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This is a quantitative study of Chinese temples in Johor using temple data to show the development of Chinese religion in the state. The study finds that Chinese temples in Johor are dominated by a fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, with only a minority of orthodox Buddhism in existence. The broad range of Buddhist and Daoist deities shows the diversity and inclusiveness of the religion. In addition, the number of newly created temples in the state is still on the rise, contradicting the perception that they, especially Daoist ones, are on the decline. The quantitative data collation and analysis of Chinese temples in Johor not only will reflect more accurately the development of religion and beliefs of the local Chinese community, but also is an attempt to construct Malaysia Historical Geographic Information System (MHGIS). We hope that in the future, we can make use of the convenience of the data humanities system to make a more macro and holistic exploration and development of the study of Chinese temples and beliefs in Malaysia.

This paper attempts to examine the formation path of the United Temple. Since research on the United Temple has focused more on its organization and religious practice in contemporary Singapore, the paper looks at the sub-temples under the Singapore United Temple, analyzing their paths toward unification from a more extended historical perspective. The authors divide sub-temples into three categories: ancestral temples (血缘庙), geographic temples (地缘庙), and deity-related temples (神缘庙) and compare their flexible strategies. This paper tries to explain how the formation of the United Temples was influenced by multiple spatial, social, and cultural factors. The blood lineage, religion, and regional ties from the homeland could still be essential when the localized, community-based social links beyond the boundaries play an equally crucial integrative role in forming United Temples. It is the contention of the authors of this paper to study the United Temple—the unique religious space in Singapore—as the potential syncretic field of the present and the past.

This paper studies the history of the Singapore Girls’ Buddhist Institute, the first and only modern Buddhist education institution for women in Singapore and Malaysia. This paper aims to explore a dynamic transregional Buddhist network constructed by nuns, vegetarian nuns, and laywomen, with a particular emphasis on the prominent female figures and religious women communities involved. Through an analysis of the movements and religious practices of the Buddhist women community, the author demonstrates the contributions of Buddhist women to the transmission of religious knowledge and modern experiences. It is this paper’s intention that the micro-history of the case could contribute to restaging the women-centered Buddhist community in the narrative of “South China Sea Buddhism”.

The development of Chinese cemetery hills in Singapore reflects the changing dominance of the dialect groups between the 19th and 20th centuries. Heng San Ting 恒山亭 is the earliest cemetery hill of the Hokkien dialect group, and newly excavated burials indicate that early Singaporean Hokkien came not only from Zhangzhou 漳州 and Quanzhou 泉州 in southern Fujian 福建, but also from places such as Yongchun 永春 from the interior of Fujian. Apart from the Hokkien dialect group, the Cantonese 广东, Hakka 客家, Teochew 潮州 and Hainan 海南 communities also established their cemetery hills. In the early 19th century, the Chinese communities were divided into different dialect groups to form their representative cemetery hills, but the smaller communities within the dialect groups started to form and develop their own cemeteries due to increasing economic power from the mid to late 19th century. Scholars generally believe that the other four dialect groups, led by the Cantonese and Hakka dialect groups, formed a “United Front 联合阵线” to confront the Hokkien dialect group. However, this paper looks at the smaller communities under the five dialect groups and discovers that these communities developed and maintained their own cemetery hills and communicated with the smaller communities from different dialect groups. It was not a direct confrontation. In the 20th century, although the government introduced a series of policies to restrict the development of Chinese burial mounds, the different communities retained their autonomy under the government’s policies. From the development and changes of the Chinese dialect group cemeteries in Singapore, we see that the Chinese community still retains its own autonomy despite the rapid changes of society and the change of times.