Chinese in Shari’a Territory: Ethnic And Religion Harmonization in Banda Aceh-Indonesia

Chinese ethnic are spreaded in entire Indonesia, including Aceh. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia which gains legalization to implement Islam shari’a. The existence of Chinese in Aceh was detected since 16th and 17th A.D. century, connected through trade, so that many chinese lived in Aceh. This reality makes Aceh as the multicultural region with Muslim as the majority and Chinese as the minority with different religion that they profess. Different ethnic and religion should be very sensitive in society, moreover in Aceh which is known as shari’a islam-implementing province. However, it does not seem as the big problem in Banda Aceh. Therefore, it is interesting to be studied how the harmony entwined between Chinese as the minority and Aceh people as the majority, is there any discrimination and hegemony in daily life? What is the factor which causes that harmonization still stand strong until today? The result of the research showed that the form of harmonization happening as follows, first, in form of social, economy, and education. In Banda Aceh chinese lives peacefully and respects each other, there is no threat or conflict happening between Chinese and indigenous society. There are some factors causing the eternity of harmonization, i.e (1) the high of tasamuh culture (tolerance) Aceh people (2) the preservation of interfaith harmony (3) there is respect from Chinese toward the feature of Aceh.