ABSTRACT
Westerners visiting East Asia as tourists or newcomers are often impressed by the colourful religious ceremonies they encounter there and are charmed that they can ‘still find’ so many people enthusiastically engaged in such activities. In fact, religions and spiritual movements are as much a part of East Asia’s ‘new look’ as a part of its past – just as they are all over the world. At the end of the twentieth century there has been a global resurgence of religions, in both the East and the West. This resurgence is particularly evident in the former Eastern Bloc countries of Europe and in the newly industrializing countries of the Third World, including those of the Asia-Pacific.
