NOTES AND QUERIES
THE PO TAK TEMPLE
IN SHEUNG SHUI MARKET
The Po Tak Temple (Temple to repay a virtuous deed), also known as the Ts'un Foo Temple (The Governor's temple), in Sheung Shui Market now occupies only a small flat in a multi-storeyed building on Tsun Fu Street, but it was a sizable building until it was burnt down in the fire in 1955. For a long time, it was also the political focus of the Punti villages in the northern and eastern New Territories.
The temple was built to commemorate Chau Yau-tak (H), Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi from 1670 to 1673, and Wong Loi-yam (E), Governor of Kwangtung in 1669, the two officials who were instrumental in petitioning the Emperor to end the coastal evacuation from 1662 to 1669. No-one remembers when it was built. According to the 1819 edition of the San On Gazetteer, it was one of three temples devoted to these two officials in the county, the other two being located north of Sham Chun Market. This record must not be taken to be exhaustive: there was at least one more devoted to these two officials in Kam Tin (the Chau Wong I Kung Shue Uen).
Village elders remember that before the Second World War and in the 1950s sacrifice was offered annually at the Po Tak Temple to the two officials by two separate but overlapping groups referred to as the Old Alliance (Kau Yeuk) and the New Alliance (San Yeuk). The Old Alliance sacrificed on the nineteenth of the Fifth Month and the New Alliance on the first of the Sixth Month. The account books of both groups are fortunately extant, and they provide valuable documentation on these two important inter-village organizations.
Two copies of the Old Alliance account book are available. Both have written on the front covers: Po Tak Temple temple celebration volume, 12th year of the Republic, Lung Shaan copy (報徳祠神誕冊,民國十二年立,龍山冊). We have compared the introductory texts, and they are identical. It seems
NOTES AND QUERIES
THE PO TAK TEMPLE
IN SHEUNG SHUI MARKET
The Po Tak Temple (Temple to repay a virtuous deed), also known as the Ts'un Foo Temple (The Governor's temple), in Sheung Shui Market now occupies only a small flat in a multi-storeyed building on Tsun Fu Street, but it was a sizable building until it was burnt down in the fire in 1955. For a long time, it was also the political focus of the punti villages in the northern and eastern New Territories.
The temple was built to commemorate Chau Yau-tak (H), Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi from 1670 to 1673, and Wong Loi-yam (E), Governor of Kwangtung in 1669, the two officials who were instrumental in petitioning the Emperor to end the coastal evacuation from 1662 to 1669. No-one remembers when it was built. According to the 1819 edition of the San On Gazetteer, it was one of three temples devoted to these two officials in the county, the other two being located north of Sham Chun Market. This record must not be taken to be exhaustive: there was at least one more devoted to these two officials in Kam Tin (the Chau Wong I Kung Shue Uen).
Village elders remember that before the Second World War and in the 1950s sacrifice was offered annually at the Po Tak Temple to the two officials by two separate but overlapping groups referred to as the Old Alliance (Kau Yeuk #) and the New Alliance (San Yeuk). The Old Alliance sacrificed on the nineteenth of the Fifth Month and the New Alliance on the first of the Sixth Month. The account books of both groups are fortunately extant, and they provide valuable documentation on these two important inter-village organizations.
Two copies of the Old Alliance account book are available. Both have written on the front covers: Po Tak Temple temple celebration volume, 12th year of the Republic, Lung Shaan copy (報徳祠神誕冊,民國十二年立,龍山冊). We have compared the introductory texts, and they are identical. It seems
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