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with the ancestors is piously worshipped.
Individual worshippers also visit the Houwang Temple regularly to offer oblations on the 1st and the 15th of the lunar month and during important festivals. The temple is obviously owned and controlled by the Tung Chung community and has thus been regarded as a “village alliance temple,” as defined by Brim.1 In such a mix-surname community as Tung Chung, folk religion and the temple of the principal local deity often stand out as a crucial cohesive force in the forming of an inter-village coalition. Researchers such as James Hayes have considered Tung Chung an example of multi-clan communities on Lantau Island, where temples provide the vital link and become the venue of inter-village groupings.2 Emphasizing the concept of territory, Faure suggests that local temples, as centres of collective worship and communal ritual performance, serve as symbols of territorial unity. In villagers' perceptions, as observed by him, their territorial organization is expressed in terms of gods, shrines, and temples, which form one of the most important conceptual systems in the village world. A local temple might be built as a result of the formation of a neighbourhood of villages. The shared management of a temple would, in turn, strengthen a village neighbourhood's territorial dominance. In Tung Chung's Houwang Temple, a tablet recording a 1910 reconstruction project with a list of money donors supporting the work clearly evidences the existence of a community of joint villages worshipping Houwang as its patron god and managing the temple as its village coalition temple.J
t
Although two more temples, the Old Temple of Hsuan-t'an (at Shek Mun Kap) and the Ta-wang Palace (E) at Ma Wan Chung, were set up in Tung Chung after the War, they are far inferior to the Houwang Temple in terms of size, style, and architectural structure. In sharp contrast to the mass worship which takes place at the principal deity's temple, personal rituals are performed at these minor temples only by a few residents at individual respective villages. The Old Temple of Hsuan-t'an is situated in front of the big rock that marks the village entrance of Shek Mun Kap. Local legend holds that there used to be a Hsuan-t'an Temple at the village but it collapsed. In the 1970s, Shek Mun Kap's villagers rebuilt the temple for geomantic purposes. They hoped that Hsuan-t'an, the Tiger Conqueror, could vanquish the white tiger, a rock on the hill facing the village, and protect
160
with the ancestors is piously worshipped."
Individual worshippers also visit the Houwang Temple regularly to offer oblations on the 1st and the 15th of the lunar month and during important festivals. The temple is obviously owned and controlled by the Tung Chung community and has thus been regarded as a “village alliance temple,” as defined by Brim." In such a mix-surname community as Tung Chung, folk religion and the temple of the principal local deity often stand out as a crucial cohesive force in the forming of an inter-village coalition. Researchers such as James Hayes have considered Tung Chung an example of multi-clan communities on Lantau Island, where temples provide the vital link and become the venue of inter-village groupings."2 Emphasizing the concept of territory, Faure suggests that local temples, as centres of collective worship and communal ritual performance, serve as symbols of territorial unity. In villagers' perceptions, as observed by him, their territorial organization is expressed in terms of gods, shrines, and temples, which form one of the most important conceptual systems in the village world. A local temple might be built as a result of the formation of a neighbourhood of villages The shared management of a temple would, in turn, strengthen a village neighbourhood's territorial dominance. In Tung Chung's Houwang Temple, a tablet recording a 1910 reconstruction project with a list of money donors supporting the work clearly evidences the existence of a community of joint villages worship- the Houwang as its patron god and managing the temple as its village coalition temple." J
t
Although two more temples, the Old Temple of Hsuan-t'an (ZI at Shek Mun Kap and the Ta-wang Palace (E) at Ma Wan Chung, were set up in Tung Chung after the War, they are far inferior to the Houwang Temple in terms of size, style, and architectural structure. In sharp contrast to the mass worship which takes place at the principal deity's temple, personal rituals are performed at these minor temples only by a few residents at individual respective villages. The Old Temple of Hsuan-s'an is situated in front of the big rock that marks the village entrance of Shek Mun Kap. Local legend holds that there used to be a Hsuan-t'an Temple at the village but it collapsed. In the 1970s, Shek Mun Kap's villagers rebuilt the temple for geomantic purposes They hoped that Hsuan-t'an, the Tiger Conqueror, could vanquish the white tiger, a rock on the hill facing the village, and protect
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