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KEITH G. STEVENS
perhaps be recognisable. In one monastery near Tuen Mun very large murals depicting individual, fearsome soldiers were copies from sketches made in Peking many years ago but are only known as the "Fierce Generals".
The images of the deities on altars are frequently brightened with a red scarf or a large red rosette which covers the top of the head or hat of the images, with a ribbon hanging down on either side of the image to approximately waist height. Other decorations pinned into the hats of gods on the altars include long pairs of red and silver metal foil triangular rosettes. Cloth vestments are also commonly to be seen, made by elderly lady devotees as an act of piety and draped around the images of major deities.
There is a remarkable air of unkemptness about traditional temples. Things are stored flagrantly beside or under the altar without any regard for aesthetics. The clutter can range from bedding to broken furniture, plastic bowls to drying clothes, from spare tins of oil for the lamps to piles of old newspapers. Umbrellas hang on the wall, vests and underpants dry on the altar table edge, and everywhere there is a thick layer of dust.
External decoration
Outside decoration, usually very simple, consists of murals over the entrance, the flattish gable roof of dull, glazed tiles which on traditional temples more often than not leads up to an ornamented ridge piece. Exterior walls usually are of brick, granite or a combination of both which in some places have been whitewashed or have a cement finish.
Many articles have already described traditional temple roof ridge external decoration, which is mainly of Shekwan pottery, with turquoise and golden yellow the two predominant colours. The decoration may only cover the horizontal ridge, though in quite a number of traditional temples it also covers the curved roof ridges joining the main ridge to the flank walls. The decoration on these ridges usually has a centrepiece consisting of a red ball (pearl) with dragons, fishes, cockerels and mythical creatures, interspersed with three-dimensional scenes from Chinese legend and myth. The roofs of smaller traditional unmanned, single room, coastal temples usually are without decoration, or if any attempt has been made it is stylized and very basic.