The dissertation is a part of an ethno-historical study focuses on the encounter between tourism development in Southeast Asia and cultural practices rooted in two indigenous religions; Sunda Wiwitan and Momolianism. The research aimed at addressing a central question; why do Kasepuhan Ciptagelar in West Java, Indonesia and Dusun community in Bundu Tuhan, Sabah, Malaysia take tourism as the opportunity to strengthen their cultural identities rooted in the indigenous religions in both areas? This question is narrowed down into three research questions to examine the engagement between the movement to re-gain cultural identity and the arrival of tourism in the contemporary Southeast Asia, which are; (1) Why do Kasepuhan Ciptagelar and Bundu Tuhan Dusun community resist various external forces in the course of their history?, (2) How do these two indigenous groups revive local belief as a part of their identity to establish resistances toward external forces treating their existence? And (3) How does the engagement with tourism shape the newly constructed cultural identities in two areas? Methodologically, the research is a part of qualitative approach using ethnographic method to understand the perspective of Kasepuhan Ciptagelar and Dusun community in Bundu Tuhan. Moreover, this study applies the further development of ethnographic research by employing the extended case method. The basic idea of extended case method is in line with the ethnographic aim of finding and interpreting various symbols within a social phenomenon that demand the requirement of interpretive approach to produce thick descriptions. Therefore, through using extended case method, the study is expanded from merely micro or focusing on a particular area, to the macro level by taking two different research areas. It means, findings from the study toward a particular community will be brought and compared to the other area in order to identify several general patterns to build a wider understanding about the issue. Thus, various findings from West Java and Sabah are useful to analyze the discourse of the arrival of tourism development and the indigenous religion revivalism in the wider Southeast Asia context. According to the first research questions, why Kasepuhan Ciptagelar and Dusun community resist various external forces in the course of their history, it strongly relates to the enactment of several state policies discriminating the indigenous community practicing indigenous religion; Sunda Wiwitan and Momolianism and the traditional access toward the ancestral land in both countries. Having non-official religion, or practicing indigenous religion which is different from the majority group have made Kasepuhan Ciptagelar and Dusun group in Bundu Tuhan as the permanent target to be purified along their history. On the contrary, these groups are not merely passive and powerless, thus they produce their own resistances to response the coming of external powers. Second question is how these groups revive local belief to establish resistances toward external forces treating their existence. Dramaturgy is the primary strategy employed by the groups through administratively accepting the official religion, Islam and Christianity on the front stage, but remains believing and practicing indigenous belief in the back. Tourism then comes as the new political opportunity for Kasepuhan Ciptagelar to express their different cultural identity and strengthen the access toward the ancestral land through performing their cultural tourism. In Bundu Tuhan, tourism coming together with the modern environmental conservation regime in the form of national park has arrived as in two faces; denying the cultural access toward Mount Kinabalu as the central of the local belief, but providing various economic opportunities. Responding this, the people employ a heal-hearted revivalism by compromising the need to strengthen the access toward the sacred mountain, while accepting tourism development in Kinabalu Park. The last research question addresses how the engagement with tourism shapes the newly constructed cultural identities in two areas. According to the idea that religion is the cumulative tradition, the engagement with tourism has also produced several changes in both communities; including the emerge of touristic culture in West Java and the fact that Dusun community in Sabah start leaving traditional farming activity as one of central cultural pattern while strengthening their access toward Mount Kinabalu. The study offers a theory describing the contemporary engagement between indigenous community practicing indigenous religion and tourism development as one instrument of globalization. The existence of cultural authenticity as one of the biggest prizes for tourist has brought the tendency of rationally using the authentic indigenous belief to obtain several non-religious purposes, including the steady economic income through tourism initiative. It means that the revivalism of indigenous religion has functioned at two sphere at once; sacred and profane.
Key Words: indigenous, religion, tourism, Sunda Wiwitan, Momolianis