7 - Youth and Religious Disaffiliation: A Study of Indonesian Millennials Learning Buddhism during Spiritual Disruption

Summary

From the positive youth development perspective, Indonesian millennials are in a transitional phase to adulthood, vulnerable to identity crises. Pressures from social and cultural constructs present various challenges to their well-being during this transitional phase. This chapter explores the religious identity of millennials drawing upon several concepts from youth studies. Data was collected at Karangdjati Monastery in the student city of Yogyakarta from 2020 to 2022 amid the pandemic. The data collection method involved participatory observation of a purposive sample of ten informants. A narrative model was used to analyse their life histories. The main finding was that the informants were interested in Buddhism because of its universal appeal and inclusive nature regardless of one's faith, the absence of formal conversion orders, and its Ehipassiko principle of critical thinking. The main argument in this paper is that Indonesia's state power, which requires that every citizen should have a religion that should be stated on their national identity card and that they should practise its teachings, causes a sense of exclusion for Indonesian millennials who practise religious teachings flexibly. To overcome the spiritual disruption they experience, some millennials negotiate their identity by converting or reconstructing a hybrid identity as a process of self-discovery.

BACKGROUND

During the very long spiritual journey of the visudhi, I cried when I heard Venerable Pannavaro say, “There is no conversion order in the Tipitaka.” So, visudhi is interpreted as a lifestyle conversion from behaviour that was tainted with defilements (Kilesa) to behaviour that is in tune with the Buddhist lifestyle in coping with suffering and being happy. (Carini [female, b. 1996], May 2022).

Carini, the Buddhist name given by Venerable Sri Pannavaro Mahathera of the Vihara Mendut on Saturday, 7 May 2022, was one of twenty-seven youths at a formal Buddhist procession that day at the vihara (monastery). The vihara in Magelang, Central Java, was founded in 1977 and is one of the pioneers of the Indonesian Theravada movement. The majority at the procession that day were millennials and Generation Zs from Karangdjati Vihara, Yogyakarta. Throughout the procession, Carini burst into tears. She had endured long-term bullying from her friends of the Abrahamic faiths, who threatened her for her conversion after she had graduated from her master's studies in the United Kingdom. In addition, her parents were bullied in her neighbourhood for allowing their children to convert from Islam to Buddhism.