Ritual can be defined as a set of actions which contain values and usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. A ritual may be performed by an individual or a community in private or public places. Rituals have purposes, it can be personal purposes or public purposes and sometimes ritual is held just for the pleasure. Rituals also have various kind, rituals include not only the various worship rites but also include coronations, club meetings, etc. There are some rituals that load the occultists or magic, for example the ritual which performed with sacrifice and murder or suicide.
The most simply rituals are hand-shaking and saying hello. In Islam communities, the greeting is by saying ‘Assalamu’alaikum’ and there’s an obligation to answer it by saying ‘Wa alaikum salam.’ In Korea, we can say ‘Annyeonghaseyo,’ these are the simply form of ritual actions. Rituals in religion include worship, pray, cult. Rituals in customs and traditions include marriages, funerals, birthdays, parties, parades, ceremonies, etc. For example, in Indonesia there is a ceremony which held to celebrate the Indonesia’s freedom. In Korea there is a ritual that held to celebrate a baby’s first birthday called ‘Dol janci’. In Indonesia there are some special rituals which combine the religion and customs such as Grebeg Mulud which is held to celebrate the birth of Prophet of Muhammad, this ritual combines the Islam doctrine and Javanese custom.
Superstition is a belief or notion which not based on reason or knowledge. Superstition is different from ritual, ritual is an action, but superstition is only a belief or notion. Although superstition isn’t based on knowledge, the purpose of superstition is good, and sometimes superstition is really happened. For example, in Javanese communities there is superstition that sitting on broom will suffocate having many children and for the girls sitting in the door will suffocate difficulties of having husband. Those superstitions didn’t base on reason but have good purpose that sitting on a broom can break the broom. In Korea, there is a superstition that leaving a fan on in a closed room will suffocate the occupants.
Diplomatic relation between Indonesia and India experienced dynamic changes since Asian African Conference in 1955. Then the relationship between Indonesia and India became closer and warm. But about a decade later, when the India-Pakistan war, the relation was getting worse and deteriorating because Indonesia sent arms supplies to Pakistan and mobilized the mass to stage the anti-India demonstration in Jakarta. However, this situation was changed into warm relation again after Soeharto seized the power and both Indonesia and India restored their diplomatic relation. Indonesia and Indonesia then agreed to maintain the peace and security in Southeast Asia in order to set up a strategic regional balance. Both countries keep maintaining the cooperation in security and defense. However, they have not maintained good cooperation in economic relation.
For some decades Indonesia and India has made 23 MoUs since 1951 up to 2005. These MoUs point outs five kinds of cooperation, nine MoUs in security and defense cooperation, 8 MoUs in economic cooperation, 2 Mous in friendship cooperation, 2 MoUs in general diplomatic policy cooperation, and 2 MoUs in cultural cooperation. Indonesia was interested in buying weapons from India such as torpedoes, corvette warships, and submarines. Both countries also signed a MoU on war against international terrorism 2004 and they established a Joint Work Group (JWG) and had the first meeting in February 2005.
But the other cooperation between both countries is not as good as the cooperation in security and defense. They had not fully maintained cooperation in another field like culture. Though Indonesia and India signed 8 MoUs in economic cooperation, but in field it didn’t work well. Both countries have different economic system and India’s economic development is faster than in Indonesia. It can be regarded as a bit unfortunate since Indonesia got its independence two years earlier than India did. In 2008 India recorded US $ 50.3 billion in trade volume, while Indonesia recorded only US $ 25.53 billion in the same year. India’s economic development ran twice faster than Indonesia did.
India succeeded in applying its liberal economic system and strength the economic infrastructure in technology and human resources. Indonesia has good system in economic development but it didn’t work because Indonesia was so preoccupied with corruption, collusion, and nepotism that spread like fungi. The government of India also developed a good educational system that made more professionals in India. The domestic situation influence economic development, India has more amount of population than Indonesia does, but it is more difficult to develop economic in Indonesia because Indonesia has more tribes or ethnics than India, or more pluralism than India. Each tribe has different culture and different train of thought, so there are many pro and contra between the Indonesian government and its people.
Indonesia and India had not fully gained the benefit from their cooperation in economic and cultural cooperation. And both countries had not maintained the educational cooperation. There is no formal Indian culture study in Indonesia that made by Indonesian government or university, it is important to make some cultural exchange between Indonesia and India. Indian movie industry has exported its movies to Indonesia and many Indonesian people that have interest in Indian movies. But it only happened some years ago, Indian movies were popular in Indonesia before Korean Wave came in Indonesia.
Indonesia-Korea
The Indonesia-Korea relationship continues to develop since the establishment of diplomatic relation in 1973. Korea is now the 6th largest trading partner of Indonesia, and Indonesia is now the 10th largest trading partner of Korea. The relationship between the two nations has developed into a thriving strategic partnership. About 23.000 Indonesians are in Korea to contribute to the significant progress of the Korean economy, and about 31.000 Koreans and 1.200 firms are in Indonesia. The two countries commit to strengthen exchanges in fields such as energy and resources which lead to economic cooperation. Both Korea and Indonesia also will additionally focus on the development of a wider mutual understanding each other through increased cultural exchange.
