Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Country

Indonesia

Also Known As Indonesian
Asia

Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population, predominantly Sunni, though the archipelago's religious history runs much deeper, including the Hindu Majapahit empire whose religious culture survives today on the island of Bali, where a distinct form of Hinduism remains the majority faith. Java's Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist monument, and the nearby Hindu temple complex of Prambanan attest to centuries of Hindu-Buddhist civilization before Islam's gradual spread from the thirteenth century onward. Indonesian Islam absorbed substantial local and mystical influence, producing distinct Sufi oriented and syncretic traditions in different regions. The country's constitution recognizes six official religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, alongside Islam, though numerous indigenous belief systems fall outside that recognized list and face administrative and social disadvantage as a result.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
Varies by Province 3
The national state ideology of Pancasila requires belief in one supreme god and six religions are officially recognised nationwide, but Aceh province holds special autonomy to implement sharia law, including public caning for certain offences, a legal regime the rest of Indonesia does not share.
State Funding Mechanism
Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs funds each of the six officially recognized religions through its own directorate general, but on sharply unequal terms: the 2025 state budget allocated 39.6 trillion rupiah to Muslim affairs overall, split among Islamic Community Guidance, the Hajj and Umrah Organization and Islamic Education, against roughly 1 trillion rupiah for Christian Community Guidance and 326 billion rupiah for Buddhist Community Guidance, even though the non-Muslim directorates cover the same breadth of worship, education and community functions on a fraction of the funding. 4
Apostasy or Blasphemy Law
Aceh province has special autonomy to implement sharia law, including public caning for certain offenses. 3
Registration or Recognition Regime
The state ideology of Pancasila requires belief in one supreme god, and six religions are officially recognised. 3
Ban or Official Watchlist
A 2008 joint decree of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Attorney General's Office bars the Ahmadiyya community from proselytizing, publicly spreading its teachings or holding related activity, with violation prosecuted as blasphemy and carrying up to five years' imprisonment; a further joint decree bars the Fajar Nusantara Movement, known as Gafatar, on the same terms. The Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), a quasi-governmental clerical body, has issued fatwas naming Inkar al-Sunnah, Islam Jama'ah, the Lia Eden Community and al-Qiyadah al-Islamiyah deviant alongside Ahmadiyya, and published a 2013 guidebook cautioning against Shia teaching. 3
Concordat BasisSourced to the subject's own account
Indonesia has no concordat with the Holy See. Diplomatic relations began with an Apostolic Delegate from 6 July 1947, the year after independence, were elevated to an Apostolic Pro-Nunciature on 7 December 1965 and to a full Apostolic Nunciature on 14 June 1969. Indonesia's state ideology, Pancasila, recognizes belief in one God as a founding principle without naming an official religion, and its Ministry of Religious Affairs administers Catholicism as one of six officially recognized religions rather than through any bilateral instrument with Rome. 5
Geography
Latitude
0.8 degrees south 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
113.9 degrees east 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Status
Legal Status
State ideology of Pancasila requires belief in one supreme god; six religions are officially recognized; Aceh province has special autonomy to implement sharia law including public caning for certain offenses. 3
Government type (class)
Presidential republic 2
Demographics
Religious Composition
About 87% Muslim (overwhelmingly Sunni); Protestant and Catholic minorities each near 3%; Hindu (concentrated in Bali), Buddhist and Confucian populations among six officially recognized religions (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1
Government
Capital
Jakarta 2
Government Type
presidential republic 2
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 2
Established Year
1945 2
17 August 1945 (declared independence from the Netherlands)
Classification
State Funding of Religion
State-Preferred or State-Supported Religions 6
Location
Location of Indonesia Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Learn More
Religion and History in Indonesia

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country by population, around 87 percent Muslim per Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, overwhelmingly Sunni, alongside Protestant and Catholic minorities each around 3 percent, and smaller Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian populations recognized among the country's six officially sanctioned religions.

Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, including Srivijaya and Majapahit, dominated the archipelago for over a millennium before Islam, spread gradually by traders and Sufi missionaries from the thirteenth century onward, became the majority faith across most islands by the sixteenth century; Bali alone retained a distinct Hindu majority, developing Balinese Hinduism, a form blending Indian Shaiva traditions with local ancestor and spirit veneration. Indonesian Islam is known for its historically syncretic and moderate character, absorbing earlier Hindu-Buddhist and animist elements especially in Javanese kebatinan mysticism, though the late twentieth century saw growing influence from more scripturalist reform movements, including Muhammadiyah and, on a more purist model, Salafi currents linked to Middle Eastern funding. Dutch colonial rule from the seventeenth century introduced Protestant Christianity in areas such as the Moluccas, Sulawesi and parts of Sumatra, while Catholic missions concentrated in Flores and Timor.

