Document Type
Conference Item
Publication Date
1-1-2001
Abstract
The Unity Sect (Yiguan Dao) is a lay voluntary religious organization of congregational character. Notwithstanding the fact that the sect remains largely unknown to the general public, it continues to progress with its proselytism at an ever greater rate in the last two decades outside Taiwan and Hong Kong, Thanks to the pioneering exploration and studies by Mr Li Shiyu (1948), and David Jordan and Daniel L. Overmyer (1986) on the sect in Mainland China and Taiwan, the study of the Sect in peninsular Malaysia (1997) during my Ph.D. program at U.B.C. (19941997) aimed also at contributing towards these traditions of scholarly Chinese religious study. Today, the Unity Sect claims its "worldwide" dissemination, especially with the establishment of its World Federation of I-Kuan Tao Organizations (Shijie Yiguan Dao Zonghui) in America. The pattern of and factors leading to the dissemination of the Unity Sect elsewhere in the world, however, differ very much from region to region. It is the aim of this paper to focus on the pattern of its dissemination in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (the regions with the biggest concentrations of Chinese population in ASEAN countries), especially its recent developments in these countries, so as to enable comparisons be made between the sect's development in ASEAN countries and in North America at the end of the paper. It is also hoped that such comparisons will give a clearer picture regarding the probability and problems facing the Unity Sect in attempting to gain a firm foothold in the West --an ultimate goal towards realizing globalization of the sect in the real sense.
Keywords
Yiguan Dao, ASEAN, Chinese religious study, Globalization, Fayi Chongde
Divisions
arts
Event Title
Conference in Honour of Prof. Daniel L. Overmyer on His Retirement on "Religious Thought and Lived Religion in China"
Event Location
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Event Dates
15-16 September 2001
Event Type
conference
Additional Information
Conference paper