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Indonesia is home to over 1,300 ethnic groups, [1] some who have their own belief system and mythology. The following is a list of Indonesian deities.
Batara Kala is the god of the underworld in traditional Javanese and Balinese mythology, ruling over it in a cave along with Setesuyara. Batara Kala is also named the creator of light and the earth. He is also the god of time and destruction, who devours unlucky people. He is related to Hindu concept of Kala, or time. In mythology, he causes eclipses by trying to eat the Sun or the Moon.
Balinese mythology is the traditional mythology of the people of the Indonesian island of Bali, before the majority adoption of Hinduism.
The Sundanese are an indigenous ethnic group native to the western region of Java island in Indonesia, primarily West Java. They number approximately 42 million and form Indonesia's second most populous ethnic group. They speak the Sundanese language, which is part of the Austronesian languages.
Anjana, also known as Anjani and Anjali, is the mother of Hanuman, one of the protagonists of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. She is said to have been a resident of Kishkindha in the text.
Nyi Roro Kidul is a supernatural being in Indonesian folklore. She is the Queen of the Southern Sea in Sundanese and Javanese mythology.
Xuanwu or Xuandi, also known as Zhenwu or Zhenwudadi, is a revered deity in Chinese religion, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism. He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements and capable of great magic. He is identified as the god of the north Heidi (黑帝, lit. 'Black Emperor' and is particularly revered by martial artists. He is the patron god of Hebei, Henan, Manchuria and Mongolia. As some Han Chinese migrated into the south from Hebei and Henan during the Tang-Song era, Xuanwu is also widely revered in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces, as well as among the overseas diaspora.
The Sunda Kingdom was a Sundanese Hindu kingdom located in the western portion of the island of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java. The capital of the Sunda Kingdom moved several times during its history, shifting between the Galuh (Kawali) area in the east and Pakuan Pajajaran in the west.
Dewi Sri or Shridevi is the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese Hindu Goddess of rice and fertility, still widely worshiped on the islands of Java, Bali and Lombok, Indonesia. She is often associated or equated with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the shakti (consort) of Vishnu.
The mythology of Indonesia is very diverse, the Indonesian people consisting of hundreds of ethnic groups, each with their own myths and legends that explain the origin of their people, the tales of their ancestors and the demons or deities in their belief systems. The tendency to syncretize by overlying older traditions with newer foreign ideas has occurred. For example, the older ancestral mythology might be merged with foreign mythology, such as Hindu, Islam, or Christian biblical mythology.
Wawacan Sulanjana is a Sundanese manuscript containing Sundanese myths. The title means "The Tale of Sulanjana", derived from the name of the hero Sulanjana as the protector of rice plant against the attack of Sapi Gumarang cow, Kalabuat and Budug Basu boars symbolizing rice pestilence. The Wawacan Sulanjana contains Sundanese local wisdom through reverence of rice cultivation in its tradition.
Batara Guru is the name of a supreme god in Indonesian Hinduism. His name is derived from Sanskrit Bhattaraka which means “noble lord". He has been conceptualized in Southeast Asia as a kind spiritual teacher, the first of all Gurus in Indonesian Hindu texts, mirroring the guru Dakshinamurti aspect of Hindu god Shiva in the Indian subcontinent. However, Batara Guru has more aspects than the Indian Shiva, as the Indonesian Hindus blended their spirits and heroes with him. Batara Guru's wife in Southeast Asia is Shiva's consort Durga.
Chen Fu Zhen Ren is an ancestral deity of the Indonesian Chinese people living throughout Banyuwangi Regency, Java, Bali, and Lombok. He is also worshipped by the indigenous population of Bali and Java (Kejawen).
Chinese folk religion plays a dynamic role in the lives of the overseas Chinese who have settled in the countries of this geographic region, particularly Burmese Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, Thai Chinese and Hoa. The Indonesian Chinese, by contrast, were forced to adopt en masse either Buddhism or Christianity in the 1950s and 1960s, abandoning traditional worship, due to Indonesia's religious policies which at the time forbade Chinese traditional religion or did not recognize it as a "religion" thus making it vulnerable to discrimination. Some Chinese Filipinos also still practice some Chinese traditional religions, besides Christianity of either Roman Catholicism or Protestantism, of which some have also varyingly syncretized traditional Chinese religious practices with. Chinese folk religion, the ethnic religion of Han Chinese, "Shenism" was especially coined referring to its Southeast Asian expression; another Southeast Asian name for the religion is the Sanskrit expression Satya Dharma.
Dewi Ratih, also known as Sang Hyang Ratih or Sang Hyang Semara Ratih, is a Hindu lunar goddess worshipped in Java and Bali. She is well known for her beauty and grace, thus she was also known as the Goddess of Beauty. Her myth is linked to lunar eclipses.
Dewi Lanjar is an Indonesian goddess of the sea, the opposite of Nyai Roro Kidul and the Queen of the Northern Sea, according to Javanese beliefs. She is a popular goddess in the city of Pekalongan, Central Java. Her name "Lanjar" means a woman who is divorced and have no children.
Tarawangsa is a traditional Sundanese musical instrument from West Java, Indonesia, in the form of a stringed instrument that has two strings made of steel or iron wire. Tarawangsa is an ensemble of chordophones of two musical instruments. One is called tarawangsa itself, played by swiping and the other is called jentreng played by picking. The art of Tarawangsa is performed in the Ngalaksa ceremony, which is a ceremony for abundant harvests. The ceremony in the traditional agrarian society of the Sundanese is always identified with the figure of Nyai Sri Pohaci or Nyi Pohaci Sanghyang Dangdayang Asri or Dewi Asri or Dewi Sri as the Sundanese goddess of rice.
