Week 289: 1000 Javanese Temples, Pashubali v Qurbani, Aesthetic!

06/29/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: a Program to build 1000 Javanese Temples, Pashubali v Qurbani, and an aesthetic!

Program Highlight: Program 1000 Candi Nusantara

Generally readers that think of Hinduism in Indonesia will immediately assume Bali - and there is good reason for that. The Balinese are the most firmly Hindu ethnicity in Indonesia and the group that spearheaded the Hindu revival in the country post-independence. However Bali is not the only place that Hinduism is practiced in Indonesia and Hinduism has an illustrious and long history in the island of Java as well.

As an aside, we have covered Indonesia related topics in Week 5, Week 282, and Week 2, amongst others. There are likely over 1 million Hindus in Java, a constant Hindu presence, lots of history, and in recent decades many have converted to Hinduism in Java. To further that revival, Javanese Hindu groups are working on a project called “Project 1000 Candi Nusantara” (candi meaning “Temple” and nusantara meaning “outer islands/archipelago”) with the goal of opening 1000 Javanese-style Hindu temples across Indonesia. We first learned about this through porbotialora on X.

For our readers who know Bahasa Indonesia, we are linking a podcast episode below that covers this initiative. Readers who do not know Bahasa Indonesia are encouraged to use YouTube’s “Autotranslate” feature and select their language of choice.

Comparative Religion Highlight: Pashubali vs Qurbani

We have covered the Hindu topic of pashubali (animal sacrifice) and its religious sanctity and justification in previous issues such as Week 2, Week 198, and Week 257. We encourage readers to read all three before delving in to the thread below.

Aesthetic: Andhra Pradesh Hindu Temple