RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS AMONG ETHNIC MINORITIES IN VIET NAM’S SOUTHEASTERN REGION

Abstract

Religious conversion, or even religious reconversion, among minority ethnic peoples such as the Xtieng, the Cho Ro, the Mnong, the Ma, the Khmer, and the minority ethnic group of Ta Mun in Binh Phuoc province and Dong Nai province of the Southeast region of Vietnam manifests itself during the peoples’ historical process and social circumstances. If they indeed utilized their rational choice in their religion conversion, it does not just limit to their consideration and calculation of economic advantages which the chosen religions brought to the converters as some scholars concluded. Rather, it is involved psychological, sentimental, belief and sacred aspects of the people in relation with a particularly religion they converted to. It is uncommon to witness the discrimination and conflict over religious conversion among those who co-reside at a given locality in the region. It is likely that they did not lose the belief in their former religions or psychological dismay when they converted into new ones. Conversion to new religions does not necessarily mean that they devalued the former beliefs, refused and rejected them.