Hyang

Hyang

Hyang is an unseen spiritual entity that has supernatural power in ancient Indonesian mythology. This spirit can be either divine or ancestral. The reverence for this spiritual entity can be found in Sunda Wiwitan, Kejawen, and Balinese Hinduism. In modern Indonesian this term tends to be associated with gods, devata, or God. The realm where the hyangs reside is called kahyangan; now is a synonym for svarga or heaven in modern Indonesian.
The term "hyang" now widely associated with Balinese Hinduism developed in ancient Java and Bali for more than a millennia ago. However this term actually has an older origin, it has its root in indigenous animism and dynamism beliefs of Austronesian people that inhabit Indonesian archipelago. Native pre-Hindu Buddhist and pre-Islamic Indonesian venerated and revered ancestral spirit, they also believe that some spirit may inhabit certain places such as large trees, stones, forests, mountains, or any sacred places. The "hyang" concept is indigenously developed in archipelago and considered not originated from Indian dharmic religions.
Before the adoption of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, the natives of Indonesian archipelago believe in the powerful but unseen spiritual entity that can be both benevolent or malevolent. They also believe that the deceased ancestor isn't gone away or disappear completely. The ancestral spirit may gain god-like spiritual power and still involved in their offspring's worldly affairs. That is why the veneration and reverence to honor ancestor is an important element in the belief system of native ethnic groups, such as Nias, Dayak, Toraja, Papuan ethnic groups, as well as many ethnic groups in Indonesia.
In ancient Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese society, this unseen spiritual entity is identified as "hyang". This ancestral divine spirits is believed to inhabit high places, such as mountains, hills, and volcanoes. This mountainous regions is considered as sacred realm, as the abode of gods and the resting place for the soul of the ancestors.
In Bali, Hyang are said to only move in straight lines. Accordingly, traditional Balinese buildings have a wall called an aling-aling just inside the doorway, which keeps the spirits out because they only move in straight lines, and hence bounce off. Similar beliefs are found in other spiritual traditions, as in British corpse roads.

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