Digital repository of Chinese temple and sea guardian deity tradition

Abstract

Respect for the sea is a form of local wisdom of Indonesian people who are maritime countries. Many ethnic groups in Indonesia see the sea as something sacred apart from the profane. Traditions and rituals related to the sea are a sign of respect for the sea. Likewise, in Chinese society in Indonesia, respect for the sea appears with the existence of temples located on the coast. Globalization is characterized by the loss of local wisdom and sacred traditions, but here can be seen the persistence of local wisdom traditions in viewing the sacred. The study was conducted using ethnographic research methods, which were carried out in several temples that had sea guardian deities as host gods, such as in Makassar, Jakarta, Karawang, and Madiun. This research will discuss the rituals intended to honour Mazupo as a sea guardian deity as a form of local wisdom in maritime society. Those rituals are local wisdom because the form of worship is a life value system inherited from one generation to the next in the form of religion, culture or customs which are generally in oral form in a society's social system and become sacred.