ognition only to Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hindu-
ism, and Buddhism, with the result that in effect no tradi-
tional religion is regarded as a religion. In some areas a tacit
tolerance of traditional practices has developed, but in gener-
al there is mounting pressure to assimilate to an officially rec-
ognized religion. On the basis of early cultural borrowings
and some similarity in forms of worship, various ethnic
groups have gained recognition of their traditional religion
as a Hindu sect. In the Philippines, missionary efforts by
both Catholics and Protestants have been directed to conver-
sion of the remaining adherents of tribal religions. In Sara-
wak and Sabah, there is pressure to convert to Islam as well
as to Christianity. In all the countries of the region the adher-
ents of traditional religions are minorities whose distinct
ways of life are under pressure to change. Generally, they par-
ticipate only at the margins of national life.
The tribal religions of the region vary according to the
groups that continue to practice them. These groups include
small, often isolated peoples whose economy is based primar-
ily on hunting and gathering with limited cultivation. Exam-
ples of such groups are the Sakkudei of the island of Siberut
off the coast of western Sumatra; various wandering bands
of Kubu scattered in the interior forests of Sumatra; groups
of a similar kind in Kalimantan who are referred to generical-
ly as Punan; as well as a variety of other small-scale societies
on other islands—the Agta and other Aeta of Luzon, the
Batak of Palawan, the DaDa or To Lare of Sulawesi (Celebes),
or the Alifuru groups, such as the Huaulu and Nuaulu, of
Ceram in eastern Indonesia. Many of these groups, with
their simplified technology, no longer possess the range of
economic pursuits attributed to the early Austronesians.
Other adherents of traditional religions include the uncon-
verted members of larger, economically and socially more
complex populations: some Batak, particularly Karo, from
north Sumatra; Ngaju communities in Kalimantan; various
Toraja peoples in Sulawesi; as well as the Sumbanese,
Savunese, and Timorese in eastern Indonesia. Sumba has the
distinction of being the only island in Indonesia where a ma-
jority of the population profess to follow their traditional
religion.
Some of these Indonesian populations have formally es-
tablished religious associations to preserve their traditional
practices and some have come to be identified as followers
of Hindu-Dharma, a status that affords them official govern-
ment recognition. This is one possibility available to mem-
bers of the Toraja “Alukta,” the Batak “Pelbegu,” the Ngaju
“Kaharingan,” and the Bugis “Towani.”
In the Philippines, a majority of the indigenous peoples
in the mountains of northern Luzon (among them the Isneg,
Ifugao, Bontok, Ibaloi, Kalinga, and Ilongot), in Mindoro
(the Hanunoo, Buhid, and Alangan), and in the interior of
Mindanao (the Subanun, Bukidnon, Tiruray, Manobo, Ba-
gabo, and Mandaya) have retained their traditional religions
despite increasing missionary efforts. In Sarawak, similar
tribal peoples include the Iban, Kayan, Kenyah, and Kelabit;
in Sabah, the Dusun, Murut, and Lun Dayeh; all of these
tribal populations and other small groups as well have under-
gone conversion to Christianity in varying degrees.
Other adherents of traditional religion are more difficult
to classify. Some form small enclaves, often consisting of no
more than a few villages, whose traditional practices repre-
sent nonacceptance of the dominant religion of their region.
Such groups would include the Badui (or Kanekes) of West
Java, the Tengger of East Java, and the Waktu Tiga villagers
of Lombok. All of these three groups maintain special priest-
hoods. Badui priests are confined to an inner territorial
realm, whereas among the Tengger, there is one priest for
each of twenty-eight villages. Both groups claim to preserve
an “Agama Budha,” which refers not to a form of Buddhism
but to a pre-Islamic fusion of Indic and local practice. The
Tengger priests, for example, follow an ancient Saiva liturgy
that is kept secret from the village population, who see their
worship as an ancestral cult.
Many of the millenarian movements that have occurred
in Indonesia and the Philippines can be seen as religious
movements and the communities of members of these move-
ments, such as the Kesepuhan in West Java, the Samin of
Central Java, or the Rizalistas of Luzon, may also be consid-
ered as traditional religious adherents. In addition, many
other individuals and groups carry on traditional rituals
under nominal adherence to another formally recognized re-
ligion. On the island of Flores, for example, the people of
Tana Wai Brama continue to maintain their traditional cere-
monial cycle, even though they are formally classified as
Catholics. The same is true for other populations, both
Christian and Muslim, throughout the islands. Official sta-
tistics are therefore often misleading in assessing the extent
of traditional religious adherence.
Studies of traditional religion, many of which have been
written by missionaries or colonial administrators, document
beliefs and practices that have since been either abandoned
or modified through the process of conversion. Significant
evidence on traditional religion is also derived from present
practices and general conceptions that have been incorporat-
ed and retained in the major recognized religions in the
course of their accommodation to the traditions of the
region.
Chief among these basic conceptions and practices are
the following: (1) the prevalence of complementary duality;
(2) the belief in the immanence of life and in the interdepen-
dence of life and death; (3) the reliance on specific rituals to
mark stages in the processes of life and death; and (4) the cel-
ebration of spiritual differentiation. All of these notions may
be regarded as part of a common Austronesian conceptual
heritage.
THE PREVALENCE OF COMPLEMENTARY DUALITY. Forms of
complementary dualism are singularly pervasive in the reli-
gions of the region. Such dualism figures prominently, for
example, in a wide variety of myths of the origin of the cos-8648 SOUTHEAST ASIAN RELIGIONS: INSULAR CULTURES