Malaysia-Singapore 2024: Reflections on Religion
Every summer, the rising Junior cohort travels to Malaysia and Singapore as part of the Honors curriculum, broadening their worldview by immersing themselves in a different culture. For the 2024 trip, that culture emphasized religious encounters, as Dr. Kokhan from the Divinity School tagged along. Here we capture some of his reflections from this “paradise for religious studies.”
Having taught the same cohort in Religious Understandings the past winter quarter, Dr. Kokhan had a sense for the cohort’s handle on religion. In many ways he helped shape it, as a major driving force in teaching the class was “preparing [his] students…for the kinds of religious phenomena they would see on the trip.”
Yet the trip was as much of a learning experience for him as it was for the students. This also being his first time in Malaysia and Singapore, Dr. Kokhan was enriched by how “illustrative” all of the places were for his class. Particularly, how the plethora of religious traditions lends itself to a rich symbolic vocabulary in the region. One instance was a recurrent bird statue around Kuching, pointed out by a student. This divine bird, Garuda, comes from the Hindu tradition, yet has become a broader symbol of strength in Pan-Asian cultures.
The wide adoption of a different religion’s symbol may seem shocking to a Christian encountering these religions from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective. Dr. Kokhan is aware of this, and he also recognizes the effort made by the Honors Department to “address the needs of Adventist students,” as well as the “spiritual needs” of those with other religious convictions in the cohort. However, he points out that “there is something very mature about being able to understand people of other faith traditions.” It is valuable for students to grapple with encountering other worldviews. Traveling to a region with diverse religious expressions afforded the students the opportunity to examine this balance.
Islam is one such major expression in Malaysia and Singapore. Generally speaking, it has a similar perspective toward sacred images as Protestant Christianity: Islam prohibits depicting religious figures so they do not become objects of worship. Meanwhile, Hinduism—another significant tradition in Malaysia—entails devotion to statues representing various manifestations (avatars) of the divine. And yet Dr. Kokhan observed that “Muslims [in Malaysia] are still willing to visit religious sites of other faiths.” Seeing Muslim women touring a Hindu temple taking selfies and live-streaming video with the Hindu statues in the background struck him as a demonstration of their openness to other faiths. One might ask, “why would they be interested in filming themselves [with] the background of these large ‘idols’?” Yet recognizing other faiths as part of one’s own cultural heritage seems natural to these believers. This “harmonious relationship” might be a necessary one given the proximity of these traditions; for example, how in the region one can find “a Hindu temple right next to a mosque…right next to a Confucian temple and right next to a Buddhist temple.”
This pluralism does not entail just accepting anything, however. Dr. Kokhan felt that believers in Malaysia even had “a stronger devotion” than some in a Western context, though their convictions maintained mutual respect for other people’s boundaries. As in the West, though, there is a range of perspectives. While some Muslims freely toured Hindu temples and took videos with the divine statues, others found this as a sign of a fledgling faith. Talking with worshippers at the Masjid Negara—the National Mosque of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur—a Muslim man wondered if the women were “new converts.” This variability can only be observed through open dialogue, which Dr. Kokhan enjoyed alongside a few of the students that stayed behind to talk with that man at the Masjid.
Perhaps intentionally, the trip was organized with “much emphasis on visiting religious sites.” Recognizing that he may be biased in this, Dr. Kokhan found the ubiquity of religious expression to be the “most interesting thing that Malaysia and Singapore [had] to offer.” The Honors cohort did not disappoint, and even “exceeded [his] expectations” in how they engaged with this religious context. It is no surprise that the motley cohort has diverse interests and that they are not “continually thinking about religion.” Nonetheless the trip provided an opportunity “to dedicate a big chunk of their days to talking with others about matters of faith.” They were able to see how religion was integrated “into other aspects of life…without specifically identifying anything as religious.”
This provides a window into how Dr. Kokhan views religion. In such paradises for religious understanding, Malaysia and Singapore “are perfect places for realizing how important religion is for humanity.” Religion is not just a “[remnant] from a bygone era,” he explains; rather, it is “incorporated into everything…we are as humans.” He sees this in ways more tangible than simply observing Hindu statues or Confucian altars in a primarily Muslim country. Instead, he points to the Confucian values of harmony, the “kind of care for their behavior that people exhibit in the marketplace.” In countries dotted with temples of different religions, where God is experienced through Muslim prayers, Hindu statues, and Confucian altars, Dr. Kokhan
finds “the sacred in the politeness people have for one another and the respect they exhibit toward each others’ traditions.”
—John Banta, Class of 2026: Neuroscience/Pre-Medicine
