South Asia Studies
Our C.U. in Southeast Asia students have been learning about the religious worlds of the South Asian diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar centered upon Hindu, Muslim and Sikh temples and shrines. These last weeks the students have been hopping around the islands in the region and gaining fresh historical perspectives relating to migration, popular religion and communities. These will shape the research projects that the students focus on next semester.
The photograph above, from December 24th, shows the students hearing prayers from local shrine attendant at the tomb of Shaikh Ismail and Sultan Ariffin on the island of Pulau Besar, near Melaka, Malaysia. Shaikh Ariffin is a Qadri Shaikh with likely Indian connections whose hagiographies place him as early as the sixteenth century and credit him with the introduction of Islam to Melaka.
The Island of Pulau Besar more generally, and probably as a result of Ariffin's association with the place, has become famous over the centuries for a vast number of small shrines associated with the tombs of various Indian Muslim saints and pious believers. Today it attracts substanital numbers of Muslims and Hindus.