lay Mormon evangelists reveal interesting details and patterns which often mirror the accounts of earlier missionary minded Christian merchants. How these merchants helped to spread their faith might also help to inform our understanding of how the un-recorded efforts of Hindu, Buddhists and Muslims merchants transpired. Perhaps the first Mormons to unofficially spread their beliefs in Indonesia were Maxine and Pete Grimm. They met during WWII in the Philippines. After the war they married and settled down in Manila where he ran a shipping company throughout Southeast Asia including Indonesia. Much of his travel, often accompanied by Maxine and their two children, was aboard their private yacht the Lanikai (Fig ). As a devout Mormon (Pete converted in the late 1960s), Maxine was always a missionary. While never formerly called or set apart as a missionary her decades of travel to the many islands of Indonesia gave her a unique opportunity to spread her faith in a land not yet formerly opened or dedicated for Mormon missionary work. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Maxine carried boxes of the Book of Mormon in English and Fig Pete and Maxine Grimm at the helm of the Lanikai (Photo provided by Maxine Grimm) 2 Latter-days Saints take quite literally the command of Jesus to take the gospel to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people. They also follow contemporary counsel from church leaders encouraging every member of the church to be a missionary as part of their everyday interactions with others.

9 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1197 Dutch as well as other church pamphlets on the Lanikai to hand out to whomever she might meet. Many of her efforts were directed at a captive audience the channel pilots who would come on board to help the Lanikai navigate through the remnant of WWII water mines in Indonesia s channels and harbors. During their time at the wheel, Maxine said she would indoctrinate the Indonesian pilots with teachings about the church followed by a gift of a Book of Mormon (Grimm 2007 ). In her decades of travels she helped spread the gospel to most every island. Her journal notes that while in Surabaya she taught two Indonesians and then in nearby Madura they had Sunday School on the boat and taught two more Indonesians. On the mostly Muslim island of Ternate she met some Pentecostals who were very interested in what she taught. When they asked her what would happen to them if they joined the Mormon Church she told them that they would have the Truth and would be most joyful. In route to visit a manganese mine in 1968, Maxine remembers travelling with two Indonesian Muslims named Ali and Abdulla. She wrote in her journal that one morning after breakfast she taught them a lesson about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon followed by presenting them with their own copies of the Joseph Smith pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. On one of their early stops (early 1950s) in Jakarta, the Grimms met the enterprising Jan Walandouw a Christian from Northern Sulawesi and a close friend of President Sukarno. Their friendship grew over the years as the Grimms channeled most of their business dealings through him. Walandouw reciprocated by opening doors and by introducing the Grimms to many of Indonesia s important citizens. Their friendship was not all politics and economics; it also had a strong religious component. Of all the people Maxine met in Indonesia, Walandouw was the most receptive to her religious distributions and discussions. He often expressed a desire to be the first Indonesian baptized into the Mormon Church. Walandouw, for unknown reasons, never was baptized, but he and the Grimms worked together to encourage Mormon leaders to consider sending full-time missionaries to Indonesia. Maxine knew several members of the church hierarchy and so she let them know that she had a well-connected Indonesian friend who was willing to help get government permission for the Mormon Church to be officially recognized. Church leaders liked what they heard and set out to gain such permission with the help of Walandouw (Grimm 2007 ). In October of 1969 the Mormon Church was officially granted permission to bring in missionaries. The first six missionaries entered the country in January Several months later when these young men received notice from the government that their visas were being revoked, Walandouw stepped in and through his high ranking connections was able secure new visas for the missionaries (Storer 2001 ). Maxine Grimm may have been the first Latter-day Saint to preach the gospel in Indonesia, but she was not the only one. There were several expatriate Mormons who lived in Indonesia in the late 1950s and 1960s and befriended Indonesians, held church meetings, shared their beliefs and established useful government contacts. Most of these early Mormons in Indonesia came as employees of the U.S. government and as advisors to a young country. Instead of trading in commodities, they traded in expertise.

