[
    {
        "id": 213826,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 178,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "151\n\nTHE HOUWANG CULT AND\n\nTUNG CHUNG'S COMMUNAL CULTURE\n\nHON-MING YIP AND WAI-YEE HO'\n\nWhile the ancestral hall often serves as the socio-political centre of a single-surname village, a temple of folk religion always stands out as the focal point of local people's social and cultural life in such a multi-lineage rural community as Tung Chung. For the dozen or so villages in the Tung Chung valley, the Houwang has long been their principal deity and the Houwang Temple, their main local shrine. For years, the popular worship of the Houwang has functioned as a cultural and social binding force to hold this secluded community together. In what follows, the development of Tung Chung's Houwang cult is traced, and details of the area's religious and social activities and their cultural as well as political significance for the locality are expounded.\n\nTung Chung as a Secluded Community of Multi-Surname Villages\n\nSituated on the north shore of Lantau Island, Tung Chung used to be a strategic port for maritime defence and trade during the early Ch'ing period. The area's economic development was also facilitated by its favourable position in sea transportation at a time when the northwestern New Territories were Hong Kong's economic centre of gravity. With the British occupation after the Opium War, however, the north end of Lantau suffered gradual marginalization and isolation as the colony's economic core shifted eastward to Hong Kong Island. The decline of ocean transport to north Lantau and underdeveloped overland communication with the southern part of the Island, in effect, kept Tung Chung in a state of seclusion. Hills to the east, south, and west separated this valley from other parts of Lantau. Between Tung Chung and Bak Mong in the east, Mu Wo and Tong Fuk in the south, and Tai O in the west, there were only muddy paths over the mountain or along the shore. Before transportation improved in the 1960s, travel between Tung Chung and these districts on Lantau required two to three hours by foot, roundtrip. Communication was even more difficult with regions outside of Lantau. Beginning from the 1920s, a few ferries carrying goods sailed on\n\nPl",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213832,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 184,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "157\n\nlimited by the size of its villages and their economic status, Tung Chung did not adopt the tso-she ceremony in the earth god worship as Kwangtung's countryside did in the 1920s. Again, worship is mainly on a personal, rather than village, basis.\n\nThe most important supra-individual/lineage inter-village social activities in Tung Chung, as remembered by the older generation, were the chiao ceremony and the Houwang's Birthday Festival. Literally meaning sacrifice or offering, the chiao is a large-scale Taoist ceremony, performed to wipe away evil, forestall calamities, restore peace, and renew life in the way of cosmic harmony for the entire population of a community. It consists of a series of rituals, which are commonly called ta-chiao (arranging sacrifices or making offerings). In spite of its rich meaning, the chiao can be better understood as a festival with a dual purpose: giving thanks to the deities and offering sacrifices to the spirits of the dead. Basic items of activity include chanting by Taoist priests, called nun-mo-lao (chanting fellows), inviting local deities to the altar placed in a matshed, going to the puppet show and the communal meals, and joining a parade through the villages. Beginning in the late Ch'ing, the chiao ceremony was held in Tung Chung regularly in the 14th lunar month, and especially after plagues had taken many lives there. The Shek Mun Kap village, being the oldest village in the area, served as the locale. According to an old villager, the village became a local venue of social and economic activities after some shops were established there. Villagers liked to gather at the place to gamble and chat. It was, therefore, a suitable centre for popular festivals.\n\nAs an inter-village ceremony, the chiao required donations from all households at every village. From each village, a man was chosen as yuan-shou (leader of worship) by casting the divining blocks in front of the earth god at the entrance of Shek Mun Kap. He had to pass the divination three times in a row. These men took charge of money collection, the preparations for the occasion, and the hiring of matshed and stage builders, the puppet show troupe and the nun-mo chanters, etc. They also acted as the village representatives in assisting the ceremony. At the site of the chiao ceremony, in front of the earth god shrine at Shek Mun Kap, a matshed was set up temporarily to enshrine the Houwang image \"invited\" from the local temple. Oblations, joss sticks, and candles were put in front of the idol. Erected behind the earth god shrine was the gigantic bamboo and paper figure.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213834,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 186,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "159\n\ntrans-village bodies, such as the Neighbourhood Association, emerged as sponsors of large-scale social and religious activities. Directors of the Association were owners of four shops, Te-ho, Yao-ho & Ali, Ching-ho li and Kuang-hsing, located on Tung Chung Street at lower Ling Pei, then the commercial core of the area.