A Living Mani Cult in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

A team of scholars from three Australian universities, including thepresent authors and Dr. Ken Parry of Macquarie University, has becomeinvolved with museums in the Fujian Province of the People's Republic of China for the purpose of studying Manichaean and Christian (both'Nestorian' and Catholic) remains from the Mongol period. On ourmost recent field trip in April 2005, for which we were joined by Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, we were astounded to find clear evidence of a living Mani cult still being practised in the village below the famous shrine, the 'cao'an' («thatched nunnery»), on Huabiao Hill where a statue of Mani remains in place.