Indonesia's Six Recognized Religions and Interfaith Tension

Indonesia's constitution requires belief in one supreme god under the state ideology of Pancasila, formally recognizing six religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, a framework that leaves indigenous animist and folk traditions in an uncertain legal position, though a 2017 Constitutional Court ruling required the state to recognize adherents of indigenous faiths on identity documents. Aceh province holds special autonomy to implement its own version of sharia law, including public caning for offenses such as gambling, alcohol consumption and extramarital relations, an arrangement negotiated as part of the 2005 peace settlement ending a long separatist conflict.

Religious minorities, including Ahmadi Muslims, considered heretical by many mainstream Sunni authorities, and Shia Muslims, have faced episodes of mob violence and forced closure of houses of worship, and Christian communities in the Moluccas and Sulawesi experienced severe sectarian conflict in the late 1990s and early 2000s that killed thousands before a fragile peace took hold. Blasphemy laws, used more frequently in the twenty-first century than in earlier decades, have been applied against religious minorities and, in a widely covered 2017 case, against Jakarta's Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, whose conviction and imprisonment for blasphemy drew significant domestic and international attention.

Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Bali, Regions
Source GeoNames: GeoNames search for Bali
Borneo, Regions
Source WorldAtlas: Borneo
Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions
Sulawesi, Regions
Source WorldAtlas: Sulawesi

Associated With

This source names Indonesia directly: "as the first Apostolic Delegate to Indonesia from 6 July 1947, the mission elevated to Apostolic Pro-Nunciature on 7 December 1965 and to a full Apostolic Nunciature on 14 June 1969."

Source Apostolic Nunciature to Indonesia (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Indonesia directly: "2026 program in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, attended by 1,813 people in person and 602 by videoconference."

Source Bible Books Released in Three Languages During May 2026 (JW.ORG)

This source names Indonesia directly: "Norms, Five Genders among Bugis in Indonesia, published by Thomson Wadsworth in 2007 as part of the long running Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology series, is a short ethnography built on..."

Source Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders Among Bugis in IndonesiaSharyn Graham Davies

This source names Indonesia directly: "after decades studying the music of Indonesia."

Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD

Gamelan Sekaten is kept by the Javanese courts of Indonesia and played through the week leading to Sekaten.

Source Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central JavaSumarsam

This source names Indonesia directly: "traditions from other regions of Indonesia, such as Bali, needs a source focused on that separate regional tradition rather than being drawn from this Central Javanese study."

Source Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central JavaSumarsam

This source names Indonesia directly: "conflict prevention organization whose Indonesia team maintained direct contact with combatants and officials on both sides of the Maluku conflict throughout its course."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition
Islam, Religions

About 87% Muslim, overwhelmingly Sunni; the world's largest Muslim population.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
Javanese, Pantheons
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Indonesia directly: "A Badan Wakaf Indonesia news page quoting its chairman's stated estimate of Indonesia's annual national waqf potential and the number of waqf locations recorded across the country."

Source Ketua Badan Wakaf Indonesia Ungkap Potensi Wakaf Rp400 Triliun (Badan Wakaf Indonesia, 2025)

This source names Indonesia directly: "Jiayi, and a hospital that opened in Indonesia in 2021."

Source Medicine Mission (Tzu Chi Charity Foundation Official Page)Tzu Chi Charity Foundation

This source names Indonesia directly: "and Brunei, and kuntilanak in Indonesia, especially Java."

Source Malay Magic (Skeat)Walter William Skeat

This source names Indonesia directly: "as the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia."

Source Prambanan (Wikipedia)

This source names Indonesia directly: "An Indonesian legal-affairs explainer site's account of Confucianism's official status in Indonesia: recognised in 1965 under Law No."

Source Sejarah Konghucu Jadi Agama Di Indonesia (Klikhukum.id)

This source names Indonesia directly: "a bronze with silver inlay, Indonesia (Java), second half of the 9th to early 10th century, Asian Art department."

Source Standing Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Flanked by Tara and Bhrikuti(?), accession 1987.142.22 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Bugis, Sources

This source names Indonesia directly: "of the Bugis people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, examining their maritime culture, social structure and the syncretic blending of Islamic practice with older indigenous religious elements, written..."

