Pesantren is a traditional Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. It is taught either in private houses, a pondok or a mosque, the teaching includes classical Islamic texts and santri thought, taught by kyais.[1] According to one popular tradition, the pesantren education system originated from traditional Javanesepondokan, dormitories, ashrams for Hindus or viharas for Buddhists to learn religious philosophies, martial arts, and meditation. Institutions much like them are found across the Islamic world and are called pondok in Malaysia, Southern Thailand and madrasas in India and Pakistan and much of the Arabic-speaking world. The pesantren aims to deepen knowledge of the Quran, particularly through the study of Arabic, traditions of exegesis, the Sayings of the Prophet, law and logic. The term pesantren derives from the root word santri or student -- pe-santri-an or the place of the santri.[2]
As social institutions, pesantren have played a major role over the centuries. They emphasise core values of sincerity, simplicity, individual autonomy, solidarity and self-control. Young men and women are separated from their families, which contributes to a sense of individual commitment to the faith and close bonding to a teacher.[3][1]
Description
Most pesantren provide housing at little to no cost for the students (Santri). Students in pesantren have almost 20 hours of activities, beginning with early morning prayer at around 4 am to midnight with a study group in the dormitory. There are two types of educational systems for pupils at a pesantren. In the day, students attend formal schooling as in other places, and was mandatory until secondary school by 2005. In the late afternoon and evening, they shift to religious rituals and studies to complete their homework.
Pesantren are provided to Indonesian citizens at low cost; although today some modern pesantren charge higher fees than previously, they are still significantly cheaper than other educational institutions. Traditionally, students paid for food, lodging, and education through labour in the headmaster's fields.
All pesantren are led by a group of teachers and religious leaders known as Kyai. The Kyai is respected as a teacher and devout man. Kyai also play important roles in the community as a religious leader, and in recent years as a political figure. There are families that have long histories of providing Kyai to their communities, with some contemporary Kyai being grandsons and great-grandsons of the founders of renowned pesantren.[1][2]
Starting in the second half of the twentieth century, some pesantren started adding secular subjects to their curriculum as a way of negotiating modernity. The addition of state recognized curricula has affected traditional pesantren in a number of ways. It has led to greater control by the national government. It has also restricted the number of hours available for the traditional subjects making for difficult decisions. Many pesantren leaders have decided that the training of religious leaders is not their sole purpose and are now satisfied to graduate young men and women who have the morality of Kyai.[4] The reduction of hours available to now master two curricula has led to practical changes. While it is still possible for the children of the poor to work in the Kyai's economic ventures (more than just rice fields these days), most parents will pay both room and board and small tuition. The time that used to be spent working, is now spent in secular education.[1]
The pesantren curriculum has four possible components:
traditional religious education, called ngaji;
government-recognized curricula (there are two different types to choose from);
vocational skills training;
character development.
Pesantren differ to the degree that they engage each of these components; however, all agree that student character development is the defining characteristic of any pesantren.[5]
Through curricular redesign, pesantren people engage in a process of (re)imagining modernity. Modernity must be first imagined as potentially dangerous in terms of the morals that often accompany it. It must then be imagined as redeemable, that it can be detached from one set of "problematic" morals and reattached to Islamic morality.[6]
One prominent pesantren figure in Indonesia is Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), the fourthPresident of Indonesia. He was well-educated at pesantren in his youth and was himself the grandson of the Kyai that founded the Indonesian religious political organization, Nahdlatul Ulama. Gus Dur headed the organization from 1984 until 1999, and after his term as president, returned to teaching in his pesantren in Ciganjur, Jagakarsa.[7]
Abdurrahman Wahid, more colloquially known as Gus Dur, was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the fourth president of Indonesia, from his election in 1999 until he was removed from office in 2001. A long time leader within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, he was the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB). He was the son of Minister of Religious Affairs Wahid Hasyim, and the grandson of Nahdatul Ulama founder Hasyim Asy'ari. Due to a visual impairment caused by glaucoma, he was blind in the left eye and partially blind in his right eye. He was the first president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities. The name Abdurrahman Wahid means "Servant of Mercy the First".
Nahdlatul Ulama is an Islamic organization in Indonesia. Its membership numbered over 90 million in 2021, making it the largest Islamic organization in the world. NU is also a charitable body funding schools and hospitals as well as organizing communities to help alleviate poverty.
A kyai is an expert in Islam. This denomination is usually used among the ethnic Javanese people.
Kyai Haji Hasyim Asy'ari was an Indonesian ulama, National Hero and founder of Nahdlatul Ulama.
Abdul Wahid Hasyim was the first Minister of Religious Affairs in the government of President Sukarno of Indonesia, a post he held in 1945, and from 1949 to 1952.
Ahmad Mustofa Bisri is an Indonesian Islamic leader from Indonesia and was the ninth Chief Adviser of Nahdlatul Ulama. He is the head of Pondok Pesantren Raudlatuth Thalibin, Rembang, Central Java, Indonesia. Mustofa Bisri, well known as Gus Mus, is famous not only as a kyai—traditional Islamic teacher & leader, but also as a poet and painter.
Achmad Hasyim Muzadi was an Indonesian Islamic scholar and cleric who served as chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, from 1999 to 2010. The founder and director of the Al-Hikam Islamic boarding school, he was a proponent of moderate Islam, which he defined as being neither radical nor liberal, and criticized both Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic liberalism. Hasyim was the vice presidential running mate of President Megawati Sukarnoputri in the 2004 Indonesian presidential election, though the ticket was defeated in a runoff. He subsequently served in the Presidential Advisory Council from 2015 until his death.
Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor Ponorogo, also known as Pondok Modern Gontor, abbreviated as PMDG, or simply Pesantren Gontor, is a pesantren in Ponorogo Regency, East Java, Indonesia. Since its founding in 1926, the pesantren has become famous for the application of discipline, heavy emphasis on foreign languages, and strong network and cadre of alumni. It also has been an educational institution known for not being specifically tied to any political and social organization. The pesantren is considered the backbone of Muslim society in Indonesia, producing numerous leading figures in the history of Islam in Indonesia.
In Indonesian Islamic education, Kitab kuning refers to the traditional set of the Islamic texts used by the educational curriculum of the Islamic seminary in Indonesia, especially within the madrasahs and pesantrens. Coverage of kitab kuning extends from the principles of Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic creeds (aqidah), Islamic ethics (akhlaq), science of Islamic mysticism (tasawwuf), sciences of Arabic language, science of Qur'anic recitations (tajwid), hadith studies, tafsir, Qur'anic studies to social sciences. It is also known as kitab gundul due to the content in the Arabic language does not employ vowel marks (harakat), unlike the Qur'an. Therefore, mastering of kitab kuning is considered to require a substantial amount of time. Collections of the Islamic texts employed as kitab kuning may vary, depending on the type of institution, individual schools, kyai, and region, with certain prerequisite materials such as Tafsir al-Jalalayn.
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