NOTES AND QUERIES
145
followers and would-be subscribers encouraged her then to build a new hall and she was able to purchase a private plot with a small house on it at Ngau Chi Wan, formerly occupied by a Buddhist nun. The house was pulled down and replaced then by the present hall. This hall belongs to the same sect as a group of halls studied by Marjorie Topley in Singapore and the founder of one of these halls, the FEI HA CHING SHE (*), there, was not only well known to the inmates of this hall in Hong Kong, but his photograph was observed by us to hang on its wall in a place of honour.
3. Man Fat Tong (4)
This hall was established in the first year of the Chinese Republic (1912-13). The founder was a native of Sai Chiu, Kwangtung and was at some time a domestic servant in Hong Kong. She held the same rank as the founders of the above halls and co-operated in financing the hall with three or four other former domestic servants. They began by building the main shrine room, the rest of the main structure being added some years later (about 1923). Gradually she bought more land and enlarged the structure as funds came in from co-religionists and would-be inmates.
One of the present inmates of the hall, now 67 years old, was brought here by the founder from Canton when she was 20 and she worked two years in Hong Kong as an amah before returning to the hall, where she has been ever since. Another lady, now 58, was brought here when 14 years old and has never been employed outside the hall,
Appearance and Lay-out of the Halls, and Deities Worshipped
The founders of these halls said there was no particular reason why they had chosen Ngau Chi Wan for their halls apart from the fact that the land was cheap and had good fêng-shui (geomantic properties) and the environment quiet. The surroundings of these halls must undoubtedly have been conducive to the contemplative and religious life in those early years. Although they are now bordered by a busy and noisy market and adjacent to the big housing estate of Choi Hung, the noise does not appear to penetrate into the halls and their small gardens in which they grow some of their vegetables even today.
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NOTES AND QUERIES
145
followers and would-be subscribers encouraged her then to build a new hall and she was able to purchase a private plot with a small house on it at Ngau Chi Wan, formerly occupied by a Buddhist nun. The house was pulled down and replaced then by the present hall. This hall belongs to the same sect as a group of halls studied by Marjorie Topley in Singapore and the founder of one of these halls, the FEI HA CHING SHE (*), there, was not only well known to the inmates of this hall in Hong Kong, but his photograph was observed by us to hang on its wall in a place of honour.
3. Man Fat Tong (4)
This hall was established in the first year of the Chinese Re- public (1912-13). The founder was a native of Sai Chiu, Kwang- tung and was at some time a domestic servant in Hong Kong. She held the same rank as the founders of the above halls and co- operated in financing the hall with three or four other former domestic servants. They begun by building the main shrine room. the rest of the main structure being added some years later (about 1923). Gradually she bought more land and enlarged the structure as funds came in from co-religionists and would-be inmates.
One of the present inmates of the hall, now 67 years old, was brought here by the founder from Canton when she was 20 and she worked two years in Hong Kong as an amah before returning to the hall, where she has been ever since. Another lady, now 58, was brought here when 14 years old and has never been employed outside the hall,
Appearance and Lay-out of the Halls, and Deities Worshipped
The founders of these halls said there was no particular reason why they had chosen Ngau Chi Wan for their halls apart from the fact that the land was cheap and had good fêng-shui (geomantic properties) and the environment quiet. The surroundings of these halls must undoubtedly have been conducive to the contemplative and religious life in those early years. Although they are now bordered by a busy and noisy market and adjacent to the big housing estate of Choi Hung, the noise does not appear to penet rate into the halls and their small gardens in which they grow some of their vegetables even today.
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