RAS-1961 — Page 106

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

ORASHKB and author

102

:

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

Besides the nine large monasteries and ten large nunneries in the Colony there are several other categories of institutions that are, in fact, far more numerous, In the urban areas, for example, there are small business establishments that go under the name of monasteries or nunneries, but are actually funeral specialists. They are summoned by the families of the deceased to perform the necessary rites at the coffin for one to seven days. They burn incense, offer sacrifices of food, read sutras, employ esoteric mantras and mudras, and (theoretically) concentrate their minds on the joint tasks of saving the soul from hell and saving the household from the soul (who may have become an unquiet ghost). Except for Christians and Muslims, most traditionally minded Chinese in Hong Kong consider that such funeral services are appropriate in the case of the death of one of their relatives, though many people, of course, die without the benefit of any funeral service at all, either because their families cannot afford it or do not care-or because they have no families. The funeral specialists wear monastic robes when "on duty", but they are not, in fact, ordained and they lead a secular life. Persons who have money or are strongly Buddhist usually prefer to have funeral services performed by monks from one of the Colony's monasteries, but this is more expensive: a donation of HK$30 a day for each monk is considered suitable. The funeral specialists only ask for a third as much. Usually theirs is a family business, handed down from father to son, in which perhaps half a dozen people participate-mostly members of the family. There are perhaps 15 to 20 such institutions in Hong Kong and Kowloon,

Another type of institution found in urban areas is the study centre, where services are held and instruction is offered to laymen by one or more ordained monks. Examples would be the To Ts'z Fat She 30 in Kennedy Town and the Buddhist Lecture Hall of Abbot To Lun in Happy Valley (where greater emphasis is placed on contact with foreigners). Perhaps the best known is the Ching Kok Lotus Association EH, founded in 1950 by the Reverend Kok Kwong. It holds Pure Land services every Saturday, attended by about a hundred people, and occasional dharma meetings to receive instruction by eminent Buddhist teachers from Hong Kong and abroad. Kok Kwong, who is also one of the directors of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association (see below), has recently established a Buddhist monthly, Buddhism in Hong Kong . the first issue of which was dated June 1, 1960. It contains both doctrinal articles and items of local Buddhist news and history.

Members of the Sangha also operate two libraries. One is the Hong Kong Buddhist Library, Boundary Street, Kowloon, established in 1957. It has a collection of over 10,000 volumes