Contemporary Daoist Tangki Practice

• Main Author: CHAN, Margaret
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Tangki; China; Chinese; Daoist; spirit possession; medium; shaman; demon; ritual; gods; Asian Studies; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1872; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3129/viewcontent/P_ID_52582_Contemporary_Daoist_Tangki_Practice_Published.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Since 1979, China has seen a renaissance of indigenous belief systems, including Daoist tangki spirit-medium practice. Tangki traditions have Neolithic roots. The founding myth is of a man who magically battled flood demons to save China. In imperial times, ordinary people, disenfranchised by the state religion and pawns of dynastic wars, created a soteriology of self-empowerment. Ordinary people would transform through spirit pos-session into warrior gods who would save the community. Millennia-old tangki traditions have diffused into the modern Chinese quotidian. With a remote Central Committee of the Communist Party recalling distant emperors, village temples, many led by tangkis, have formed “second governments” to deal with day-to-day exigencies. Religion offers a cultural lens to obtain new perspectives of the Chinese worldview.