Chinese Muslims: how Indonesia’s ‘minority within a minority’ celebrate Lunar New Year
- Chinese Indonesians make up less than 5 per cent of the 260 million population – and Chinese Muslims number around 131,000
As he does every year, ethnic Chinese Indonesian Purnama celebrated Lunar New Year on Saturday at a dinner with his extended family of more than 50 in Jakarta where they exchanged traditional red envelopes containing money.
But the 49-year-old Purnama, who uses one name, is unlike most of his ethnic Chinese family: he is a Muslim.
At the dinner, he and his immediate family were at a table where all the food was halal, while the rest of the tables featured non-halal dishes for the non-Muslims. But the difference in the food was not a big deal for Purnama.
“Lunar New Year just means hanging out with the family. There are no extraordinary traditions for me,” he said.
Ethnic Chinese Muslims like Purnama, who converted in 1994, have a peculiar identity in Indonesia: a minority within a minority.