Chinese Spirit Mediumship in Urban Malaysia

R. Lee Continuity and change in Chinese disturb 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 affection medium occupies an enceinte position in popular Chinese religion. As an essay between the spiritual and the mundane world, he not provided provides work in healing and divination entirely as wellspring as performs vital roles at temple and spirit festivals. The narration of Chinese spirit mediumship can be traced to the Shang Dynasty of the second millenary B.C., where priest-shamans (wu) were accorded luxuriously official standing in the imperial courts, until their downfall in the late Chou period in the tercet hundred B.C.1 However, spirit mediumship did not become obsolete but go along to be practised at the popular level (Yang 1967: 106, 303). a few(prenominal)er reports of spirit mediumship in modern chinaware pay 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 addition practised in various Chinese communities in southeasterly Asia, but few ethnographies have been published. One such archaic ethnography, by Elliott (1955), focuses on Chinese spirit m ediumship in Singapore.2 A comparable infor! mation on the Malaysian Peninsula has yet to be accomplished. In this essay, I wish to fill some of this lacuna by describing the practices of Chinese spirit mediums and their organization in modern urban Malaysia.3 Chinese Folk Religion in Malaysia It is inevitable 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, straddle it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: cheap essay