The Origins of Confucianism as an Organized Religion in Java, 1900–1923

Singularly little scholarly work has been devoted to the religious life of the Chinese of Southeast Asia. This is particularly true of the Indonesian Chinese. The only major work on Chinese religion in Indonesia to appear in decades is Les Chinois de Jakarta: Temples et Vie Collective. The unique and astonishing transformation of Confucianism into an organized religion as practised today under the auspices of MATAKIN (Majelis Tinggi Agama Khonghucu Indonesia — the Supreme Council for the Confucian Religion in Indonesia) has so far only been discussed in two short essays.