NOTES AND QUERIES
149
the afternoon was equally meaningful. According to Hayes, the priest in charge of the 1958 ceremonies on Lantau decided how many pots should be prepared with charms, and where they should be placed at various spots throughout the area. In the 1960 case in Sai Kung, two pots were prepared, and one was placed at either end of the village. In the Fung Yuen case, however, as many as seven pots were needed (plus an extra ceremony with no pot), and though the ritual specialist may have dictated the precise orientation of each, they are located at sites which could only be derived with a full knowledge of the local social rather than geomantic terrain.
Almost 450 people make their homes in Fung Yuen, according to my surveys, of whom only about 120 are "indigenous villagers," or descendants of the several small lineages that settled the valley in the middle of the Qing dynasty. Some sixty people name other New Territories villages as their native places, though they have been settled in Fung Yuen for forty to sixty years; the remainder are more recent arrivals, immigrants from China who now grow vegetables as tenants on lineage-owned land. But of these several categories of Fung Yuen residents, only the first, the villagers, face potential harm from the changes to be wrought by government engineering works. This understanding is shared by everyone, despite the fact that the terrain to be altered embraces the homes of everyone, not just the villagers. In fact, those actually farming the land, including some villagers as well as many immigrants, might be considered to be at highest risk, for the water that sustains their vegetables and their livelihoods runs down from the hills where the Green Dragon and White Tiger live. That ritual units are constituted socially rather than geographically or economically, however, is a lesson brought home very clearly in the tun fu ceremonies.
The first ceremony, and the only one complete with all food and drink offerings as well as other ritual paraphernalia, was conducted at the site of the local Daaih Wohng Yeh shrine, and was addressed to the nearby Touh Deih Gung as well. These gods define a community, in that all who are full members in that community fall within their sphere of responsibility; the gods are concerned with their welfare, and the reverse is equally true. In tradi-
NOTES AND QUERIES
149
the afternoon was equally meaningful. According to Hayes, the priest in charge of the 1958 ceremonies on Lantau decided how many pots should be prepared with charms, and where they should be placed at various spots throughout the area. In the 1960 case in Sai Kung, two pots were prepared, and one was placed at either end of the village. In the Fung Yuen case, however, as many as seven pots were needed (plus an extra ceremony with no pot), and though the ritual specialist may have dictated the precise orienta- tion of each, they are located at sites which could only be derived with a full knowledge of the local social rather than geomantic terrain.
Almost 450 people make their homes in Fung Yuen, according to my surveys, of whom only about 120 are "indigenous villagers," or descenden's of the several small lineages that settled the valley in the middle of the Qing dynasty. Some sixty people name other New Territories villages as their native places, though they have been settled in Fung Yuen for forty to sixty years; the remainder are more recent arrivals, immigrants from China who now grow vegetables as tenants on lineage-owned land. But of these several categories of Fung Yuen residents, only the first, the villagers, face po ential harm from the changes to be wrought by government engineering works. This understanding is shared by everyone, despite the fact that the terrain to be altered embraces the homes of everyone, not just the villagers. In fact, those actually farming the land, including some villagers as well as many immigrants, might be considered to be at highest risk, for the water that sustains their vegetables and their livelihoods runs down from the hills where the Green Dragon and White Tiger live. That ritual units are constituted socially rather than geographically or economically, however, is a lesson brought home very clearly in the tun fu cere- monies.
The first ceremony, and the only one complete with all food and drink offerings as well as other ritual paraphernalia, was con- ducted at the site of the local Daaih Wohng Yeh shrine, and was addressed to the nearby Touh Deih Gung as well. These gods. define a community, in that all who are full members in that com- munity fall within their sphere of responsibility; the gods are con- cerned with their welfare, and the reverse is equally true. In tradi-
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