Page 4 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

Preface by Dato’ Ir. Ang Choo Hong

Buddhism and Traditional Chinese Religious Beliefs: Where is The Way Forward

Preface by Dato’ Ang Choo Hong, Chairman of Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia

About 84% of Malaysian Chinese believe in a syncretic religious belief system that combines
Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and folk beliefs. Although Buddhism has shown its unique profile
in recent years, it would be contrary to reality and also unwise to separate it from this syncretic
system and establish a banner of its own. Therefore, if Buddhist organisations want to study the
current situation of Buddhism in Malaysia, they cannot confine themselves within the framework
of Buddhism but must place themselves within the realistic framework of traditional Chinese
religious beliefs.
Hence, when the Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia collaborates with Universiti Tunku Abdul
Rahman to carry out research on Malaysian Buddhism, it expands the scope to the syncretic
religious beliefs of the Chinese, not just Buddhist beliefs.

The first research work we launched was to explore the causes of the decline of traditional Chinese
religious beliefs and to seek feasible strategies to solve this phenomenon.
The decline of traditional Chinese religion in Malaysia can be seen from the changes in the
population of believers. Followers of traditional Chinese religions have dropped from 92% of the
Chinese population in 1970 to about 84% in 2010. The main reason is conversion to non-Chinese
traditional faiths such as Christianity and Islam.

Reactions
Faced with this phenomenon, the reactions of Buddhist leaders and Buddhists in general can be
divided into two types: one is to deny the existence of the problem; the other is to admit the
existence of the problem.

Those who deny the existence of the problem can be roughly divided into three types:

(1) Those who think that the number of Buddhists is increasing day by day. This is a myth. This is a
false belief that does not look at the data, but is only based on the observation of the
overwhelming attendance of Buddhists in various Buddhist activities. This also ignores the fact that
these so-called active and devout Buddhists are originally believers of traditional Chinese beliefs
and are "customers" of the original "market". They are not new converts converted from non-
Chinese traditional beliefs.

(2) Those who believe that Buddhism is flourishing day by day. This is an illusion. This is because
increasing number of monasteries being built and frequent activities being held do not mean more
people are being drawn to Buddhism. This is but a one-sided and unscientific conclusion without
data support.

(3) Believing that population decline is not a problem and that the focus should be on improving
the quality of Buddhists – this is a self-consolation that avoids the problem. This argument of
emphasizing quality over quantity deliberately ignores the direct relationship between quantity
and quality.

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