Volume IV: Society, Culture, and Local Ecological Wisdom

Traditional Islamic Boarding Schools (Pesantren) and Their Contribution to Cultural Resilience in ASEAN Rural Communities

  • Solihuddin UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords

pesantren; cultural resilience; rural communities; subculture; kyai; local wisdom; ASEAN; Malay world.

Abstract

This study examines the contribution of traditional Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) to cultural resilience in the rural communities of the ASEAN region. Employing a qualitative, library-based method supported by historical and sociological analysis, the research argues that the pesantren with its five constitutive elements of pondok, mosque, santri, kyai, and the kitab kuning is an indigenous institution rooted in village life that functions as far more than a centre of religious learning. Drawing on the classic conception of the pesantren as a distinct “subculture,” the study shows how it sustains cultural continuity by transmitting classical scholarship, anchoring local social capital through the leadership of the kyai, and acting as a cultural broker amid social change. Rather than rejecting modernity, pesantren communities actively negotiate it reimagining and selectively appropriating modern elements while safeguarding local moral and cultural foundations thereby strengthening, rather than eroding, communal identity. The study contends that this capacity for rooted adaptation constitutes a model of cultural resilience that is highly relevant for rural communities across ASEAN and supportive of the socio-cultural integration envisioned by the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, provided that accommodation of local culture remains substantive. This article contributes to the discourse on Islam in the Malay world and on the cultural foundations of rural resilience in Southeast Asia.

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