BECOMING LOCALDatuk Kong beliefs in Sarawak, East Malaysia

• Main Authors: Chai, Elena Gregoria Chin Fern, Janowski, Monica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2021
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/37866/1/BECOMING%20LOCALDatuk%20Kong.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/37866/; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639811.2022.2018830

Datuk Kong (拿督公) areshen(神)–a Chinese term that can beglossed in English as‘deity’or‘spirit’depending on context. Theyhave long been known to be venerated by Chinese in WestMalaysia but have not been investigated until now in Sarawak,where they are of increasing importance, or in Kalimantan, wherethey appear to have been worshipped for much longer. In bothWest Malaysia and in Borneo Datuk Kong are closely associatedwith (a) the ethnic groups that were already living in the areabefore the Chinese arrived and (b) with the local landscape. Inthis article we explore the ways in which Datuk Kong beliefs havedeveloped in Borneo and how, through the‘respect’(拜) paid totheseshen, the Chinese have integrated the beliefs that theybrought originally from China into a belief system that remainsdistinctively Chinese but overlaps with the beliefs of ethnicgroups with which they co-exist; and embedded this beliefsystem in the local landscape and the spirits inhabiting thatlandscape.