10 1198 C.F. Emmett In 1959 George and Afton Hansen moved to Jogjakarta where George, a geology professor at Brigham Young University, was assigned by USAID to set up a geology department at prestigious Gadjah Mada University (Jones 1981 ). The Hansens hired a young man named Sutrisno who offered to work around their house in exchange for room and board and the opportunity to go to school (Hansen 1973 ). Sutrisno remembers that while the Hansens did not talk a lot about their church or offer to teach him about it, they did teach him much through their actions including their keeping the Sabbath Day holy and their abstinence from alcohol and tobacco. Following their return to BYU, the Hansens regularly corresponded with Sutrisno and kept him supplied with copies of church magazines. Meanwhile, Sutrisno sought work in Jakarta where his Hansen-enhanced good command of English helped him to gain work at the Ford Foundation. While at the Ford Foundation Sutrisno learned of a new consultant from Utah named Perry Polson. Knowing that the Hansens were from Utah, he set out to see if Polson perhaps knew the Hansens. He was surprised to find out that the Hansens did indeed know Polson (who was a BYU business education professor) and that they had requested that Polson look up Sutrisno. That meeting turned into a close friendship, strengthened in part through Sutrisno s assignment to teach Indonesian to Polson and his wife Gwen in their home. One Sunday in the fall of 1968, the Polsons invited Sutrisno and his wife to their home for what turned out to be a 10:00 am worship service. The Sutrisnos joined in and were impressed when a 5-year -old Bradley Butler stood up to bear his testimony in which he expressed love for his parents, belief in Jesus Christ and happiness for being a child of God. Sutrisno thought how happy he would be to hear his own child do such a thing (Sutrisno 1990 ). With that beginning, the Sutrisnos began to meet weekly with the small group of Jakarta Latter-day Saints. In addition to the Polsons, the group included several other expatriate families living in Jakarta. Dennis and Vernene Butler had arrived in Jakarta in January 1968 where he was first officer in the Canadian embassy. A few months later Ludy and Toontje VanderHoeven arrived in Jakarta where he worked as an auditor for USAID. This small group of expatriate Mormons met for Sunday worship services in the Butler home. Sutrisno became a regular at these meetings and expressed interest in learning more, so Brothers Butler and VanderHoeven began to visit him in his home for regular lessons. On June 1, 1969, after more than a decade of close interactions with Latter-day Saints, Sutrisno was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Ludy VanderHoeven. He was the first Indonesian to join the Mormon Church and it all happened through the informal efforts of expatriate Mormons working in Indonesia (Butler 2011 ; VanderHoeven 2011 ). Another merchant-missionary during the beginning years of the LDS Church in Indonesia was Frits Willem Tessers. He was born in 1929 in Makassar Sulawesi. During the tumultuous years leading up to independence, Tessers served in the Dutch military where he trained pilots. Following Indonesian independence, Frits fled the country first to the Netherlands (where he married) and then to the United States where the Tessers family settled in California. There at the invitation of their

11 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1199 son s fifth grade teacher the family agreed to learn about the Mormon Church. The family liked what they heard and decided to be baptized. Shortly after joining the Church in 1968, Frits started an import/export business with Indonesia. He looked forward to his first trip back to Indonesia in over 20 years as a great missionary opportunity to share his new found faith. In preparation for the trip, Frits filled up a large leather suitcase with copies of the Book of Mormon and stacks of various pamphlets about the LDS Church with the intent to share them throughout his several months stay. When he arrived in Jakarta, a customs agent, upon inspection of his bags, was concerned that the large collection of English language materials might be subversive or illegal and so Frits was taken into detention. Soon a senior military officer wearing dark glasses entered the room and exclaimed to Tessers: I m the first pilot you taught to fly! He then gave Frits a big hug. After renewing acquaintances, he asked Frits about all of the printed materials. Frits explained: These are all materials that will help people to understand the LDS religion. The reply satisfied the officer who then offered military transport to Frits during his business travels. The only report of what Frits did with his many copies of the Book of Mormon was that with the approval of his military friend he was able to place them in hotels along the way (Tessers 2012 ). Merchants of music who never set foot in Indonesia also had a lasting impact on the growth of the LDS Church in that land. The harmonizing Osmond Brothers, from one of the most famous Mormon families, catapulted to pop rock fame in the early 1970s. During this period of worldwide Osmondmania, the LDS Church began a period of increased emphasis on missionary activity. In 1974, Church President Spencer W. Kimball proclaimed that every young man in the church should fill a mission, not by compulsion, but by choice (Kimball 1974 ). For those Osmond brothers in their late teens and early twenties the normal time for voluntary 2-year missionary service this increased emphasis on missionary service caused considerable concern about whether or not they should serve. On his web site, in answer to a question about his decision not to serve a Mormon mission, Donny Osmond (who turned 19 in 1976) states: My parents and church leaders at the time all believed that I was able to do much more good if I remained in the public eye, so to speak, and lived the standards of our religion. He also explained: I do feel I have had a rare and wonderful opportunity to share my beliefs to the world because of the media exposure that has surrounded my career in show business. My family and I have received countless reports of fans who have investigated the church because of the life style and harmony that exists within our family (Osmond 2011 ). Fans in far-off Indonesia were some of those who came into contact with the Mormon Church through the example of the Osmonds. One such fan was teenager Aischa Meyer, the daughter of an Indonesian father and a German mother. One Christmas while visiting Germany she saw the Osmond Brothers performing on television. She liked their songs and thought that they were descent people something not too common at that time in the world of rock-and-roll. Back in Jakarta she discovered that some of her friends also liked the Osmonds and so they organized an Osmond Fan Club (Fig ).

