ABSTRACT
Malaysia is no stranger to mutating religious diversity and cultural pluralism. For centuries, given its strategic geopolitical position along the commercial trade routes between China and India (and beyond), an array of travellers to the peninsula — inter alia merchants, imperialists and missionaries — have left their imprints, both singular and hybrid, on belief systems, social practices and material cultures that make up the societal fabric of modern-day Malaysia. Together with its diverse and finely balanced Asian populace who are adherents of some of the major world religions — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Daoism — the Malaysian Tourism Board was emboldened to make the claim of ‘Malaysia [being] Truly Asia’ not so long ago.