Source The BugisChristian Pelras
Toraja, Pantheons

This source names Indonesia directly: "of the Toraja of highland Sulawesi in Indonesia."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

This source names Indonesia directly: "headdress and batik skirt, West Java, Indonesia, Javanese culture, collected 1974 to 1976."

Source Wayang Golek Puppet: Adipati Karna, accession 361230 (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

This source names Indonesia directly: "headdress and batik skirt, West Java, Indonesia, Javanese culture, collected 1974 to 1976 by Edward H."

Source Wayang Golek Puppet: Adipati Karna, accession 361230 (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

This source names Indonesia directly: "record for wayang puppet theatre of Indonesia, proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003 and inscribed in 2008, consulted 2026-08-13."

Source Wayang Puppet Theatre, UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanityUNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Contains

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Originated Here

Associated with Barus on the west coast of Sumatra. The dates of his life are disputed.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

The day of silence kept in Bali, and a public holiday only in Indonesia.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Qudusiyah - Wikipedia
Source The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Seated Transcendent Buddha Vairochana
Source The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Standing Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Flanked by Tara and Bhrikuti(?)

One of the nine walis of Javanese tradition. The accounts of his life are chronicle and hagiography rather than record, and his dates are unknown.

Source Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central JavaSumarsam

Spread Events Here

Source Sejarah Konghucu Jadi Agama Di Indonesia (Klikhukum.id)
Source Sufism: A Global HistoryNile Green

Java specifically; Bali, part of the same country entity, is named in the description as the exception this event does not cover.

Source Majapahit (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Source Bible Books Released in Three Languages During May 2026 (JW.ORG)
Source Prambanan (World History Encyclopedia)
Source Majapahit (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyGovernment, government type: IndonesiaView the Source
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
4. Indonesia's New Ministry of Hajj: Public Service Innovation or Religious Favoritism? (ICRS Yogyakarta)
M Rizal Abdi, Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), Universitas Gadjah MadaView the Source
5. Apostolic Nunciature to Indonesia (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaView the Source
6. The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press
  • demonym / adjectival form
  • Entity description, state-funding
    The country's constitution recognizes six official religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, alongside Islam, though numerous indigenous belief systems fall outside that recognized list and face administrative and social disadvantage as a result.
View the Source
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Standing Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Flanked by Tara and Bhrikuti(?)
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtOriginated Here: Standing Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Flanked by Tara and Bhrikuti(?) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.142.22), Collection record (open API), culture field
Quote, Originated Here: Standing Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara Flanked by Tara and Bhrikuti(?) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.142.22), Collection record (open API), culture field
"culture": "Indonesia (Java)"
View the Source
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Seated Transcendent Buddha Vairochana
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtOriginated Here: Seated Transcendent Buddha Vairochana (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.142.23), Collection record (open API), culture field
Quote, Originated Here: Seated Transcendent Buddha Vairochana (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.142.23), Collection record (open API), culture field
"culture": "Indonesia (Java)"
View the Source
Qudusiyah - Wikipedia
Originated Here: Qudusiyah, Lead
Quote, Originated Here: Qudusiyah, Lead
founded in 1968 in Cilegon, Banten
View the Source
GeoNames: GeoNames search for Bali
GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Bali, Search result for Bali
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Bali, Search result for Bali
-8.3333333 115.0 Indonesia , Bali island
View the Source
WorldAtlas: Borneo
WorldAtlasAncient and Historical Regions: Borneo, Lead: Indonesia
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Borneo, Lead: Indonesia
Borneo has the distinction of being the only island in the world that is shared by three countries: Malaysia , Indonesia , and Brunei .
View the Source
WorldAtlas: Sulawesi
WorldAtlasAncient and Historical Regions: Sulawesi, Lead
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Sulawesi, Lead
The island of Sulawesi is located in the center of the Indonesian archipelago.
View the Source
United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions
United Nations Statistics DivisionAncient and Historical Regions: Southeast Asia, Geographic regions table, South-eastern Asia
Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Southeast Asia, Geographic regions table, South-eastern Asia
South-eastern Asia 035 Brunei Darussalam 096 BRN Cambodia 116 KHM LDC Indonesia 360 IDN Lao People's Democratic Republic 418 LAO LDC LLDC Malaysia 458 MYS Myanmar 104 MMR LDC Philippines 608 PHL Singapore 702 SGP SIDS Thailand 764 THA Timor-Leste 626 TLS LDC SIDS Viet Nam 704 VNM
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.