12 1200 C.F. Emmett Fig Aischa Meyer Tandiman in 1974 in the room in her home where the Osmond Fan Club met (Photo provided by Aischa Tandiman) One of the early members of the club was already attending free English classes taught by Mormon missionaries at the Mormon meeting house. One day she asked Asicha if she would be interested in attending Mormon Church meetings. Aischa agreed. During the meetings she met two young missionaries and they arranged to come to Aischa s home for a religious discussion. Aischa s mom and younger brother soon started attending the weekly lessons. When asked if they would be interested in being baptized, Mrs. Meyer explained that she would consider it only after a trip back to Germany where she intended to see how the Mormon Church functioned there. She liked what she saw and so upon her return to Jakarta she and her two teenage children were baptized in 1975 into the Mormon Church (Tandiman 2001 ). Lydia (not her real name), another teenage girl living in Jakarta, tells the story of stopping one day at the stall of a roadside magazine seller and noticing a wholesome looking family on the cover of a magazine. She read the accompanying article about the Osmond family and liked what she learned. At the end of the article it noted that there was a fan club in Jakarta and so she decided to check it out. Meetings were held on Saturdays at the home of Aischa. Lydia joined the club and eventually Aischa asked her new friend if she would be interested in attending the Mormon Church the church to which the Osmond s belonged. Lydia agreed. There she too met some young elders and they inquired if Lydia would be interested in learning more. With her parents permission, they taught Lydia for several months. Eventually, through study and prayer, weekly attendance at church meetings, and developing strong friendships with other young Latter-day Saints, Lydia expressed a desire to be baptized. A third young woman named Steffi Hetarihon also first came in contact with the LDS Church through the Osmond fan club. Once baptized, these three young

