Affirming Unity in a Shared Temple

Abstract

The Lingsar Temple and its annual festival, Pujwali, serve as a unifying event for the local Sasak Muslims and Hindus of Balinese origin. Constructed above abundant water springs in Lingsar, West Lombok, Indonesia, the temple complex holds significant religious importance due to the sacred properties attributed to its waters. This article explores recent developments in the multireligious festival. My fieldwork spans from 2017 to 2023, a period marked by significant changes. Analysing these changes provides insights into the entanglements of multicultural religious encounters during Pujawali and the ambivalence of majority–minority relations. The festival has navigated challenges such as earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic, shifts in power dynamics, evolving gender relations, the empowerment of the local Muslim community, and intrareligious crises within Hindu leadership. This article introduces an intrareligious perspective on the festival centred around sustaining interreligious unity and culminating in collaborative efforts between the two religious communities.