Taoist Religion in Malaysia

Home , Dajiao, Daoshi, White Tiger (mythology)

Chapter 8 Taoist Religion in Malaysia

In writing about Chinese Religion, there is a need to mention daojiao, or Taoist Religion.1 Is there a Taoist Religion in Malaysia, and can we distinguish Taoist Religion from Chinese popular religion? Kristofer Schipper re- gards Taoist Religion as the highest expression of Chinese popular religion (Schipper 1996, 3), and from this point of view the Chinese popular religion is Taoist Religion. Michael Saso focuses on Taoist rites, and his book Blue Dragon White Tiger is “a study of Chinese religion from the viewpoint of the religious Taoist, i.e., the man or woman called upon by farmers, merchants, artisans, and all walks of life to perform village festivals” (Saso 1990, vii). This perspective is closer to our understanding of the Taoist component in the religious life of those who follow the Chinese Religion. While there is a move to call Chinese Religion daojiao, the institutional Taoist Religion that developed in China does not exist in Malaysia. But there are Taoist priests who perform important Taoist services for the people. This is in line with the migration history of the Chinese. Since the early Chinese settlement, there have been some Taoist priests on hand to perform funeral services and temple rituals. In recent years, aspects of Taoist Religion have made themselves known not only through the existence of Taoist priests performing Taoist rituals but also through the existence of Taoist organizations. The Taoist tradition in Malaysia is mainly derived from the Zhengyi sect (正一派) in China. One of the well-known early Taoist movements was that of Tianshi Dao 天师道 (Way of Heavenly Masters). After the end of the Tang dynasty, followers of Tianshi Dao dispersed among the masses and formed the Zhengyi Taoist sect (cf. Li 2007, 113). The sect had a strict system of ordaining priests, and so it was respected by the local society (Li 1996, 463–464). Citing the Guangdong Nianjian (Guangdong Yearly) of 1935, Lai Chi Tim points out that “in the towns and villages of Guangdong there were many commercially run daoguan” (Li 2007, 129). A daoguan is a place where a Taoist priest lives and operates his business, sort of a “Taoist priest’s shop.” Zhengyi is the main Taoist tradition in Fujian and Guangdong. As most Chinese migrants to Taiwan and

1 Here I use the traditional English terms Taoism and Taoist, not Daoism and Daoist, spell- ings derived from the pinyin transliteration of dao, as in daojiao, which I translate as “Taoist Religion,” and not the more common “Taoism,” because the latter term does not distinguish Taoist philosophy from the organized religion called daojiao.

Southeast Asia were from these two provinces, the Taoist priests in these re- gions belong mainly to the Zhengyi tradition. An important feature of this tradition is that the priests are huoju daoshi (火居道士); that is, the Taoist priests can marry and have children and stay at home. These Taoist priests are known in Minnan (southern Fujian) dialect (Hokkien in Southeast Asia) as saigong and in Cantonese as nam-mo. In Mandarin, Taoist priests are called daoshi. In this chapter, I will discuss the roles of Taoist priests in the complex of the Chinese Religion in Malaysia. Because of the lack of a label for their Chinese popular religion, some Chinese worshippers use daojiao (Taoist Religion) to refer to their religion. However, the development of Taoist Religion in Malaysia, if this can be so described, is related to the activities of Taoist priests and the aspirations of some university-educated Taoist priests and intellectu- als to promote Taoist Religion and Taoist philosophy, as well as the political motivation of individuals to unite Chinese temples under the name of Taoist Religion. The effort to form a national Taoist association to bring in Chinese temples has been made easier by the fact that some Chinese already loosely call their Chinese religious practices Taoist, and by the fact that Chinese Malaysians are responsive to calls for community loyalty as Malaysian society, in their view, becomes more racially bigoted and Islamized. In other words, the “development” of Taoist Religion in Malaysia is intertwined with the Chinese experience of settlement in Malaysia, and citizens are feeling more and more encapsulated in the politics of Malay dominance. Furthermore, the Chinese have become more and more connected to the globalized world of Chinese culture, and the transnational networks between Taoist organizations play an important role, too. There are now many works on Taoism and Taoist Religion. For our purposes here, see Saso (1990) and Schipper (1996). Laozi is considered the religion’s founder and is referred to as Taishang Laojun (Most High Old Lord). Sanqing (the Three Pure Ones) is the collective name comprising the three important high Taoist deities Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun (玉清原始天尊), Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun (上清灵宝天尊) and Taiqing Daode Tianzun (太清道德天尊). When a Taoist priest perform his rites (dajiao), it is necessary to set up the altars of Sanqing first and display their large pictures. Given the importance of Sanqing, the name is used in a number of Taoist priests’ associations, as we shall see.

Cantonese Taoist Priests in Kuala Lumpur

As Chinese migrants in Southeast Asia formed local communities, they needed religious specialists to conduct funeral rites. From an early period of Chinese