DAOISM UNDER THE YAO

By Barend ter Haar

Even today, China as a political unit still contains many different ethnic
groups besides the one whom we are accustomed as seeing as "the Chinese". In
order to distinguish the latter from other groups living on Chinese territory,
we usually prefix "Chinese" with the ethnic specification "Han". One of these
other groups are the Yao, who never formed one political whole, but can
nevertheless be confidently identified as one culture with a common language
and culture. In their culture Daoist religious traditions play an important
role. These could described as borrowings from Han Chinese culture, but this
projects ethnic distinctions back into the past in a way that may never have
applied as clearly in the regions where both Han and Yao lived. A more useful
perception would be to see Daoism as a religious tradition with a strong
appeal to various peoples within China as a larger political whole, because
of its strong roots in indigenous religion and its historical links to state
ritual and legitimation ideology. Eventually, the aim of my study of Yao
Daoism is not only to obtain a better understanding of this important variant
of a major Chinese religious tradition, but also to better understand the
reasons why the Yao adopted it, whereas many other ethnic groups did not.
The importance of Daoism among the Yao has been pointed out recently by
several scholars, including Jacques Lemoine and Michel Strickmann. In 1982
Lemoine devoted an introductory study to Daoist religious paintings among the
Yao, based on extensive fieldwork in Northern Thailand. For Western
anthropologists, the study of Yao religion is especially difficult because of
the need to master both modern and classical Chinese besides the Yao language.
Chinese ethnographers in the People's Republic of China have collected many
texts, but their Marxist-Leninist background, coupled with a considerable
amount of Sinocentricism, has precluded them from taking Yao religion
seriously. It is obvious not possible to remedy this lack of attention within
the short time span of one research project, but a beginning can be made. 
I will concentrate on the religious specialists of the Yao, because their
knowledge the most vulnerable aspect of the entire tradition, because of its
detail and complexity. This knowledge is now under severe threat both in
Southeast Asia and China, as a result of increasingly rapid acculturation and
by Christian proselytisation. Given their higher level of education and
growing access to Western style market places (including those opened up by
Western tourism), it is likely that members from the families of ritual
specialists will choose alternative, non-religious avenues of making an
income, if this income promises to be higher than that gained from remaining
a ritual specialist. Political and cultural pressures will continue to
escalate with the advent of electricity, motorcycles, television and tourism.
For these reasons there clearly is a certain sense of urgency to my project.
Whereas the larger ethnographical context can also be studied by
anthropologists without much knowledge of Chinese religious traditions, a
certain familiarity with Chinese religion and a reasonable command of the
requisite Chinese languages is of essential importance to understanding the
role of Daoist rituals among the Yao. This is an additional reason for
concentrating on the ritual specialists, rather than working my way into the
topic from the larger ethnographical context. It should be easier (although
still quite difficult) to acquire a working knowledge of the Yao language for
a Sinologist, than the other way round for an anthropologist. 

B.A.J. ter Haar (1958) studied Sinology at Leiden University and spent time
in Japan and China. Since 1984 he has been lecturer in Chinese History at
Leiden University. In 1990 he obtained his doctorate for a thesis
entitled:'White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History'. Furthermore he
published extensively on Chinese religious history.