The National University of Singapore (NUS) has appointed Associate Professor Jack Meng-Tat Chia as the inaugural Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery Fellow in Buddhist Studies. Effective from 1 July, the prestigious appointment recognizes Prof. Chia’s significant contributions to the field of Buddhist studies and religious history.
“This new chair position will enable me to introduce more students at NUS and across Singapore to advanced research and scholarship in Buddhist studies,” Prof. Chia told BDG.
Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery (Ch: 福海禪寺) was founded in Singapore in 1935 by Venerable Hong Zong of Taiwan, who traveled to Singapore to propagate the Buddhist teaching. The monastery, which actively supports education, charity, and culture, is also home to a descendent of the sacred Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India. The sapling—grown from a cutting from the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka, itself grown from a cutting off of the original UNESCO World Heritage Site Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya—was presented to the monastery by the visiting president of Sri Lanka. The top floor of the main temple building also houses sacred Buddha relics. In 2022, Foo Hai Ch’an presented funding of US$800,000 to NUS to support graduate research candidates who focus on Buddhist studies.*
“A/Prof Chia is a distinguished historian of religion at the National University of Singapore, specializing in Buddhism and Chinese popular religion. His research focuses on Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia, with broader interests encompassing migration, diasporas, transnationalism, pilgrimage, and religious diplomacy,” NUS said in an announcement shared with BDG.
“Throughout his career, A/Prof Chia has made significant contributions to academic research, with publications in leading journals such as Critical Asian Studies, History of Religions, and the Journal of Chinese Religions. He has been awarded the 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) for his project ‘Diplomatic Dharma: Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia, 1950s–Present,’ as part of SSRC’s efforts to nurture promising local social science and humanities researchers.” (NUS)
Born and raised in Singapore, Prof. Chia is the author of the monograph Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford, 2020), for which he was awarded the 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 Friedrich Weller Prize. He is currently working on two book projects: Buddhayana: The Making of an Indonesian Buddhist Movement, and Diplomatic Dharma: Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia, supported by the 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship awarded by the Social Science Research Council Singapore.
Prof. Chia received a PhD in History at Cornell University, where his dissertation won the Lauriston Sharp Prize. He earned his BA (Hons) and MA in History from the National University of Singapore and his second MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, where he was a Harvard-Yenching Fellow. Prior to joining NUS, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
“Beyond the generous funding, I am particularly excited about the position’s potential to enhance awareness and scholarly focus on Buddhism at NUS and within Singapore,” Prof. Chia told BSG. “My long-term goal is to cultivate a robust Buddhist studies community at NUS that will not only contribute to but also elevate Singapore as a hub for bridging Eastern and Western scholarship on Buddhism.”
Singapore is a multicultural island state in Southeast Asia with a population of almost six million people. More than 31 per cent of Singaporeans identify as Buddhists, according to census data for 2020. Christianity is represented by 18.9 per cent, Islam 15.6 per cent, Daoism and other Chinese religions 8.8 per cent, Hinduism 5 per cent, and Sikhism and other religions 0.6 per cent. About 20 per cent of Singaporean have no religious affiliation.
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Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery Fellow in Buddhist Studies (NUS)
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