Hi Nachtsider,

I've been lurking around this thread for some months so thought I should drop by to say hi.

Let me just share a bit about myself. I'm a banana and was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family in Klang Valley although I identify as agnostic nowadays. My only interaction with Sintua practices was during my relatives' funerals, which never made any sense due to the language barrier.

Thanks for all the in depth elaboration in polished English, I finally understand what was previously incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo to me. Relatives could give me no satisfactory answer when I asked, with tradition just something to be blindly adhered to.

I would consider myself somewhat of an anthropologist so after stumbling across this thread, I find reading about what you have been sharing about Chinese folk religion very fascinating and have been doing more reading on my own.

For instance, take the practice of datuk worship, since it was obviously a practice rooted in traditional Malay society but since eradicated with the advent of a more conservative brand of Islam. I find it intriguing that the Malaysian Chinese community has adopted and syncretized the practice while many Malays are not aware of its roots.

Natchsider, can you verify if Datuk worship in its present form is a Malaysian Chinese "invention" as Yeeck is implying or, adopted "as is" from the historical Malay community. Like, historically did the Malays build shrines and made offerings?