ARI Working Paper Series

Most modern states have policies for the management of religion. For those with diverse religious communities, how to ensure the peaceful coexistence of the various religions becomes an important challenge for the governments involved. Hence, modern secular states often delineate a proper “domain” for religion in society in order to properly regulate it. In response, religious groups, many transnational in nature, can adopt various strategies to respond to state regulations, ranging from resistance, accommodation, to acceptance. This paper examines how the Yiguan Dao—a transnational Chinese syncretic sect which has experienced phenomenal growth in Asia and beyond—in its negotiations with state-imposed restrictions has chosen not to identify itself publicly as a “religion”, but adopts a more “secular” identity in its official dealings with the public and the state by emphasizing its “cultural” and “scientific” aspects. Further, the sect utilizes practice of religious territoriality to transform formally secular residential properties into the sacred sites of temples to circumvent state restrictions on religious buildings. The paper demonstrates how a religious movement can undergo organisational change and adopt innovative territorial practices, and manage to flourish in the face of state regulations as well as the negative views of other more “orthodox” religions.