Economic relations between Indonesia and Korea have been further strengthened with cooperation which covers many fields: economic development, information technology, foreign workers, energy, maritime and fisheries, forestry, tourism, and science and technology. On bilateral trade, like what was mentioned in previous paragraph, Indonesia and Korea and Korea are important trading partner each other. Total trade between two countries in 2008 amounted to $ 19.25 billion, bigger than in 2007 which amounted only $ 14.89 billion. In the field of IT cooperation, there is cooperation between Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI) and Korea Broadcasting System (KBS). RRI dispatched one of its broadcasters to KBSin Korea to host the Indonesian language broadcast program.
Both countries maintain cooperation not only in economic field but also in cultural exchanges cooperation. Korea has developed studies for Indonesian language and cultures for about more than three decades ago and Indonesia has developed Korean language and cultural studies for about a decades. Since the Korean Star Wave or Hallyu that became popular in Indonesia in 2002s, interests in Korean culture of Indonesian people increases each years. Many MoUs were signed between universities in Indonesia and universities in Korea that contributed in cultural studies between both countries. Korea also established center for Korean studies organization in Indonesia like Korea Foundation and KOICA. Both organizations have supported Indonesian students and scholars to study about Korea in Indonesia or in Korea.
Relation Indonesia-India started more than a decade earlier than the relation Indonesia-Korea. But now the cooperation between Indonesia and Korea is more significant than between Indonesia and India. Cooperation Indonesia-India emphasized cooperation in security and defense, but in another field both countries has not fully gained the benefit from the cooperation. Both countries also passed the relation from warm relation to bad relation and now turned on warm relation again. Cooperation between Indonesia and Korea additionally focus on the economic and cultural cooperation, and both countries have gained the benefit of the cooperation. And since the forming diplomatic relation between Indonesia and Korea, both countries are keeping their warm relation till now. And both Indonesia and Korea seems that they are confident that the bilateral relationship between Korea and Indonesia will continue to develop for the mutual benefit of two countries.
Korean people seem that they have open-minded and active attitudes towards religion. It’s true that foreign religions were accepted easily. But some religions were not, for example the persecution of Catholicism in the late Joseon Dynasty. It proved that Korean people don’t have open-minded towards religion.
The Buddhism and Confucianism were accepted easily and became the state religion at that time. Islam is the latest foreign religion that came in Korea, but the number of Islam belivers are very few. And now the Christianity has the biggest religion in Korea but they are still influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism in their daily life. So Korean people practice the syncretism in their life. And I think that now there are many Korean Christian only believe in Christian just because Christianity is western thing. So Korean people only have open-minded for western things. Islam is not western thing so Korean people have little interest in Islam but prefer to choose Christian because Christian is the major religion in western country. It seems like Korean people choose Christianity just for fashion because they still practice the Confucianism or Buddhism.
Christianity supported democracy in Korea. The life of Korean people was influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism in the past time. But after Christianity came in Korea it was changed partly and became more dependent on Christianity. Korean people thought that everything that came from west is more modern. It made the way easier to Christianity spreads in Korea.
Christianity led the modernization in Korea and Korea started to be more liberal and democratized by the modernization. Buddhism has similarity with authoritarian throne and Korean people thought that was old fashioned thing that have to be leaved. Christianity has the similarity with democracy and liberalism that influenced Korean people and government to follow the democratization and liberalism. Christian taught the Korean people not only about the Christianity but also the western culture such as concept of freedom and democracy. It was support the middle class and lower class of Korean people. The middle class and lower class of Korean people felt comfortable with democracy that brought by Christianity because they have same position in governmental position with the high class if they practice the democracy.
During the past two millenia, Korean people have a number of major religions and ideologies, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity, at the same time, Korea's indigenous ideology has also maintaining a measure of influence. In the twentieth century, a large number of new religions developed in Korea, many of which have taken root and are now coexisting along with the other more established religions.It is Christianity that became the major religion in Korea now. At the first time, Christianity was not accepted in Korea easily but now it became the major religion that has big influence in Korean governmental life.
Indonesian religions also had influenced the governmental life in old Indonesian kingdoms in the past. Those religions were Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, and they became the major religion at that time. For examples, Hinduism was the major religion in Mataram Kingdom and the government was ruled by Hinduism concept. But now the major religion in Indonesia is Islam but it doesn’t have big influence in the governmental rule because Indonesia is the democratic nation. Though Islam become the major religion in Indonesia and has influence most of people, Islam doesn’t rule the governmental life because there are respect in another religions.
Korean religions and Indonesian religions both had influenced the government each of it from time to time. In Korea, the religion in governmental rule has big influence directly till now. In Indonesia, the religions had big influence in governmental rule directly in the past but now the religion in Indonesia doesn’t influence the government. Maybe it still has influence but not as big as in the past and indirectly.
