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the problem of space was solved and the ancestors acquired additional merit by sharing that gained by the monks' prayers. Thus, the ancestors' hall (1) has become a rich source of revenue in many Hong Kong monasteries. The affluence of the sangha is most easily seen in the many very spacious and ornate temples built or rebuilt in recent years. These magnificent buildings in turn become centres of attraction for devotees and tourists. As we shall see below, these temples do not really serve the direct needs of the sangha, which has diminished in number. (Very often, only a handful of monks live in a monastery which could accommodate hundreds.)
The affluence of the monks is again seen in the proliferation of small temples and houses of cultivation (#4). There are altogether about 400 big and small temples and the significance of this large number is self-evident if we bear in mind that there are altogether only about 200 to 250 monks and about 1,000 nuns in Hong Kong. It is estimated that there are about a dozen big monasteries each of which holds in excess of ten monks, and a significantly larger number of nunneries containing about that number of nuns. It appears then that a small temple has on the average only one monk or two or three nuns. If a monk is wealthy enough, there is a great attraction for him to own a temple himself, for then he can avoid the difficulties of living in common with other monks or of subjecting himself to an abbot. The impact of this development on the monk's religious cultivation is yet to be investigated.
4.
Another development during this period was the establishment of Buddhist centres within the urban areas. Many of the small temples mentioned above are situated within high-rise blocks of flats in the crowded areas of the city. Thus, the monks make themselves readily accessible to the populace whether for the purpose of spreading the Buddha's teaching, doing social work, administering to the schools or performing Buddhist ceremonies. The old centres in the New Territories were not given up. With the expansion of the population and the development of new towns, these old centres have in turn become readily accessible. Constant streams of devotees and tourists are a normal happening nowadays. The net effect has been that contact between monks and ordinary people has become very considerably increased.