Osing People - History

History

The history of the Osings date back to the end of the 15th century, at the time of the fall of the Majapahit kingdom, and for the sake of resisting the conversion of Islam, many of them fled east to Banyuwangi, Bali and Lombok, and later it was converted to Islam by the Muslim Makassarese in the 16th century. The princes from Majapahit thus established the Blambangan kingdom, which stretched from the Blambangan peninsula right up to the Tengger mountains of Central Java. The Blambangan kingdom held sway for slightly more than two hundred years, before they finally surrendered to the second Mataram kingdom in 1743. Even then, they did not officially convert to Islam until the 19th century, though small communities of Muslims do pre-exist this date. The cause of the Osing's conversion is that, during the 19th century, when Banyuwangi was still unscathed by the Dutch colony, but knowing that by launching an attack on Banyuwangi, they will lose out in the battle as the Hindu principal puputan was a fight-to-death, the Dutch sent Moslem (and Christian) missionaries to tame the fighting spirit. Only then Banyuwangi was captured, a long and ambitious dream toward further occupation on Bali was launched by the Dutch.

In spite of the Dutch attempts to propagate Islam and Christianity among the Osings, many still stuck to their old beliefs. Today, a large Hindu population still exists among the Osings.