13 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1201 women introduced other family members and friends to the LDS Church many of whom also chose to be baptized. These three also all became involved with formalized missionary work in Indonesia. Two served 18-month missions in Indonesia at age 21 and then again for 3 or 4 years with their husbands who were called to serve as president of the LDS Indonesia Jakarta mission. One moved to Utah where for many years she taught Indonesian at the Mission Training Center to departing Mormon missionaries. These three Osmond fans have all raised families in the church and sent their children on missions some to Indonesia and some to other countries of the world (Subandriyo 2012 ; Tandiman 2001 ). In January of 1990, Mike Swenson and Steve Smoot, two LDS businessmen from Salt Lake City, travelled to Indonesia in hopes of finding a distributor for their artemia products. Artemia is a small cyst that when hatched is used as food for baby fish and shrimp. Once there they looked at import records and found the name of an Indonesian businessman, Rusdi Lioe (Leo), who had imported a variety of other aquaculture feeds and products. They tracked him down and arranged to meet with him in a hotel lobby. Rusdi assumed that like other international businessmen he had worked with, these two men would also want to smoke and drink and be introduced to local women. He did not like having to help with such entertainment and was, therefore, delighted to find out that neither of them was interested in such vices they did not smoke, drink or cheat on their wives. In addition, he found that they were humble, honest, friendly and always willing to help. To Rusdi it looked as if there was a good possibility to do business (Lioe 2011 ). Mike and Steve felt the same way. Out of the many distributors they met with in Indonesia, they were most impressed with Rusdi s company and so they all agreed to do business. Both of the Mormon men had served 2 year missions at age 19, but now they were in their 30s and more focused on family and career than on preaching the gospel. What preaching they did do in their travels was mostly by example. As they met and travelled together over the years, Mike never pushed the gospel on Rusdi, but when asked about his religious beliefs he was always willing to share. After 3 years of business dealings and a growing friendship, Rusdi travelled to Salt Lake City to meet with his American, Mormon business partners. While there, Michael invited him to attend an LDS Church service and Rusdi agreed. There he met nice people and felt the spirit (Swenson 2011 ). Additionally, he finally realized that his funloving business associates (now including Mike s brother Doug) were sincere in their religious beliefs and that their profession of faith was followed up by good works. They lived what they believed. Before his return to Jakarta, Mike presented Rusdi with a Book of Mormon in both English and Indonesian and then contacted LDS Mission headquarters in Jakarta with a request that full-time missionaries visit the Lioe family. That visit was never made and so a year later, Rusdi contacted the mission office on his own to ask for the missionaries to come and visit. An hour later Mission President Subandriyo, made a personal visit to Rusdi in his office where he apologized for his missionaries forgetting to come the first time. Subandriyo then made sure that this time the missionaries made the visit. They did and were invited to return weekly for the next 6 months as the family learned about Mormon beliefs.

14 1202 C.F. Emmett Mike was not aware that the Lioe family was having serious weekly discussions with the missionaries. Then one day in September 1996 he received a call from Rusdi telling him that the three oldest members of the Lioe family (father, mother and oldest son) were going to be baptized (three younger daughters would be baptized once they turned 8 years old) (Leo 2011 ). Michael asked when and Rusdi replied in a couple of days. Excited to hear the news, Mike and Bruce Sanders (another business partner) straightway booked a flight and flew over to Indonesia just to baptize [them] (Lioe 2011 ). They landed on the morning of the baptism and went straight to the service. They left that evening to return to Salt Lake because of pressing business matters but did not want to miss the baptism of this great family (Swenson 2011 ). Bobby, the eldest of the Leo children, served a 2-year mission for the LDS Church in Singapore and Malaysia. Two of his younger sisters are now attending LDS owned Brigham Young University with a third at the University of Utah (Fig ). Hal Jensen is an LDS businessman who first began working in Indonesia in While never residing full time in the country, he maintains a second home there. Over the past four decades he has been involved with a variety of business ventures and projects in Indonesia s oil, airline, infrastructure, telecommunication, and education sectors. Many of his projects have been in cooperation with the Indonesian government. In the mid-1990s, Jensen was working on a project with the national sports ministry. One segment of the project involved a proposal for a scratch and win game included on tickets to sporting events. Jensen worried that such an activity would Fig The Leo family (three daughters 3rd 5th from right, mother, son, father 7th 9th from right ) in front of the Salt Lake LDS Temple with Steve ( far left ) and Doug Swenson (2nd from right ), their wives and some of their children (Photo provided by Sheri Swenson)

