Desa Kepaon: Denpasar, Bali

By Barrie | September 25th, 2007 | No Comments

Women in headscarves standing in front of their homes, children in Muslim garb walking out of a mosque clutching the Qur’an and the sound of Adzan from the mosque calling out for prayers, makes Kepaon village in Denpasar, Bali, distinct from others.

Kampong Islam Kepaon was Bali’s first Muslim kampong. During the fasting month of Ramadhan, when Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations from dawn to sunset, the Al-Muhajirin mosque in the kampong never sleeps.

“People here recite the Qur’an after tarawih prayers at night until just before dawn. They stop when it’s time to eat sahur (the pre-dawn meal),” the kampong head, Ahmad Subawa, said.

Despite being predominantly Hindu, Bali has a number of Muslim kampongs located beside Hindu villages. Besides Kepaon, there are also the Muslim kampongs of Serangan and Pegayaman in Buleleng regency, Saren Jawa village in Karangasem regency and Minggir village in Klungkung regency.

The story of Kampong Islam Kepaon, according to Ahmad, started in the eighteenth century. A Balinese princess from Pemecutan Palace, who had converted to Islam after marrying a Madurese Muslim prince from Sampalan Palace, returned to Denpasar after living 30 years in Madura. She returned after the death of her husband and brought her servants with her. One night, she was killed by a palace guard, who thought she was practicing witchcraft when she was doing her Muslim prayers.

She was buried according to Islamic tradition and her servants were given land in Kepaon by the Pemecutan Prince, the princess’ brother.

The Kepaon village has since thrived as a Muslim kampong and is home to many people from the neighboring island of Java, who come to try their luck on the resort-island of Bali.

However, after terrorist attacks on the island, a number of Javanese-Muslims returned to Java.

It seems the bombings not only scared the tourists away at that time, but also drove many Javanese to return to their hometowns.
Ahmad said the current number of families in Kepaon is 386; around half the number of families that lived in the kampong before the bombings.

“There were a lot of Muslims from Java who lived here but after the bombings they left, because the tourism sector, which they worked in, deteriorated drastically.”

“Most of them were taxi drivers or workers in handicraft factories, who lost their jobs when tourism dropped,” Ahmad said.

He said there was a subtle negative sentiment toward Muslims following the bombings, as the perpetrators — Amrozi and Imam Samudra, who are currently awaiting their executions — were acting under the name of Islam. However, negative sentiment died down since Kepaon residents themselves became victims; three kampong residents died in the 2002 bombing.

Two years after the second Bali bombing in 2005, and five years on from the first bombings in 2002, tourism in Bali has slowly recovered.

As of July this year, more than 900,000 tourists visited the island and were once again frolicking on Kuta beach, diving in Nusa Lembongan, watching kecak (fire dance) in Tanah Lot and enjoying the rice paddies in Ubud. The number of tourists had dropped by 23 percent after the first terrorist attack and by 9.1 after the second one.

These developments, however, have yet to attract the residents of Kepaon to return from Java. “Maybe they have settled back in their hometowns,” he said.

Learning from the volatile conditions of the tourism industry, the youth in Kepaon village have looked to other sectors to earn a living.

“Some youngsters work for the government, some work as teachers or in banks,” he said. “Any work is good as long as it is halal (lawful).”

Prodita Sabarini