Ulakan
On the coastal road to Pariaman you come to a stop in a small town called Ulakan where you wander through an alleyway lined with sellers of souvenirs and religious knick-knacks, everything from incense to prayer mats, and on through a gateway into an old graveyard over part of which is a wooden structure. Inside is a smaller building surrounding one of the graves.
This is the final resting place of Sheik Burhanuddin Ulakan. In the seventeenth century, after many years of study with a leading Islamic Sufi scholar in Aceh, he became one of the early converts to Islam, eventually becoming a Sufi teacher who spread Islam throughout the Minangkabau homeland and opposed the increasing Dutch control over the country.
Sheik Burhanuddin Ulakan combined Islam with the local culture in such a way that the new faith was acccepted by his community and spread rapidly with Pariaman becoming a centre of religious education. The first madrasah, a formal religious day school, in Minangkabau territory was established in this town.
People from all over the country, including a former president, have made pilgrimages to this grave. They make requests of the saint and chant prayers. On the ninth and tenth of the month of Safar, tens of thousands make a pilgrimage here visiting both the site where his grave was dug and this site where he was eventually buried. As the story goes, when his body was about to be lowered into the ground at that other place it started flying by itself toward this site and so was buried here.
- There are still many followers of Sufi orders in West Sumatra. Their beliefs and practices are seen as unorthodox by followers of the more legalistic 'modern' form of Islam but Sufis seem to be more focused on loving God and having a close relationship with Him (though with very strong underlying occult influences).
- Pray that one day this longing will be a bridge for the good news that, through Jesus, they can become God's very own children.
- Pray that Sufi-influenced Minangkabau people will meet followers of Jesus and move forward in their journey towards a personal relationship with God.
- Pray that one day this longing will be a bridge for the good news that, through Jesus, they can become God's very own children.
- Sheik Burhanuddin Ulakan's message was received by the people because of his exemplary life and his stand against oppression. However, Pariaman, the administrative district where his grave is located, is possibly the most monocultural of all the regions in West Sumatera. Non-Minangkabau people are not welcome and as a result the number of followers of Jesus living in Pariaman can be counted on one hand.
- Pray that the lives of these few believers will produce respect for Jesus.
Visit the palace at Pagaruyung, a short bus trip away
Visit Pariangan a very old Minangkabau settlement