Religion and Ethnic Identity of the Mentawaians on Siberut (West Sumatra)

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p.149-150: The influence of Bahaism: When the first Roman Catholics established themselves in Siberut, Muhadji Rachmatullah [Rahmatu'lláh Muhájir], a medical doctor from Iran, arrived on the island too. While pursuing his activities related to local health care, he also disseminated the teachings of his religion, Bahaism, and within a few years he had inspired thousands to convert. A number of teachers from East Java and Tapanuli helped him in his religious mission. One of the reasons why the Bahai missionaries were so successful was because they were all young men who were prepared to live the same life as the local people. Furthermore, they lived together with the Mentawaians for a long time. This stood in sharp contrast to the behaviour of the Christian missionaries who lived in isolated complexes, leading an altogether alien kind of life. Eventually, many of the Bahai teachers also married local girls and became fully integrated into Mentawaian society. Bahaism formed a very attractive alternative to Islam and Protestantism also because its teachers did not pressure the Mentawaians to dramatically change their lifestyle. They did not forbid the raising of pigs, nor did they want to prevent the performance of all kinds of traditional ceremonies. They also did not object to Mentawaian men having long hair or tattooing their bodies. The relaxed attitude of the Bahai teachers towards the ‘primitive way of life’ of the Mentawaians, so condemned by the Indonesian state, brought about serious conflicts with the local government. Besides, the fact that thousands of people converted to this religion caused jealousy and frustration among the leaders of the other religions. There was, however, not much that could be done. Bahaism was at that time still officially recognized as a religion related to Islam. In Muara Siberut, the Bahai adherents were able to build a large centre for mass gatherings and instruction, thanks to external support. The trip made by a fully tattooed Mentawaian man to the Bahai World Congress in London in the early 1960s was no doubt sensational. It gave him a reputation on the island that he enjoyed for the rest of his life. The number of Bahais continued to increase until 1962-3 when their creed was officially declared a forbidden sect on the island. This was the final stage of a process that had already begun in 1959, when the government had come to believe that Bahaism exerted a 'negative' influence on the population. So once more, thousands of Mentawaians were forced to choose a new religion. There was again hardly any resistance to nominally giving up Bahaism. A small number of its staunchest adherents, however, who were closely associated with the Javanese Bahai teachers, refused to convert to another religion. In spite of the thorough purge of the forbidden creed, they continued to hang on to it. Even when they had to spend months in a prison in Padang on the mainland of West Sumatra, they could not be forced to change their minds. Those who had held official positions as teachers or village heads were dismissed from their jobs. Nowadays, they make a living as traders, farmers, or boat operators. Particularly in the village of Mongan Poula, there is still a cohesive group of Bahais. Officially, however, they are no longer recognized as a distinct religious group to avoid problems at the higher levels of Indonesian administration. Hence, Bahaism does not appear in the census data any more. p. 151: An interesting event occurred during the implementation of the 1979 village government law, which in Siberut actually took place a few years after the law had been issued. Candidates had to fulfil all kinds of requirements, and having a proper religion was one of them. In the village of Matotonan in the Rereiket area, the old village head was a former Bahai teacher and he was still the leader of a substantial group of Bahai adherents. The local government put pressure on him and the other villagers to convert to another religion, Islam being offered as the main option by the government officials. Missionaries from the Dewan Dakwah Islamlyah Indonesia (DDII, Indonesian Council for Muslim Mission) were mobilized to facilitate the process of conversion. The Bahai community did not put up resistance, and the mass conversion to Islam of a few hundred people in 1982 and 1983 was widely publicized. The village head, however, had refused to convert and was consequently removed from his position. p.152: Apart from conversion to the various world religions introduced to Siberut during the last hundred years, there are also a few syncretistic tendencies on the island. The above-mentioned religions as well as the arat sabulungan tend to co-exist in rather separate domains of life, with the Mentawaians practising traditional religious elements, in one domain, and Christian, Bahai, or Muslim elements, in another. Moreover, some elements of the arat sabulungan have been integrated into the religious service of the Catholic Church, a point to which I will return shortly.