“There were many unreported huge seismic events in Sumatera,” said Anthony Reid in his public lecture ‘Rewriting (Sumatran) History in the Light of Seismology’ held by CRCS-ICRS GMU on Wednesday, 13 July 2011. This special event was held in the room 306 CRCS-ICRS UGM and attended by both Indonesian and foreign academics.

According to Reid, tsunami had depopulated western coastal area of Sumatra over many times. Statistical reports of decreasing population support this assumption. Unfortunately the Islamic maritime kingdoms in Sumatra such as Samudera Pasai and Perlak had no historic report on the previous Hindu-Buddhist reign around the area.

Wednesday forum is a weekly public discussion on various topics of religion and culture organized by CRCS and Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). The forum is held every Wednesday at 12.30 – 2.30 PM in room 306 (3rd floor) of UGM graduate school building. Since 2002 many scholars, students, and researchers worldwide have presented their papers or on-going research in this forum.

Anyone who wants to make a presentation in this forum should fill out the Wedforum-form and send it to wednesdayforum@yahoo.com and crcs@ugm.ac.id. For further information and inquiries, please feel free to contact the organizer Najiyah Martiam (jim) at jiahjim@yahoo.com or Amanah Nurish at amnuris@yahoo.com.

It was on May 2, 2011 that Dr. Teresa Murphy came to CRCS GMU to be the speaker of the weekly Wednesday Forum. Under the title ‘The Importance of Religion in the US Labor Movement in the Early Nineteenth Century’ Dr. Murphy, a professor from George Washington University, tried to demonstrate the relation between religious change and the labor movement in the 1840s. In this presentation, Dr. Murphy also stressed the women’s important role in the labor movement. At first, Murphy described the Christian revival in the early 19th century in the United States, known as the Second Great Awakening. The number of conversions escalated greatly during this period, and participation in religious institutions exploded, leading to contestation of the traditional church hierarchy due to the more open concept of religious leadership. Religious services were no longer held solely in churches, but also in open encamps where women and the slaves could participate.

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.

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.