吧国公堂对华人宗教活动的管理

受原乡传统的影响,中国人在向印尼移民的过程中,也把传统的宗教信仰带到了印尼。自有华人定居吧城之时起,就"有人必有庙"。至元明时期,华人庙宇已遍布印尼各地,尤以吧城为盛。吧国公堂是荷兰殖民时期吧城华人处理华人社会内部诸项事务的具有半自治性质的行政和司法机构,对华人宗教活动的管理是其重要职能之一。吧国公堂名下有华人四大佛教庙宇,即观音亭、完劫寺、安恤神庙和玄天上帝庙,其中以观音亭建立时间最早、影响最大。为管理与维护上述四大寺庙,公堂设置有专门的"掌庙宇公勃低"一职,还定期安排官员轮值管理不同的寺庙。公堂对华人寺庙的管理,包括主持中元节及清明节祭祀等宗教活动、寺庙的重修与维护、募集善缘题捐、监管寺庙日常工作(包括向荷印殖民政府申请僧人移民来到吧城,负责各寺庙僧众的选任、离职和监管,监督寺庙所属土地及房屋的出租,管理寺庙所属器具,监管寺庙日常收支及处理寺庙与周边民众的纠纷等等)。在某种意义上,吧国公堂对华人宗教活动的管理是其半自治性质的一种体现。到19世纪中后期,随着荷兰殖民统治力量的增强,公堂的自治权逐渐被削弱。二战后印尼政府又对华人宗教活动进行诸多限制,于是公堂对华人宗教活动的管理权逐步丧失。1970年代印尼政府更下令将具有华族色彩的庙宇(Klenteng)改为佛寺(Vihara),并禁止华人再建新的庙宇。

An Analysis on the Administration of Chinese Religious Activities of the Gongtang

Influenced by the tradition of hometown,Chinese immigrants to Indonesia have carried their traditional religious beliefs for a long time.By Yuan and Ming dynasties,Chinese temples had spread all over Indonesia,especially in Batavia.The Gongtang is a semi-autonomously administrative and judicial body for Chinese to deal with various internal affairs of Chinese society in Batavia,among which the management of Chinese religious activities is one of its important functions.There are four major Chinese buddhist temples belong to the Gongtang,namely Kuanyin Temple,Wanjie Temple,Anxu God Temple and Xuantian God Temple,among which Kuanyin Temple was the earliest and most influential one.In a sense,the administration of Chinese religious activities by the Gongtang is an embodiment of its semi-autonomous nature.By the middle and late 19th century,with the increase of Dutch colonial power,the autonomy of the Gongtang was gradually weakened.After WWII,Indonesian government imposed many restrictions on the religious activities of the Chinese,the Gongtang gradually lost the right to manage the religious activities of the Chinese.In the 1970s,Indonesian government even ordered that the temples with Chinese characteristics(Klenteng)should be replaced by buddhist temples(Vihara),and the Chinese were forbidden to build new temples.