Indonesian President Joko Widodo Creates Southeast Asian Nation’s First Hindu State University

In a major development, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia last week issued a presidential regulation to establish the Hindu Dharma State Institute (IHDN) in Bali's Denpasar as the southeast Asian nation's first Hindu state university, reports The Jakarta Post.

The regulation decreed that the new university renamed I Gusti Bagus Sugriwa State Hindu University (UHN) shall proffer Hindu higher education programmes along with other types of higher education programmes.

The regulation also decreed that all the incumbent students, assets and employees of the IHDN have been converted and transferred to the newly formed UHN.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that IHDN itself had been established in Indonesia in 1993 as a state academy for Hindu religious teachers. It was later converted into the Hindu religion State College in 1999 and later to IHDN in 2014.

The IHDN's director I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana has hailed the development as a historic moment for the Hindu faithful in Indonesia.