Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia
Chinese folk religion plays a dynamic role in the lives of the overseas Chinese who have settled in the countries of this geographic region, particularly Burmese Chinese, Singaporean Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, Thai Chinese and Hoa. The Indonesian Chinese, by contrast, were forced to adopt en masse either Buddhism or Christianity in the 1950s and 1960s, abandoning traditional worship, due to Indonesia's religious policies which at the time forbade Chinese traditional religion or did not recognize it as a "religion," thus making it vulnerable to discrimination. Some Chinese Filipinos also still practice some Chinese traditional religions, besides Christianity of either Roman Catholicism or Protestantism, with which some have also varyingly syncretized traditional Chinese religious practices. Chinese folk religion, the ethnic religion of Han Chinese, "Shenism" was especially coined referring to its Southeast Asian expression; another Southeast Asian name for the religion is the Sanskrit expression Satya Dharma.
City God Temple of Suphan Buri, Thailand.
Kheng Hock Keong, of the Chinese community in Yangon, Burma, is a temple enshrining Mazu.
Kelenteng Thien Ie Kong (Temple of the Olden Lord of Heaven) in Samarinda, East Kalimantan province of Indonesia.
Kwong Fook Kung Temple, a Chinese folk temple in Papar, Sabah.
Malaysian folk religion refers to the animistic and polytheistic beliefs and practices that are still held by many in the Islamic-majority country of Malaysia. Folk religion in Malaysia is practised either openly or covertly depending on the type of rituals performed.
Shrine of Panglima Hijau, a Datuk or (in Malaysian Chinese) Na Tuk Kong, a god of the place on Pangkor Island.
Poh San Teng Temple is the oldest temple dedicated to the Chinese ancestral figure of Tua Pek Kong, related to Tudigong or Earth Deity; it was built in 1795.
A pagoda of Tua Pek Kong Temple, Sibu.
One of the Natuk Kong in Malaysia, "Datuk Ali" (Chinese: 拿督阿里).