CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS
29
Zhi Gong and over Lunar New Year, and has a "red-pig" fund30 for the feast at each occasion.
Certain lands in rural areas in Hong Kong are designated as 'temple property',() and the income from them is devoted to the upkeep of the temple and its deity as well as providing financial support for the temple keeper. In many cases the deed of ownership is made out in the name of the principle deity, whilst selected elders of the village act as trustees.
A foreign missionary once described how funds were raised in China for religious purposes.31 An old Buddhist temple to the north of Tak Hing, west of Guangzhou which had been allowed to fall into ruin, was to be rebuilt in 1903 because a geomancer discovered that the floods and crop failures of 1902 were due to the neglect of the deity who formerly had occupied the temple. The deity had come back, according to the geomancer, and had been seen in the form of a woman. Villages and cities even as far distant as forty miles sent processions to help subscribe towards the rebuilding. The missionary described the local collections as "frequently barefaced extortion”. He explained that "women went round to collect the money and asked every man for a sum based on what they knew him to be worth. If their demand was not complied with, they would refuse to take anything at all and threatened to post the family name all over the city walls as niggards who refused to help towards the public weal". Perhaps too, in Hong Kong this may still go on to some extent.
Statistics — Temples in Hong Kong and Macau
Household altars and unmanned sea-side and streetside shrines have not been included in the statistics, except in the case of the streetside shrines which are roofed buildings large enough to entertain several humans standing up. These have been included under temples. The unmanned smaller public shrines run to about several hundred in Hong Kong with a further eighty in Macau.
There are about three hundred and ninety-six temples and monasteries in Hong Kong. Of these as many as ninety-eight are (or were before reclamation projects were completed) coastal temples dedicated to gods or goddesses of the seas; one hundred and thirty-five are Buddhist monasteries or nunneries; two hundred and forty-six are folk religion temples and two dozen are Daoist temples
CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS
29
Zhi Gong and over Lunar New Year, and has a "red-pig" fund 30 for the feast at each occasion.
Certain lands in rural areas in Hong Kong are designated as 'temple property', () and the income from them is devoted to the upkeep of the temple and its deity as well as providing financial support for the temple keeper. In many cases the deed of owner- ship is made out in the name of the principle deity, whilst selected elders of the village act as trustees.
A foreign missionary once described how funds were raised in China for religious purposes.31 An old Buddhist temple to the north of Tak Hing, west of Guangzhou which had been allowed to fall into ruin, was to be rebuilt in 1903 because a geomancer discovered that the floods and crop failures of 1902 were due to the neglect of the deity who formerly had occupied the temple. The deity had come back, according to the geomancer, and had been seen in the form of a woman. Villages and cities even as far distant as forty miles sent processions to help subscribe towards the re- building. The missionary described the local collections as "fre- quently barefaced extortion”. He explained that "women went round to collect the money and asked every man for a sum based on what they knew him to be worth. If their demand was not complied with, they would refuse to take anything at all and threa- tened to post the family name all over the city walls as niggards who refused to help towards the public weal". Perhaps too, in Hong Kong this may still go on to some extent.
Statistics — Temples in Hong Kong and Macau
Household altars and unmanned sea-side and streetside shrines have not been included in the statistics, except in the case of the streetside shrines which are roofed buildings large enough to enter- tain several humans standing up. These have been included under temples. The unmanned smaller public shrines run to about several hundred in Hong Kong with a further eighty in Macau.
There are about three hundred and ninety-six temples and monasteries in Hong Kong. Of these as many as ninety-eight are (or were before reclamation projects were completed) coastal tem- ples dedicated to gods or goddesses of the seas; one hundred and thirty-five are Buddhist monasteries or nunneries; two hundred and forty-six are folk religion temples and two dozen are Daoist temples
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