Fasting: From Ramadhan to Nyepi, from Saum to Upavasa

For most Indonesians around 88 percent of whom are Muslim the word “fasting” immediately evokes Ramadhan. A month of refraining from food and drink, nights filled with communal prayers, and a closing celebration marked by forgiveness and festivity at Eid al-Fitr. In Indonesia it is called Lebaran; in Malaysia, Raya. The first of Syawal signals the end of restraint and a symbolic return to purity.

Yet fasting extends far beyond a single month. In Islam alone there are additional voluntary fasts such as Arafah, Monday–Thursday, and the fast of David. The essence remains: abstaining from food and drink for certain hours, while also curbing undesirable behavior.

Similar practices appear across traditions. In Catholic Christianity, a forty-day period of fasting and abstinence precedes Easter, with Ash Wednesday and Good Friday carrying special obligation. In Hindu practice especially in Bali Nyepi involves a 24-hour observance that goes beyond abstaining from food and drink. People stay indoors, avoid travel, extinguish lights and fire, refrain from work, and suspend entertainment. Silence itself becomes purification.

In 2023, Ramadhan, the Catholic Lenten season, and Nyepi coincided during March and April a rare calendar moment when different spiritual disciplines unfolded side by side.

Javanese culture also recognizes distinctive forms of fasting. Pasa mutih limits consumption to plain white rice. Pasa ngrowot allows only tubers and vegetables. Pasa ngebleng entails complete abstinence from food and drink for twenty-four hours or more. Often undertaken voluntarily, these practices are seen as personal spiritual discipline.

The word “puasa” itself carries a long linguistic journey. While Arabic offers saum (absorbed as “siyam”), Indonesians more commonly use “puasa,” and Javanese say “pasa.” These terms are believed to derive from “upawasa” in Old Javanese, which in turn stems from the Sanskrit “upavasa.”

In A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary, this etymology is clearly recorded. The Monier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary defines “upavasa” as fasting, while the Puranic Encyclopedia interprets it as withdrawing from sin and moving toward a better life. Fasting, therefore, has long implied moral direction, not merely physical abstinence.

This Sanskrit heritage even appears in the Javanese calendar established by Sultan Agung in 1633. Combining elements of the Islamic Hijri system with the older Saka chronology, it names the fasting month not “Ramadhan” but “Pasa.” A local term, rooted in ancient layers of language, marks the most sacred Islamic month in Java.

Across Ramadhan, Nyepi, and Lent, fasting in the archipelago reveals a shared human impulse: to pause, to restrain, and to return renewed. Beneath different doctrines and calendars lies the same quiet search for clarity.