OGOH - OGOH

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, with Indonesian Independence the principle of freedom of religion and One God was put in place (Pancasila). However, the religions recognised by the new Indonesian Government were limited, and a couple of those religions need to do a little bit of restructuring in order to comply with the new requirement to worship "One God".

The Buddhists adopted the principle of Adibuddha as the only Buddhist God, and Bali-Hindu put forward Sang Hyang Widi Wasa as the principle of belief in One God.

You could say that Sang Hyang Widi Wasa became more prominent in the Bali-Hindu belief system with the arrival of Indonesian Independence.

Edit

A thought just occurred to me. In Hindu belief in general, there is the acknowledgement that the individual deities are in fact aspects of a central entity --- somebody will perhaps argue with this, and as with all things concerned with belief systems, everybody is entitled to the belief that works best for him.

However, with this "Sang Hyang Widi Wasa" name, I believe I recall reading somewhere that this actual name --- not the concept, just the name --- was invented by Christian missionaries to express the Christian idea of God Almighty. I suspect this might have happened during the 1930's, certainly not back in pre-Puputan Bali.