The “Religiosity in Diversity” trilogy represents firm evidence to development of human rights, democracy, civic society, and academia along inclusivist lines in Indonesia, and records attempts at institutionalizing pluralism in practice that remains accessible to various audiences (institutional, academic, activist) both in Indonesia and worldwide.

This is an interesting article, because giving good portrait about how religious diversity, multicultural, multiethnic colouring in Javanese contemporaries live and the frictions that caused by the diversities. Through in this article, Ivana made an interesting reading to the trilogy of films in relations of the varieties backgrounds in Javanese with using anthropological perspective at both epistemological and methodological levels.

Buddhist ancient sites around Yogyakarta have been marginalized under the shadow of Prambanan Hindu temple, the biggest in the region, said Kris Budiman in his presentation at CRCS-ICRS Wednesday forum held on May 11th 2011. A lecturer at post-graduate program of Media and Cultural studies GMU tried to capture the condition of the Buddhist sites and constellations between the government, the Buddhists and local people living in the neighborhood.

Kris initially stated that his presentation was not going to be in academic tone instead of in what he called “travelling” [narratives]. Pictures of the Buddhist artifacts including temples and statues featured prominently in his presentation slides. Those are the minor sites, amongst are very small remains, located in some places of around Yogyakarta. They come from the era of old Mataram kingdom ruled by Sailendra Buddhist dynasty during eighth to ninth century CE.

Di sekitar Yogyakarta sebenarnya terdapat banyak situs-situs kuno agama Budha. Namun, keberadaannya terpinggirkan di bawah bayang-bayang Candi Prambanan, candi Hindu terbesar di Asia Tenggara. Inilah tema utama yang dipresentasikan oleh Kris Budiman pada Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS 11 Mei 2011 yang lalu. Pengajar pada program Kajian Budaya dan Media Sekolah Pascasarjana UGM ini mencoba merekam kondisi situs-situs Budha terkait dengan perhatian pemerintah, umat Budha dan masyarakat lokal sekitar lokasi situs-situs tersebut.

Dr. Judith Schlehe, German Anthropologist who has also a specialization in South Asian Studies, was the speaker for the CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum on April 13th 2011. Dr. Judith Schlehe made her presentation on ‘Bukit Kasih, the Hill of Love: Multireligiosity for Pleasure’. It is the result of her field research on tourism site in North Sulawesi called Bukit Kasih (Hill of Love) which has a concept of inter-religious tourism marked by worship houses of different religions.

Bukit Kasih is located in the village of Kanonang, Kawangkoan District, Minahasa Regency, Governorate of North Sulawesi. From Manado, the capital of Governorate, it is fifty about kilometers far to the south. The location is a hilly area which considered as holy site according to the local ancestral belief. It was first opened as Bukit Doa (Hill of Prayer) in 1999, but later in 2004 the Indonesian State recognized the place as the religious place. They erected five religious houses and the place were name as Bukit Kasih.

Ms. Amanah Nurish, an alumni of CRCS came to the CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum on 27th April 2011 and presented the paper on ‘Baha’ism in European Countries. She traveled to some of the European countries months ago to find out the religious life of the Baha’i community. She made her interest to study about the Baha’i community in different part of the world and she wrote her thesis on “Baha’sm in Indonesia” as the required fulfillment of the Master’s program at CRCS. She made the comparative study between Baha’is in Europe and Indonesia in terms of the religious freedom. In her study, she have found the Baha’ism as the new Abrahamic religion access more privilege in the European countries than in Indonesia. According to her findings from the interviews, the Baha’i community can access to the freedom of religious practices in Germany and Netherland, whereas paradoxically in Indonesia, the Baha’i is not even recognized by the state. In the birthplace, Baha’is suffer the persecution by the local Iranian rule. For the Muslim clergy, Baha’ism is seen as the offshoot of the Abrahamic religions which labeled as apostasy. Many Muslims majority countries, except the Turkey, chastised to this new religious movement. This made Baha’is from the Middle East who prevails in the European countries find the freedom of religiosity.