¹ For a more elaborate discussion on the concept of ethnic boundaries, see Barth, Fredrik, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (London: Allen & Unwin, 1969)Google Scholar.

² Tong, Cheu Hock, “An Analysis of the Nine Emperor Gods Spirit-Medium Cult in Malaysia” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, Ithaca, 01 1982)Google Scholar.

³ Tong, Cheu Hock, “The Datuk Kong: A Sino-Malay Spirit Cult in Malaysia” in Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Asian Studies (Hong Kong) 3 (1982): 379–403Google Scholar; “Tanggapan Keagamaan serta Implikasinya dalam Hidup Sosial: Suatu Kajian Komuniti Cina di Ampang, Selangor”, Jurnal Antropologi dan Sosiologi 10–11 (1982–1983): 91–118Google Scholar; “Kultus Roh Orang Cina di Pulau Pinang”, Ilmu Masyarakat 1 (1983): 35–42Google Scholar; “The Nine Emperor Gods in Malaysia”, in Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Asian Studies (Hong Kong) (1983): 159–76Google Scholar; The Nine Emperor Gods: A Study of Chinese Spirit-Medium Cults (Singapore: Times Books International, 1988)Google Scholar.

⁴ Tong, Cheu Hock, “The Datuk Kong Spirit Cult Movement in Penang: Being and Belonging in Multiethnic Malaysia” (Paper presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies,Washington, D.C.,17–19 March 1989)Google Scholar.

⁵ Tong, Cheu Hock, “Gerakan Datuk Kong di Pulau Pinang: Suatu Kajian Sosiopsikologi Orang Cina” [The Datuk Kong Spirit Cult Movement in Penang: A Study on Chinese Socio-psychology], Akademika 43 (1989): 47–90Google Scholar.

⁶ For more examples of such keramats, see Winstedt, Richard O., “Keramat: Sacred Places and Persons in Malaya”, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 2, no. 3 (1924)Google Scholar. For examples of legendary sites such as the Grave of Puteri Mahsuri, the Wells of Seven Sisters, and many other legendary sites on Langkawi island, see Hanapiah, Ismail, Jentayu: Langkawi Sepintas Lalu (Langkawi: Pancang Perak Enterprise, 1990)Google Scholar.

⁷ The Mahmeri on Carey Island, Selangor, for example, perform worship ritual at the earth mound (a common vehicle of the Datuk Kong among the Chinese and Malays in Penang, Province Wellesley, Kedah and Perlis in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia) before going on fishing trips. They believe the mound to be the abode of their ancestor, called Moyang Getah, and a festival is held yearly in his honour.

⁸ On Pulau Besar, off Malacca, the seven keramats were referred to as brothers, rather than as sisters, while elsewhere they were sometimes identified as siblings of both sexes. The belief in the seven keramats is widespread in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Indonesia as the following account suggests. In the Bisaya legends, for example, they traced their origin to the seven brothers who were believed to be Bruneians [Bewsher, R.A., “The Bisaya Group”, Sarawak Gazette 34 (1958)Google Scholar]. Their father was an immigrant who married a Bisaya woman in Sungai Kinabatangan (Sandakan Residency), Sabah. They had a boat race and the first winner, Lok Batata (also known as Alak Batata in Brunei) became the first sultan of Brunei (Sultan Muhamad). The second winner, Gerambak, went to Limbang (Sarawak) where he became the ancestor of the Bisayas. The third winner went to Tutoh, the fourth went to Padas (Sabah), and so forth. In another account, however, Gerambak is said to be a prince of Raja Kiangan in Jawa. His other siblings include Samuan, Pati Berabai, Pati Begunak, Alak Betatar, and Bunga Sunting (Sandin, Benedict, The Living Legends: Borneans Telling Their Tales (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1980), p. 165Google Scholar. The name of “Bunga Sunting” suggests that one of the siblings was a female.