15 63 Pious Merchants as Missionaries and the Diffusion of Religions in Indonesia 1203 not go over well with Indonesia s religious community and so he had the head of the sports ministry arrange for him to meet Abdurrahman Wahid aka Gus Dur, a nearly blind Muslim cleric who was the head of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) the country s largest Islamic organization, in hopes of obtaining religious approval for the scratch and win game. In that meeting when Wahid offered Jensen some tea, Jensen gave his standard reply: No thank you, I don t drink tea. I m a Mormon. When Wahid heard that Jensen was Mormon he proceeded to tell Jensen all that he knew about the religion. For a Muslim from Indonesia his knowledge was extensive due to his very ecumenical view towards all religions. The Mormon and Muslim discussed religion for several hours and then Wahid invited Jensen back the next day for another lengthy visit. Wahid then insisted that Jensen come to visit him every time he was in Indonesia on business. From these initial meetings the two men developed a strong friendship based in part on their strong religious beliefs. Following the fall of President Suharto, Wahid confided in Jensen of his desire to run for president. Jensen told him: If you are going to be president, you re going to have to have your eyesight and offered to fly Wahid to Salt Lake City s Moran Eye Center for an eye operation. Following the operation (which had only limited success) Wahid was able to meet with Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the LDS Church. At that time Hinckley gave Wahid a blessing in which he blessed Wahid with vision to lead your nation. Following the blessing, Wahid told Pres. Hinckley: when I am president we will invite your young men in white shirts to visit us. According to Hal Jensen this was not an invitation to have missionaries go teach Wahid, but rather an open invitation to have missionaries come into the country. Wahid then returned to Indonesia where he jumped back into the ever surprising and often times troubled political landscape. After several months of political wrangling, Wahid emerged victorious as the first truly democratically elected president of the world s third largest democracy (Barton 2002 ). Less than a month later, Wahid embarked on his first major international trip which included a stop in Salt Lake City for a follow up eye appointment (Barton 2002 ). During this visit he once again stayed in Hal Jensen s home where he used part of his time to finalize the formation of his government. He was also able to meet for a second time with President Hinckley. During this visit Wahid offered a presidential invitation to President Hinckley to visit Indonesia as his official guest (Jensen 2003 ). In January 2000 Gordon B. Hinckley became the first president of the Church to visit Indonesia. There he spoke at a gathering of 1,800 Latter-day Saints and he also met with President Wahid. President Hinckley had asked Mission President Subandriyo if he had any special requests for Wahid. Subandriyo, with a local missionary force of only a few dozen, requested foreign missionaries. The request was conveyed and surprisingly Wahid agreed. It took a while to negotiate the bureaucracy, but finally in early 2001, after a 20-year hiatus, a limited number of foreign Mormon missionaries were once again allowed to serve in Indonesia (Subandriyo 2002 ). One merchant turning down a cup of tea led to a significant boost in the missionary efforts of the Mormon Church in Indonesia.

16 1204 C.F. Emmett 63.6 Conclusion These many examples from the diffusion of Christianity and, most specifically, Mormonism in Indonesia reveal interesting patterns and processes that when propelled back in time, might help to conceptualize how earlier merchants also helped in the spread of religions. For millennia, merchants have come to the Indonesian islands in search of wealth and employment. Some stayed for several months awaiting a reversal of the winds while others set up shop for years. More recently some have flow in for only a few days or weeks of business activity. Many of these merchants were religious and were willing to share their beliefs with others. Many felt compelled to do so because tenets of their faith encouraged lay members to evangelize. These efforts to spread the faith were most often non-formal, unplanned efforts of pious individuals who lived their religion and wanted to share it with others. Sometimes formal invitations were offered to study and learn, but in most instances it was the day-to-day practicing of one s religion that sparked an interest in others. While some of their contacts did chose to accept a new religion, there were many who did not. Once converted, the religion continued to spread through a process of contagious diffusion in which spouses, children, family and friends also became converted. The interactions of merchants with high ranking locals often helped provide the necessary connections and approvals for more formal missionary efforts. Initially, most merchants were male and were unaccompanied by wives or female traders. More recently merchants were often married men and were accompanied by their wives who in many cases were the main agents of religious conversion. The methods used included: intentional open dialogue, the good example of practicing the precepts of your religion, invitations to worship, the distribution of religious materials, and the hope of opportunities, perceived and real, for a better life provided through expanded opportunities facilitated by interaction with the merchant and acceptance of his/her religion. The activities of merchants have diversified and changed over time. Originally it was spices and then other resources that brought the merchants. In more recent years those merchants have come to trade (both buying and selling) in a wider variety of commodities. They have also come offering expertise and training. In one instance merchants of music (the Osmonds) never set foot in Indonesia but modern technology and the media helped to disseminate their music and their family oriented lifestyle and beliefs to Indonesians. It is highly unlikely that merchants of music from Hindu India or the Islamic Hadramawt helped in the spread of Hinduism and Islam to Indonesia, but it is very likely that, just like modern-day Mormons, the unrecorded efforts of pious merchants throughout the millennia have included living their religion, sharing their beliefs, distributing books, and making important friendships. Through these simple acts of religious devotion the religious landscape of Indonesia continues to evolve and change.

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