Religion and Faith

Indonesia is an interesting place for religion. It is a secular country, however a majority of the population identify as Muslim. However in Flores a majority of the population identify as Catholic, mostly due to colonisation by the Portuguese in the 16th century. In Alor a majority of the population identify as Protestant, as they were colonised by the Dutch.
You will often see a simple village with bamboo and wood houses, with a huge massive church (made of bricks and concrete) in the village.
However you will still see mosques around and hear the call for prayer.
In Bajawa we pass a huge mosque and church in town which are right across the road from each other.
Lila has been quite interested in different religions during this trip as we have been exposed to a range of different religions and have seen quite a lot of temples, mosques and churches. Tonight after dinner at a small local restaurant, Lila asks one of the ladies to wrap her scarf on her head, she is very proud of wearing her scarf like this tonight.
The next morning she says 'i like wearing this scarf because I believe in Buddha. When we go back to Australia I'm going to visit the mosque to pray'.もっと詳しく