⁹ Some mediums are good actors and they can easily simulate the act of trance (see Heinze, Ruth-Inge, “The Dynamics of Chinese Religion: A Recent Case of Spirit-Possession in Singapore”, in Chinese Religious Beliefs and Practices in Southeast Asia, ed. Tong, Cheu Hock (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ This leads us to the often-asked question: how Chinese are the Malaysian Chinese today? As far as we know, no Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong have ever practised the kind of social and religious rituals described above.

¹¹ Heinze, Ruth-Inge, “Urban shamanism”, Jurnal Antropologi dan Sosiologi 10–11 (1982–1983): 30Google Scholar.

¹² The process involved in the seance reminds us of Tan Chee Beng's accusation that when two Chinese meet, if they fail to understand each other in their own tongues, they would rather split than speak in Malay (Tan, , “Acculturation, assimilation and integration — The Case of the Chinese”, in Kaum, Kelas dan Pem-bangunan Malaysia, ed. Ali, Syed Husin (Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Sains Sosial, 1984), p. 208Google Scholar. The patterns of communication we have observed above clearly refute Tan's allegation, since every Chinese or Straits Chinese who participates in the rituals speaks Malay. Although this communication takes place between human beings and spirit beings, it signifies social interaction between one Chinese and another in their capacity as spirit medium and devotee, with the former assuming the role of grandfather and the latter playing the role of grandchildren. Furthermore, in university campuses, where Malay has been used as the medium of instruction, Chinese students often communicate with Chinese lecturers in Malay even after class hours. Being a Chinese myself, I experience this pattern of interaction daily with my students.

¹³ Respondents could have derived his value-judgment on the aggressive nature of the Datuk Kong from the behavioural pattern of traditional Chinese spirit mediums.

¹⁴ The following statement, made by Alan J.A. Elliot's informant, may provide some hindsight into the social and physical environmental circumstances that had conditioned the minds of early pioneers and their descendants:

Considering that my family had settled here nearly 150 years ago, you can understand the impact of the hostile jungle and a strange, primitive people on the superstitious minds of my ancestors, who had not only to face the terrors of the jungle but also the hostility of the Malays and Siamese in northern Malaya. This impact also had its effect upon the minds of other contemporaneous Chinese pioneers. This, coupled with their intermarriage with Malay and Siamese women, whereby their offspring were steeped in both Chinese and Malay superstitions, had left its indelible mark on the Straits Chinese of today [Elliot, Alan J.A., Chinese Spirit-Medium Cults in Sinapore (Singapore: Donald Moore, 1964), p. 116Google Scholar].

¹⁵ In 1989 the Malaysia Big Sweeps and the Turf Clubs of Penang, Perak and Selangor introduced the M$8,500,000 Big Sweep stake, which carried M$3,000,000, M$l,500,000, and M$1,000,000 for the first three prizes. In the same year, another multimillion-dollar lottery carrying the first prize of $2,000,000 was introduced by the Sabah Sweep Stakes. The Social Welfare Lottery has ceased operation since the early 1990s.

¹⁶ Raymond Lee reported that, in the central and southern states of the peninsula, spirit mediums often joined in the ronggeng — a form of Malay dance, with the accompaniment of music provided by a violinist, a drummer and a gong beater [Lee, , “Dancing with the Gods: A Spirit Medium Festival in Urban Malaysia”, Anthropos 78 (1983)Google Scholar]. According to Lee, spirit mediums sometimes invited the audience to dance with them. I have not come across any of these events in my field research so far.

¹⁷ Tow, Choo Chin, “Some Sociological Aspects of Chinese Temples in Kuala Lumpur” (M.A. thesis, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1968), prefaceGoogle Scholar.

¹⁸ My field studies in different parts of Peninsular Malaysia do not confirm Raymond Lee's observation that “most spirit mediums enjoy some public respect for their demonstration of spiritual powers [see Lee, , “Patterns of Religious Tension in Malaysia”, Asian Survey 28, no. 4 (1986): 210Google Scholar]. Although the mediums do enjoy a gain in status, this gain is limited to their own social network, that is, among their entourage (attendants and regular devotees) and clients [Heinze, Ruth-Inge, “Mediumship in Singapore Today”, Journal of Sociology and Psychology 2 (1979): 59Google Scholar]. In fact, she points out that mediums may be humiliated by the entourage. For example, she told us how an Indian shaman was “literally tied up by his assistants” because he was enjoying himself too much in India with the lottery prize money his client had shared with him [Heinze, Ruth-Inge, “Urban Shamanism”, Jurnal Antropologi dan Sosiologi, 10–11 (1982–1983): 18Google Scholar].

