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CREATIVE NEGOTIATION WITHIN LOCAL ISLAMIC TRADITION: An Ethnography of the Balimau Tradition in Kuntu, Riau
This dissertation examines creative negotiation within local Islamic tradition through an ethnographic analysis of the Balimau tradition in Kuntu village, Riau Province, Indonesia. When I first began researching this distinctive bathing ritual along the banks of the Subayang River in 2015, I was initially drawn to document what appeared to be a straightforward example of local Islamic practice. However, my sustained fieldwork from 2021 to 2024 revealed that this tradition, which had indeed begun as a simple ritual, had undergone complex transformations. The research became particularly compelling after reconstructing the pivotal 2017 controversy when religious authorities declared the tradition had deviated from proper Islamic practice. The research explores how the Kuntu community navigated between religious orthodoxy and cultural preservation when their centuries-old tradition faced existential threats. Through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of local manuscripts, I documented the historical trajectory from simple purification practice to contested cultural tradition. The study reveals that tradition sustainability depends not merely on formal religious authorities but on complex negotiations involving all community members who possess social, political, or economic interests in traditional practices. The 2017 crisis became a watershed moment when youth organizers floated a symbolic coffin down the Subayang River with banners declaring “Tradition is Dead,” demonstrating how resistance operates through cultural mourning rather than direct theological confrontation. My analysis introduces the concept of “creative negotiation within local Islamic tradition” to understand how communities maintain meaningful practices without directly confronting religious authority. I synthesize insights from three complementary theoretical perspectives: Lila Abu-Lughod’s concept of embedded resistance that operates within rather than against power structures, James Scott’s analysis of how ritual spaces become political arenas where meaning is contested, and Asef Bayat’s framework of quiet encroachment through gradual accumulation of small gains. This synthesis reveals that creative negotiation operates simultaneously through three interconnected mechanisms: embedded positioning within existing Islamic frameworks, political transformation of ritual meaning and authority, and gradual non-confrontational advancement of cultural claims. The ethnographic analysis demonstrates how these mechanisms functioned in practice during and after the 2017 crisis. Youth organizers never challenged religious authority directly or questioned Islamic legitimacy. Instead, they mourned tradition’s death while emphasizing social bonds and constitutional rights, positioning themselves as cultural mourners rather than religious rebels. Their protest transformed the Subayang River into a political arena where competing claims about tradition, modernity, and Islamic authenticity were publicly contested. This episodic visible action formed part of a longer pattern of quiet persistence, as youth continued organizing, maintained community networks, and gradually reframed discourse from “Is this Islamic?” to “Is this our tradition?” The findings demonstrate that Islamic traditions maintain vitality not through rigid orthodoxy but through productive tensions between competing interpretations. The Balimau case reveals how the principle of “adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi kitabullah” (custom based on Islamic law, Islamic law based on the Quran) serves not as a fixed formula but as a dynamic framework enabling creative adaptation. Both critics and defenders of Balimau positioned themselves as upholding this principle, demonstrating how diverse positions could coexist within a shared Islamic framework rather than unified orthodoxy. Multiple legitimate interpretations operate simultaneously within the same discursive framework, with religious authorities creating interpretive space through strategic incompleteness while cultural agents exploit this space through discursive innovation.
PASCASARJANA, UIN SUNAN KALIJAGA YOGYAKARTA
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