Temiar religions, 1994-2008

Abstract: The Temiars are a Mon-Khmer-speaking upland population of northern Peninsular Malaysia. In the 46 years that the author has been investigating their religious life, they have added several exogenous religious traditions to their original localistic and animistic religion, which was the subject of the author's 1967 doctoral dissertation. The newer religions include Bahai, Islam and Protestantism. There have also been revivalist cults and movements, including the new and apparently endogenous monotheistic religion known as Alüj Slamad, which has spread widely throughout the Temiar population. In this paper, the social and cultural trajectories that characterise these religious developments are examined in relation to the broader changes that have taken place in Temiar and Malaysian society over the last few decades.