the original version of this article was presented at the international conference on transnational religions: intersections of the ‘local’ and ‘global’, organized by the asia research institute, national university of singapore, 19–20 july 2004. i would like to thank anthony reid and vineeta sinha for their warm invitation and valuable academic guidance. my most sincere gratitude goes to the anonymous readers for jseas who painstakingly went through the draft and gave me very constructive comments. any existing shortcomings in the article are solely my responsibility.