Sufism and the Sacred Feminine in Lombok, Indonesia

Situating Spirit Queen Dewi Anjani and Female Saints in Nahdlatul Wathan

Bibliographic Data

ID4314281
AuthorsBianca J Smith (University of Mataram, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue8
Pages563
Publication date2021-07-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12080563
OpenAlexW3186509319
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited35

This article is a feminist ethnographic exploration of how 'indigenous' notions of a 'sacred feminine' shape Sufi praxis on the island of Lombok in the eastern part of Indonesia in Southeast Asia. I demonstrate through long-term immersive anthropological fieldwork how in her indigenous form as Dewi Anjani 'Spirit Queen of Jinn' and as 'Holy Saint of Allah' who rules Lombok from Mount Rinjani, together with a living female saint and Murshida with whom she shares sacred kinship, these feminine beings shape the kind of Sufi praxis that has formed in the largest local Islamic organization in Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan, and its Sufi order, Hizib Nahdlatul Wathan. Arguments are situated in a Sufi feminist standpoint, revealing how an active integration of indigeneity into understandings of mystical experience gives meaning to the sacred feminine in aspects of Sufi praxis in both complementary and hierarchical ways without challenging Islamic gender constructs that reproduce patriarchal expressions of Sufism and Islam

Art · Art history · Ceremony · Epistemology · Ethnography · Indigenous · Islam · Mysticism · Praxis · SAINT · Sociology · Sufism · Theology · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Cultural and Religious Practices in Indonesia · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and Radicalism · Philosophy · Religious studies

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Open DOIOpen Access