4 From Wali Songo to Wali Pitu: The Travelling of Islamic Saint Veneration to Bali
In: Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and LombokSearch for other papers by Martin Slama in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
Islamic saint veneration is a common practice in Java, where the graves of saints such as the Wali Songo (Nine Saints) credited for Islamizing Java, are visited by pilgrims paying tribute and requesting blessings. This phenomenon of saint veneration has “travelled” to Bali as well, where it is still emerging, and is focussed on the Wali Pitu (Seven Saints), a variety of sainted individuals discovered and identified through dreams and visions. Exploring the lives of these Seven Saints and revealing how they were discovered and how their graves were transformed into sacred sites, this chapter examines how saint veneration is marketed by the state and private actors. Paying heed to these economic aspects as well as to claims regarding the Seven Saints’ ancestry, the chapter further analyses the position this new cult of Islamic saint veneration occupies in Bali’s interreligious landscape.