Chinese Spirit Mediumship in Urban Malaysia

R. Lee Continuity and change in Chinese come to mediumship in urban Malaysia In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 142 (1986), no: 2/3, Leiden, 198-214 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl RAYMOND L. M. LEE CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN Chinese SPIRIT MEDIUMSHIP IN URBAN MALAYSIA The notion medium occupies an big(p) position in common Chinese religion. As an jurist between the spiritual and the mundane world, he not provided provides service in healing and divination still as closely as performs vital roles at temple and spirit festivals. The taradiddle of Chinese spirit mediumship can be traced to the Shang Dynasty of the second millennium B.C., where priest-shamans (wu) were accorded luxuriously official standing in the imperial courts, until their origin in the late Chou period in the trinity hundred B.C.1 However, spirit mediumship did not become obsolete but go along to be practised at the popular level (Yang 1967: 10 6, 303). a few(prenominal)er reports of spirit mediumship in modern mainland China leave appeared in print, except for the detailed observations of De Groot (1964) made in the southern provinces in the late nineteenth century.

Since then, most anthropologists have studied Chinese spirit mediumship in various Chinese communities, particularly in Taiwan (Jordan 1972, Seaman 1978, Kleinman 1980) and Hong Kong (Potter 1974). Spirit mediumship is in like manner practised in various Chinese communities in selenium Asia, but few ethnographies have been published. One such rarified ethnography, by Elliott (1955), focuses on Chinese spirit mediumship in Singapore.2 A comparable information on the Malaysian Peninsula has yet to be accom! plished. In this essay, I wish to fill some of this blank shell by describing the practices of Chinese spirit mediums and their organization in modern-day urban Malaysia.3 Chinese Folk Religion in Malaysia It is essential to describe presently Chinese folk religious practices in Malaysia in pronounce to understand the role of the Chinese spirit medium....If you want to set down a full essay, dictate it on our website: OrderEssay.net

If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: write my essay