Monks praying at
Borobudur, the largest Buddhist structure in the world built by
Sailendra dynasty.
Buddhism in Indonesia has a long history, with a considerable range of
relics from its earlier years in Indonesia.
During the
New Order era the five official religions of
Indonesia, according to the state ideology of
Pancasila included Buddhism. The national leader of the time
Suharto, had considered Buddhism and
Hinduism as Indonesia's classical religions.
Early Buddhism in Indonesia is noted in the ninth century with Buddhist temples on
Java such as
Borobudur.
The Buddhist pilgrim
I-tsing visited
Srivijaya in
Sumatra on his voyage to India. Other Buddhist monks that visited Indonesia were
Atisa,
Dharmapala, a professor of
Nalanda, and the South Indian Buddhist
Vajrabodhi.
Two important Buddhist Javanese texts are the
Sang hyang Kamahaanikan and the
Kamahayanan Mantranaya.
Current practice
Buddhism is mainly followed by the
Chinese and some indigenous groups of Indonesia, with 1% (Buddhism only) to 2.3% (including Taoism and Confucianism) of Indonesia's population of Buddhists.
See also
