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viewed as a Han Chinese phenomenon, what Anna Seidel has called China’s “unofficial higher religion,”55 even though Daoist communities were open to various groups from the earliest days of their inception as an organized tradition.
Although Buddhist texts first appeared in South Asia and were written in Pali and Sanskrit, the religion quickly spread beyond its region of origin. As it spread, the texts associated with it were translated into multiple languages, including Chinese and Tibetan, and new texts were written in diverse areas. As such, Buddhism has not been restricted to a single language or people, even though Pali and Sanskrit still survive as authoritative languages. Few are shocked at the presence of peoples in East and Southeast Asia who practice Buddhism.
What is referred to as Daoism, on the other hand, is comprised of emblems of the Chinese state. Its script is Chinese. Its deities are Chinese officials; even the clothing they wear is the garb of officialdom. Daoist ritual is modeled on official Chinese rituals and administrative practices. For Strickmann, it was through the propagation of Daoist ritual practices, with their emphasis on Chinese script and imperial icons, that Chinese literacy, cultural norms, and a distinct sociopolitical structure spread to certain non-Chinese groups (such as the Yao) in South China:
To Strickmann, at least as he expressed the issue of Yao Daoism in his 1979 article, all agency is in the hands of the Chinese official and his main accomplice—the Daoist priest.57