Voices From the Underworld - Chinese Hell Deity Worship in Contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

Embracing an ontological approach to religious phenomena, this study traces the origins and development of Chinese Hell deity worship now prevalent in Singapore and Malaysia. Written for academics and the interested public, it challenges a priori assumptions vis-à-vis the diversity of present-day Chinese religious beliefs and ritual practices.

List of contents

Introduction

Part I: Setting the scene
1 The modern Underworld tradition
2 Analysis: a baseline of comparison
3 The historical development of Underworld cosmology

Part II: The Underworld tradition in Singapore
4 Yu Feng Nan Fu Xuanshan Miao: setting a baseline of comparison
5 A new Underworld God of Wealth, and, foetus assistance rituals in Singapore
6 Lunar Seventh Month: the centrality of graveyards in the Underworld tradition

Part III: The Underworld tradition in Malaysia
7 Malaysia and the party spirit: guanxi and the creation of 'intentional' communities
8 Seventh Month rituals in southern Malaysia: salvation rituals and 'Ah Pek' parties
9 Seventh Month rituals in central Malaysia: coffin rituals and the releasing of exorcised spirits

Part IV: Tracing the origins of the modern Underworld tradition
10 Anxi Chenghuangmiao and cultural flows of local mythology
11 Penang: the earliest recollections of Tua Di Ya Pek embodied
12 Conclusions and analysis
Index

About the author

Dr Fabian Charles Graham is an alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He joined the Religion and Globalization research cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore in December 2018 and left in December 2022. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and two master's degrees, one in 'Taiwan Studies' from National Chengchi University in Taipei and the second in 'Social Anthropological Analysis' from the University of Cambridge.Previously a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany, based on research in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, his first monograph 'Voices from the Underworld: Hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia' was published by Manchester University Press in 2020, an updated and revised paperback edition retitled 'Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan' was released in 2022.See: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09F2J8N7N/aboutOutside of academia, Fabian Graham has also been a traveler since the age of fourteen when he went on his first solo trip cycling from Wales to London in the summer holidays. After interrailing and backpacking around Europe for almost a year, his adventures took him on an overland trip from London to Nairobi, Kenya. Unable to stop, he visited Sri Lanka at the height of the civil war, and then India and Nepal before finally making it to Southeast Asia which he loves. He paid for his travels busking, teaching English and then by designing, making and selling his own style of jewelry. He also holds a BA in Jewelry Design from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, London (1997)Apart from travel, spirituality, photography and art, all of which he loves, his academic research interests have included the anthropology of Chinese religion; spirit possession / mediumship; temple ritual, material culture and museum archaeology; Southeast Asian 19th and 20th century history; the invention, inversion and reinterpretation of tradition; visual anthropology; and new ethnographic, narrational and analytical approaches to the study of religious phenomenon and experiences.

Summary

Embracing an ontological approach to religious phenomena, this study traces the origins and development of Chinese Hell deity worship now prevalent in Singapore and Malaysia. Written for academics and the interested public, it challenges a priori assumptions vis-à-vis the diversity of present-day Chinese religious beliefs and ritual practices. -- .

Product details

• Authors: Fabian Graham
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2020
• EAN: 9781526140579
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-4057-9
• No. of pages: 280
• Series: Alternative Sinology
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works