Critical Study of theories surrounding the historic arrival of a popular Shiite festival in contemporary Sunni Malaysia
(2004) Critical Study of theories surrounding the historic arrival of a popular Shiite festival in contemporary Sunni Malaysia. In Bailey, C. and Cabrera, D. and Buys, L., Eds. Proceedings Social Change in the 21st Century, Centre for Social Change Research, Brisbane, Australia.
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Abstract
In contemporary Malaysia (especially Penang) boria refers to a choral street performance performed annually by a number of troupes. The troupes are composed predominantly of Sunni Malays and may represent a street, kampong or districts. The objective of boria performed by these troupes is merely for fun and often includes an annual singing competition. The size, themes and movements of each troupe may vary from year to year. But,what is common to most troupes is that boria is generally performed during the first ten days of Islamic lunar month of Muharram. According to most scholars, however, chiefly Indian Shiite migrants performed historic nineteenth century boria in Malaysia and that the performances were not competitive but religious. Thus these scholars continue that it was these Shiite Indians who first introduced the festival with its religious zeal and pathos into Malaysia and that the local Sunni Malays simply adopted the religious Muharram festival as their own, transforming it into a non-religious practice(boria). There is no doubt that the term boria is simply a follow on of the name given to the religious Muharram festival. Yet the Malay adaptation of the term boria in the late nineteenth century does not necessarily mean that it represented a transformation from a religious into a non-religious festival as argued by virtually all scholars. Being part of a larger project I will limit this study to further analyse the various theories surrounding the historic Indian Shiite origin of boria in contemporary Malaysia.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Keywords: | Malaysia; Muharram festival; Boria; Malay Customs and Manner, Shiite; Islam; Sunni; Penang |
| Subjects: | 440000 Philosophy and Religion > 440200 Religion and Religious Traditions > 440205 Islamic Studies 420000 Language and Culture > 420300 Cultural Studies 430000 History and Archaeology > 430100 Historical Studies > 430102 History - Asian |
| ID Code: | 626 |
| Deposited By: | Callan, Paula |
| Deposited On: | 21 December 2004 |
| Copyright Owner: | Copyright 2004 Maziar Mozaffari-Falarti |