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Title:	The Malaysian-Siamese community of Wat BoT Jiin :a case study on the construction of an urban community in the Klang Valley, Malaysia
Authors:	Suphatmet Yunyasit (P32302)
Supervisor:	Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Prof. Datuk Dr.
Keywords:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia Thais-Malaysia-Klang Valley-Social life and customs-Case studies Thais-Malaysia-Klang Valley-Case studies Thais-Ethnic identity-Case studies Cities and towns-Malaysia Malaysia-Klang Valley-Race relations-Case studies Malaysia-Ethnic relations-Case studies
Issue Date:	27-Mar-2012
Description:	This study is conducted to find out why and how a group of Malaysian-Siamese from rural areas of Kelantan construct their ethnic community in the Klang Valley, the most urbanized conurbation of Malaysia. It uses fieldwork conducted between March 2007 and April 2008, participant observation and formal and informal interviews as its data collecting methods. The key informants are the Siamese of Wat Bot Jiin, a group of Kelantanese-Siamese who are regular supporters of Wat Bot Jiin, a Siamese Buddhist temple located on Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. The study reveals that the Siamese of Wat Bot Jiin construct their community because they want to maintain their inter-generational Siamese identity and exclusiveness. The primary approach to understand the construction of the community is to look at its overt and subtle components referred in this study as form and content respectively. The form—the outsiders’ perception of the community—is the Siamese of Wat Bot Jiin engaging in regular social interaction with one another. The content—the insiders’ understanding of the community—is the Siamese cultural knowledge shared and used only by the Siamese of Wat Bot Jiin in the course of their community life. To the Siamese of Wat Bot Jiin, their exclusive sharing and practicing of the content helps them not only in asserting and maintaining their Siamese identity but also in establishing themselves as the community members and setting themselves apart from the Malaysian-Chinese and the Thai nationals, Wat Bot Jiin’s two other non-Siamese supporter groups. This means that the Siamese community of Wat Bot Jiin, which does not inhabit clearly designated physical boundaries, manages to create, along with its form and content, an abstract set of social boundaries to enhance its existence. Through the investigation of the construction of the Siamese community of Wat Bot Jiin, the study also crucially illustrates that community and identity are connected and that the creation of an ethnic community leads to the formation and maintenance of the ethnic identity of the community members,Certification of Master's/Doctoral Thesis" is not available
Pages:	265
Call Number:	DS595.2.T53Y843
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan

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