CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS
33
14 Because of the exorbitant rents for such accommodation, temples in shop houses and flats in Hong Kong are few and far between. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples in shop houses are very common indeed, though they are becoming less so as the years pass and rents in urban areas rapidly rise.
15 Occasionally such a temple may be a converted private house, as in the many examples in Lo Wai village, Tsuen Wan, but more often it is a purpose-built but inexpensive hut.
18 Temples containing images of the Buddhist deities Di Zang Wang, Milofu, and Guan Yin are not necessarily specifically Buddhist, as all three of these deities nowadays are also extremely popular deities in folk religion temples.
17 Mahayana is Northern Buddhism and Theravada or Hinayana is Southern Buddhism.
18 "Illegal" is a Hong Kong term for buildings which have been built on Crown Land often by squatters without Government land control or planning permission, but which have been permitted to remain standing under sufferance. In practice, they are temporary structures put up without permission, occasionally ramshackle though more often they are well-built timber, weather-board, and corrugated iron buildings, clean and well-proportioned. (Illustration 17). Some have stood for such a length of time as to have been gradually converted to concrete and brick. All are labelled on the side in rough daubs of paint with the bureaucratic abbreviations and digits prefixed by "TEM" (= temporary) affixed by squatter control staff of the Housing Department.
19 Demons are well known to Chinese to be unable to go around corners and must travel in straight lines, hence these inner doors to prevent the demons from entering the temple. The inner doors originally were opened exclusively for influential people.
20 See also James Hayes' information at JHKBRAS 6 (1966): 129-130.
21 In overseas Chinese areas, this kind of large street shrine is still very common and, in Singapore alone, some four to five hundred exist in all kinds of nooks and crannies. For a Hong Kong example, see JHKBRAS 14 (1974): 203.
22 Chu is one of the 28 Constellations (= xiu).
** See pp. 111-113 of the Hong Kong Government's publication Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (1979) for this pagoda.
24 In Imperial times, such masts were always to be seen outside the local magistrate's yamen.
25 Chinese bells have no internal tongue clapper, being tolled by an external blow with a wooden mallet.
26 For the Evacuation of the Coast, see Lo Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1963) Chapter VI.
27 For background, see Jen Yu-wen's article "The Southern Sung stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang" in JHKBRAS 5 (1965): 65-68.
28 Government action is through the Chinese Temples Committee, serviced by the Trust Funds Section of the Home Affairs Department.
29 Temples according to this Ordinance include Miao (廟), Si (寺), Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, Guan (觀) and Dao Yuan (道院), and nunneries An (庵).
CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS
33
14 Because of the exorbitant rents for such accommodation, temples in shop houses and flats in Hong Kong are few and far between. In Singapore and Malaysia, temples in shop houses are very common indeed, though they are becoming less so as the years pass and rents in urban areas rapidly rise.
15 Occasionally such a temple may be a converted private house, as in the many examples in Lo Wai village, Tsuen Wan, but more often it is a purpose built but inexpensive hut.
18 Temples containing images of the Buddhist deities Di Zeng Wang, Milofu, and Guan Yin are not necessarily specifically Buddhist, as all three of these deities nowadays are also extremely popular deities in folk religion temples.
17 Mahayana is Northern Buddhism and Therevada or Hinayana is Southern Buddhism.
18 "Illegal" is a Hong Kong term for buildings which have been built on Crown Land often by squatters without Government land control or planning permission, but which have been permitted to remain standing under sufferance. In practice they are temporary structures put up without permission, occasionally ramshackle though more often they are well-built timber, weather-board and corrugated iron buildings, clean and well- proportioned. (Illustration 17). Some have stood for such a length of time as to have been gradually converted to concrete and brick. All are labelled on the side in rough daubs of paint with the bureaucratic abbre- viations and digits prefixed by "TEM" (= temporary) affixed by squatter control staff of the Housing Department.
10 Demons are well known to Chinese to be unable to go around corners and must travel in straight lines, hence these inner doors to prevent the demons from entering the temple. The inner doors originally were opened exclusively for influential people.
20 See also James Hayes' information at JHKBRAS 6 (1966); 129-130.
21 In overseas Chinese areas this kind of large street shrine is still very common and, in Singapore alone, some four to five hundred exist in all kinds of nooks and crannies. For a Hong Kong example see JHKBRAS 14, (1974): 203.
22 Chu is one of the 28 Constellations ( = +^#).
** See pp. 111-113 of the Hong Kong Government's publication Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (1979) for this pagoda.
24 In Imperial times such masts were always to be seen outside the local magistrate's yamen.
25 Chinese bells have no internal tongue clapper, being tolled by an external blow with a wooden mallet.
26 For the Evacuation of the Coast see Lo Hsiang-lin and others, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1963) Chapter VI.
27 For background see Jen Yu-wen's article "The Southern Sung stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang" in JHKBRAS, 5 (1965): 65-68.
28 Government action is through the Chinese Temples Committee, serviced by the Trust Funds Section of the Home Affairs Department.
2o Temples according to this Ordinance include Miao (# ), Si (*), Buddhist and Daoist monasteries, Guan and Dao Yuan ( MA iN) and nunneries An ().
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