This paper, based on my field research in a village in the
Surakarta region of Central Java, presents an ethnographic
account of mystical beliefs and practices of individual villagers.
For most Javanese, mysticism represents one of the most powerful
undercurrents in their culture. The Javanese call their mysticism
kebatinan(the inner).
There are thousands of mystical sects throughout Java, some
of which have large, well-established organizations. But these
organized mystical sects are just one aspect of the kebatinan.
Although only a small minority of the population actually join
in the mystical sects, a vast majority of people, who do not commit
themselves to any of them, also accept the kebatinan in some form
or another. Some people even think that to accept the kebatinan
is almost synonymous with being a Javanese.
It is difficult to provide a general outline of the kebatinan.
It is not a unitary system of beliefs and practices shared by a
homogeneous group of people, but a loosely defined class of
magico-mystical ideas and activities, from which each Javanese
selects some aspects and organizes his/her own view of the
kebatinan. What one man thinks and practices as the kebatinan
may be different from that of his neighbor. Thus, before
presenting any general account of the kebatinan a number of
individual cases must be collected and variations among them
be examined. So far we have several theological, historical, and
anthropological studies on the Javanese kebatinan, but they are
almost exclusively concerned with the well defined ideas and
teachings of some large sects. Everyday aspects of the kebatinan,
which are more diffusive and less unitary, remain untouched.
This paper is intended to fill this gap in the study of the kebatinan
by depicting how it is conceived of and paracticed by different
individuals, with village everyday life as their common background.
CONTENTS
1. Contemporary Javanese mysticism
2. Returning to the God through the control of human passion
3. Islam and the kebatinan
4. Ascetic efforts of concentration to attain spiritual intuitions
5. The control of human passion as an everyday ethic
6. Gaining magico-mystical power
7. Staying overnight at graveyards
8. Reading signs of the World
ジャワ神秘主義の民族誌
KH_011_2_002.pdf
(1.28MB)
