Learning Tolerance from Sriwijaya

Researcher from the National Archaeological Research Center, Bambang Budi Utomo, advocates for learning tolerance from past history. He claimed to be concerned with the amount of blasphemy and the spread of hatred in cyberspace due to differences in political choices and differences in understanding of religion today.

Bambang Budi Utomo gave an example, in the days of the Buddhist Srivijaya era, all religious adherents could coexist despite different beliefs. This can be proven from the Boddhisattwa Awalokiteswara Statue which was made by a Hindu priest who was awarded to Buddhists.

"Interestingly behind the statue there is a sculpture of ancient Javanese script which reads 'And Acaryya Syuta', the Hindu priest's name," said the archeologist who is often called Tomi, after the Socialization of Sriwijaya Civilization House in the Archaeological Park of the Kingdom of Sriwijaya, Karanganyar, Palembang, Wednesday (Wednesday). 7/16).

Tomi also explained, proof of tolerance did not stop at the statue. Another example is when the Maharaja of the Srivijaya Kingdom sent a letter to Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz who came to power in 717-720 AD in the Caliphate of the Umayyad dynasty. The contents of the letter is a message of a shipment from Sriwijaya as a sign of friendship. "Also the request to send a preacher to teach Islam and explain to him, about the laws of the Islamic religion," continued Tomi.

This does not necessarily mean the conversion of the maharaja. The issue of whether the maharaja eventually converted to Islam or not, according to Tomi, there are no clues to the findings that explain it, given that Srivijaya is still recorded Buddhism patterned in the notes afterwards. The letter from Maharaja Sriwijaya to Kholifah Umar bin Abdul Aziz was included in the Fatimi Manuscript which had been published by the Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University in Islamabad, 1963.

Some other archaeological discoveries also increasingly illustrate the Kingdom of Srivijaya is very tolerant with the discovery of Sriwijaya ships that sank in the waters of Cirebon, in which found artifacts such as glass goods from Persia, pendants containing Asmaul Husna with a half-millimeter size, "There is also gold and glass goods from China , "Added Tom.

Tomi, who is also listed as an Archaeologist, an alumnus of the University of Indonesia, hopes that young people can restrain themselves from differences and learn from history. "Besides Srivijaya, the Majapahit Kingdom afterward, also taught tolerance," he said. Tolerance is the key to becoming an Indonesian full of diversity of cultures, ethnicities and languages.

Source: tempo.co

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