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KEITH G. STEVENS
temples are willed from generation to generation to adopted sons. In religion, whilst private folk religion temples are bequeathed to sons, nephews and even daughters. Buddhist temples, willed from generation to generation, are all only very small ones with a minimal monkhood.
At least several thousand people in Hong Kong alone, earn a living in some way connected with folk religion practices, many in or connected with temples though by no means all. A small number of these earn a comparatively reasonable income due to their expertise, energy and intuitive business acumen. Although few would admit it, their competition for business from devotees, though not fierce, exists. One keeper, washing his temple floor, said that he knows that the devotees who use his temple appreciate its cleanliness; another met two elderly ladies at the entrance, escorted them in and presided over the rites they required performed. He made it clear that these ladies came regularly and that the service he performed for them was well rewarded. This explained, he said, why he had gone beyond the norm in going to the entrance to welcome them.
In the fifties, according to one temple's records, the pay for the temple keeper was made up of subscriptions of one sheng of rice from each family annually and HK$30 monthly from the village public fund.
Certain temples are centres for societies formed by devotees around one particular deity. These societies, registered with the Hong Kong Government, have rules and subscriptions and have been established for the welfare and advancement of the devotees. An example is the Society centred around the Living Buddha Zhi Gong in a hillside squatter temple constructed illegally above Shamshuipo. The Society comprises some 450 members, mostly Chaozhou immigrants from Swatow, who have settled and set up small shops and businesses in Shamshuipo. Their subscriptions help keep the temple clean and well run by the staff employed by the Society. The staff consists of a keeper, sometimes known as the secretary as he controls the sale of incense and oil and takes fees for his professional assistance; an odd-job man who tends the garden and sweeps up; and the apprentice who does the chores and runs messages. The Society meets on festival days connected with