¹⁹ Cheu, The Nine Emperor Gods, op. cit., pp. 113–14.

²⁰ Heinze, Ruth-Inge, “Mediumship in Singapore Today”, Journal of Sociology and Psychology (1979), p. 59Google Scholar.

²¹ Tong, Cheu Hock, “Masalah-masalah Agama dalam Integrasi Etnik, Suatu Kajian di Kampung Sem-bulan, Sabah” (B.A. Honours Thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 1974)Google Scholar; also see Tong, Cheu Hock, “Revival Movement and Ethnic Integration in Sabah”, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Asian Studies (Hong Kong) 3 (1980): 427–45Google Scholar.

²² Suryadinata, Leo, “Confucianism in Indonesia: Past and Present”, Southeast Asia (Southern Illinois University) 3, no. 3 (1974): 881–903Google Scholar.

²³ This is best illustrated by the 1989 by-election for a Parliament seat at Ampang Jaya, Selangor, in which a Barisan Nasional [National Front] candidate, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) member Ong Tee Kiat, was in contest with an “Old UMNO” candidate, a Semangat 46 member and a former Chief Minister of Selangor, Datuk Harun Idris. The by-election was not only a contest between the Malay and non-Malay candidates but also a test of power between the New and the Old UMNO — the former are loyal while the latter are dissident to the current UMNO leadership. The interesting turn of event was that both Malays and non-Malays jointly campaigned for both the candidates rather than Malays campaigning only for the Malay candidate and non-Malays for the non-Malay candidate as it used to be before. This does not mean that Malays and non-Malays in the past had not voted for one another's candidates who stood for election under the coalition party, since voting, and campaigning, for candidates of different ethnic groups had different social implications.

²⁴ Lee, Raymond, “Patterns of religious tension in Malaysia”, Asian Survey 28, no. 4 (1988): 400–418CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also see Cheu, “Revival Movement….”

²⁵ Ackerman, Susan E. & Lee, Raymond, Heaven in Transition: Non-Muslim Religious Innovation and Ethnic Identity in Malaysia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

²⁶ The other four deities are Jesus Christ, Laozi, Buddha, and Confucius.

²⁷ The Muslim respondents I had interviewed did not think that the incorporation of Islamic symbols in the keramat movement need necessarily be regarded as antagonistic to Islam. Instead, they consider this as an attempt on the part of the non-Muslims at self-conversion or voluntary assimilation to Islam. They believed that, through the keramat movement, non-Muslim devotees might become acquainted with Islam and gradually accepted it as part of their belief system just as the Malays did before them. They quoted the common Malay saying, “tak kenal maka tak cinta”, (meaning “out of sight out of mind”) in driving home the point.

²⁸ These pronouncements were made by Haji Nor Hashim bin Haji Muhammad, the chairman of the Malacca Islamic Council [see Malek, Yusof, “Tindakan Roboh ‘Keramat’ Disokong”, Utusan Malaysia (3 11 1983), p. 6Google Scholar]. My interview with the Malacca residents revealed that the actual reason for the desecration of the tombs and shrines, which had been there for centuries, was that a private company which owned some 300 acres of land on the island had plans to turn it into an international tourist resort centre. This explained why State executive Datuk Idris Haji Abdul Ghani and Malacca Chief Police Officer Tajuddin Idris were on hand to supervise the desecration with the help of some forty municipality workers backed up by some sixty members of the police force (Yusof Malek, ibid.).

²⁹ Ackerman, & Lee, , Heaven in Transition, chaps. 3, 4 & 5Google Scholar.