Books

Chinese Buddhists have never remained stationary. They have always been on the move. In Monks in Motion, Jack Meng-Tat Chia explores why Buddhist monks migrated from China to Southeast Asia, and how they participated in transregional Buddhist networks across the South China Sea. This book tells the story of three prominent monks—Chuk Mor (1913–2002), Yen Pei (1917–1996), and Ashin Jinarakkhita (1923–2002)—and examines the connected history of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia in the twentieth century.

Monks in Motion is the first book to offer a history of what Chia terms “South China Sea Buddhism,” referring to a Buddhism that emerged from a swirl of correspondence networks, forced exiles, voluntary visits, evangelizing missions, institution-building campaigns, and the organizational efforts of countless Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Drawing on multilingual research conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia challenges the conventional categories of “Chinese Buddhism” and “Southeast Asian Buddhism” by focusing on the lesser-known—yet no less significant—Chinese Buddhist communities of maritime Southeast Asia. By crossing the artificial spatial frontier between China and Southeast Asia, Monks in Motion breaks new ground, bringing Southeast Asia into the study of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism into the study of Southeast Asia.

Winner, 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize

Shortlisted, 2023 Friedrich Weller Prize

“The book is a remarkable study by a young talented researcher. The book is original and innovative as it aims to trace the often overlooked Buddhist connections between China and the western part of maritime Southeast Asia. The author combined archival work with anthropological skills. In doing so he was able to add an important religious dimension to Chinese migration histories. By tracing the lives and roles of the monks, the author reveals aspects of modernity of Mahayana Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia. Taken together this book represents a new step in the study of religion in Southeast Asia and contributes to a new trend to approach Southeast Asia in a broader global context.” ― 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize Committee, European Association for Southeast Asian Studies

Praise

“Monks in Motion is a clearly written, well-researched, and well-organized book that is novel in its subject, fascinating in its content, and professional in its execution. This is not a straight-forward linear history of immigrant communities told with a disingenuous narrative arc artificially placed on it. It is a ‘connected history’ of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia that provides the first real study of three of the most important ‘Chinese’ monks in Southeast Asia: Chuk Mor, Yen Pei, and Ashin Jinarakkhita. Through these three biographies he ends up telling the much broader story of the Chinese migration and spread of Chinese Buddhism to Southeast Asia.” — Justin McDaniel, Professor of Buddhist and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania

“I rarely read a first book that is as clearly argued, seamlessly organized, and elegantly written as Monks in Motion. Chia offers us a close-up perspective on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century development of what he terms ‘South China Sea Buddhism,’ which emerged out of the circulations, networks, missionary efforts, forced and voluntary exiles, institutional-building, and organizing of Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Without question a significant contribution. I could hardly set it down.” — Anne Hansen, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“There is so much in this pioneering book that corrects earlier generalizations. I hope it won’t be long before our textbooks will reflect the overseas Chinese contribution to Buddhism, especially in our region.” ― Wang Gungwu, Tang Prize Laureate in Sinology

Discount Code: Order online at Oxford University Press with promo code AAFLYG6 to save 30%.

《東南亞法音: 新加坡佛教研究論集》。新北市：博揚文化，2025。

佛教在海洋東南亞的存在及其重要性亟待學術界的關注與討論。海洋東南亞讓人聯想到馬來群島，包括穆斯林占多數的印尼、馬來西亞和汶萊，以及以天主教為主的菲律賓。新加坡由於佛教徒和華人占主導地位而時常被認為是一個特例。然而，我們應該認識作者指出「南洋佛教」的佛教形式在以伊斯蘭教和天主教為主的海洋東南亞地區及其華人社群的存在，且發揮重要作用。南洋佛教在中國和東南亞的歷史聯繫中產生，並不斷經歷著變化與創新。

本書收錄了作者近年來以新加坡佛教為主要論述對象的一系列研究成果。主題涵蓋宗教網絡、宗教外交、宗教現代化等領域，旨在通過跨學科研究，多維度、多視角的方法揭示與詮釋佛教在海洋東南亞的多元發展歷程。

推薦

謝明達教授對「南洋佛教」的研究，徹底打破了舊有的學界印象，顛覆了既往的研究範式，更有極為深入細緻的跨語種、跨國界宗教材料的梳理與開闊的學術視野。本書及其專著《離散法緣》，已然開啟了新加坡佛教研究的全新時代！ ——紀贇教授（新加坡佛學院教務主任、圖書館館長）

謝明達教授的大作提出了「南洋佛教」的概念，別出心裁，也很貼切地概括了新加坡多元佛教的悠久歷史與廣泛傳播，極具參考價值，值得重視。 ——許源泰教授（廈門大學馬來西亞分校東南亞華人文獻研究中心主任）

Figures of Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

“Jack Meng-Tat Chia, the leading scholar in Buddhist diplomacy in Asia, has brought us a wholly original and fascinating volume about the myriad ways Buddhist monks, royalty, and prominent laity have knit together the Buddhist world through subtle forms of ritual co-performance to overt forms of power politics. From traveling Tibetan lamas to Thai princesses, from Indian visionaries to Vietnamese meditation masters—readers learn how variegated these go-betweens’ agendas can be and how creatively they enact their agendas. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Buddhist history and politics.” ― Justin Thomas McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania, USA

“Figures of Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia brings much-needed scholarly attention to the complex intersections of religion and diplomacy. This impressive collection shows how Buddhist actors, both monastic and political, have shaped modern Asia’s international engagements in surprising and consequential ways. A landmark contribution to multiple fields.” ― Juyan Zhang, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

“This book exemplifies the kind of bold, interdisciplinary research that the Social Science Research Council champions—work that moves debates forward, challenges assumptions and sparks thinking that influences both academic inquiry and policy in the region.” ― Chan Heng Chee, Social Science Research Council, Singapore