[
    {
        "id": 214895,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1999",
        "page_number": 310,
        "title": "RAS-1999",
        "content_text": "284\n\nOur guide, Cong, took us to visit the Citadel and explained that it was planned and constructed on traditional principles of intermingling Occidental and Oriental architecture as a result of the appropriate use of local geographical features. The Citadel of Hue was once a masterpiece of the Vietnamese people. The Imperial City, the second wall, is dotted with offices where the monarch and high-ranking mandarins came daily to work. The Forbidden Purple City, the third wall, was the private quarters of the Emperor and his family, which included hundreds of palace maidservants and dozens of eunuchs. It was fascinating to see that the walls and Royal Palaces of Hue were built on the principles of Chinese geomancy. The whole complex faces southeast, taking the Royal Screen Mount as a natural screen. Two islets in the Perfume River play the roles of \"left dragon\" and \"right dragon\", thus guarding the city. In general, the monuments of Hue are made chiefly of ironwood and other Vietnamese traditional materials. They are constructed, however, on a specific \"module\" and largely to suit the climate and environment of the region.\n\nAfter the Citadel, we visited the Tu Duc Tomb built between 1864 and 1867. Emperor Tu Duc was crowned King during this period of Vietnam's history when capitalism was developing in the West. He was an expert in philosophy, oriental history, as well as literature, yet he failed to rule the country successfully. Having no son to succeed him aggravated the situation. To seclude himself, he ordered the construction of his tomb as a fairyland with poetical features, making it a lifetime recreation ground and a special world for his eternal life after death. With several palaces and a specific man-made landscape, the tomb itself is a second ‘Imperial City', an ideal and heavenly world.\n\nThat night we had an imperial banquet where we were all required to dress up as mandarins and someone needed to be King and Queen. There was no one better than Dr. Dan Waters, RAS President, to be the Emperor, and Pru, an RAS member, took the part of the Empress. With their costumes and majestic headwear, it was strange to see Dan and Pru looking so noble. We were all perspiring, and Dan and Pru were being fanned by waitresses, turned court servants, during the whole meal. The weather was so hot that once we had taken our group picture in which we were wearing costumes, the first thing we did was to get rid of the heavy mandarin dresses before we ate. But Dan and Pru took it so seriously that they wore their imperial gowns till the end.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215494,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 271,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "220\n\nThe wrong sort of bees\n\n-\n\nWhen it did eventually start, the dance proved to be well worth the cramp and the extremely long wait. Two monks appeared, dressed head to toe in crimson robes with brightly coloured sleeves and other attachments. The bull's head masks that they wore meant that the dancers were totally covered, and they whirled and twirled, leapt and stepped, dancing like demons. It was over in three minutes. The purpose was to cleanse the area of evil spirits - and it worked as far as I was concerned. I am afraid to say that I had had enough. I had been standing in a most uncomfortable and twisted position for an hour with one arm stuck up in the air. I was afraid that, like Pooh Bear when he had been observing the wrong sort of bees from a balloon, my arm would stay up straight in the air for more than a week. Added to that I was being pushed in the back by people who had, some of them, been walking for the best part of three days, presumably without the advantage of a hot shower every day. Besides, I thought it only fair for some of them to get a shot at the front row.\n\nOutside I found a cool corner to watch the world go by and collect my thoughts. As I left the dzong there was still a steady stream of people coming in past the policeman at the main entrance standing, incongruously, with his fixed bayonet. If they were all heading for the viewing gallery, I realised that I had indeed chosen the right time to withdraw. It might be days before the front row could extricate itself.\n\nFrom my shady vantage point I could see some wooden shacks standing in the shadow of the citadel. From these dwellings I heard the sound of a child screaming in distress. It struck me that until now I had not heard this all-too familiar sound in Bhutan; Bhutanese children all seemed to be smiling and happy, but this experience proved them to be the same as children everywhere. However, I should have had more faith. On inspection through my binoculars I saw that the little mite was screaming with delight at being chased round and round by an elder sister.\n\nAll too quickly, we realised that the only thing left to do on our trip was to get back to Paro for the night, in time to catch the plane the following day. There was a real sense of last night blues in the restaurant where we had dinner. A few of us felt compelled to sing a song or tell",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215582,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 359,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "309\n\n19 Antiquities Advisory Board site visit 1996.\n\n20 HKGG 12 February, 1876, p. 87.\n\n21 http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/dept/pressrelease/dec/2912h.html\n\n22 HKPRO HKRS156 1/144 No.49, 1888 May 21.\n\n23 The Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, on page 330 under the heading Gap Rock Lighthouse.\n\n24 T. Roger Banister (1932). The Coastwise Lights of China, Shanghai: Inspectorate General of Customs, Statistical Department.\n\n25 Patrick Beaver (1973). A History of Lighthouses, Citadel Press, p.5.\n\nPart Two\n\n26 Loran (Long range navigation) is a navigational system operating over long distances. Synchronized pulses are transmitted from widely spaced radio stations to aircraft or shipping, the time of arrival of the pulses being used to determine positions.\n\n27 Tat Hong Lighthouse, on Tung Lung Island, was the last to be manned in Hong Kong. It was manned by two technicians until 1993.\n\n28 [Hon. Editor - Died 27th December 2002. R.I.P.]\n\n29 The author was informed by retired Marine Department staff member, James Deakin, in 1990, that a baby was born in the Cape Collinson Lighthouse at the turn of the century. On reaching maturity, he too became a lighthouse keeper.\n\nAs another aside, in Ma Wan Village, not far from Kap Sing Lighthouse, a large quantity of gold was discovered on Tung Lung Island after World War Two. This was handed over to the government.\n\n30 In the spring of 1999, the dilapidated basket was still kept in a store (which had a telephone when the lighthouse was manned), halfway up the steps to Waglan Lighthouse.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]