\n\nThe changes occurring in Tung Chung were accompanied by the decline of the chiao ceremony. After the mid-1920s, the festivities never achieved their previous scale and the related rituals were simplified. A 79-year-old villager at Lung Tseng Tau testified that in 1927, when he was a 15-year-old employee of the Te-ho Shop, then the head of the Neighbourhood Association, the chiao ritual was limited to the burning of paper offerings. There were no nan-mo chanting or puppet shows. The festival proved too costly for the villagers. While a Te-ho employee earned only HK$15 a month, for example, the hiring of the chiao priests could cost several hundreds. At the beginning of the 1930s, it is said, the chiao ceremony ceased in Tung Chung.\n\nThe Neighbourhood Association lacked the financial resources to support more than one festival, and the Houwang's Birthday celebration was kept at the expense of the chiao festival.\n\nAfter the chiao ceremony was discontinued, whenever pestilence struck, the Houwang's idol was paraded through the villages at midnight. The nan-mo chanting priests led the procession and firecrackers were used to clear the path. The rituals might be repeated in the following two nights. The route of the parade was decided by divination at the Houwang Temple. When Shek Mun Kap ceased to be the centre of the chiao festival, the Houwang Temple became the most important venue for various religious activities.\n\nIt is not difficult to detect the Houwang's influence on the daily life of Tung Chung's villagers. Charms reading \"under Master Houwang's command\" (侯王爷) can be seen everywhere, on trees, banisters, poles by the road, or on the doors or window frames of villagers' houses. These amulets were “sought\" at the Houwang Temple. At home, villagers may install the Houwang's shrine next to their ancestors' spirit tablets. A family named Feng at Ma Wan Chung had their family shrine of the Houwang elaborately surmounted with golden tassels and draped with red cloth. Everyday, the god, together",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213835,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 187,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "160\n\nwith the ancestors is piously worshipped.\n\nIndividual 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\n\nt\n\nAlthough 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",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213836,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 188,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "161\n\nthe community from calamity.\" The temple is nothing more than a small room of about 50 sq ft with simple decoration. On the altar an idol representing the deity is enshrined. At the corner of the room, there is a place for the earth god. As observed, incense is occasionally offered at this unfrequented temple.\n\nEven smaller in size is the wooden Ta-wang Palace at Ma Wan Chung. Hung there is a 1989 canopy with the title \"the Pantheon of The Earth God in Southeast and the Empress of Heaven\" (天后地主大王). The temple thus seems to serve as a Ta-wang shrine for individual worshippers at the village, as well as a temple of the Empress of Heaven for the fishing community in the vicinity. Fishermen, or former fishermen, there all regard themselves as members of the Tung Chung community. They settled ashore at their shacks 40-50 years ago. They also have ancestral graves in the area. Now more than 400 people from 48 households are official residents of the Fishermen's Village. Some of them have even managed to acquire and expand homesteads. Intermarriage between them and settlers at other villages has become acceptable. While fishermen in other regions usually worship the Empress of Heaven as their patron goddess, Tung Chung's fishing population are mainly Houwang worshippers. They have donated money to support opera shows during the deity's birthday festival and formed an association called Sheng-li t’ang which has actively taken part in festivities in celebration of the Houwang's feast day.\n\n40\n\nNotwithstanding the establishment of the Ta-wang Palace, as pointed out by a settler at the fishermen's village, only a few of them have become frequent visitors to this temple. The Houwang, as Tung Chung's principal god occupying a higher position in the pantheon hierarchy than other deities, remains the most popular deity in the locale, and the Houwang Temple has all along drawn the biggest crowd of worshippers from the community.\n\nFacing the Tung Chung Bay, the Houwang Temple is located at Sha Tsui Tau (see the map of Tung Chung). There is an adjacent open space in front of the temple, now used mainly for the holding of the annual festival commemorating the deity's feast day. The earliest dated ritual item inside the temple, a bell cast with the date of the 30th year of the Ch'ien Lung reign, suggests that the temple might have",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213837,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 189,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "162\n\nbeen built in 1765. Since its establishment, the building has been renovated several times, in 1878, 1910, 1962, and 1978.7 The first recorded reconstruction, that is the one in 1910, is evident on the commemorative tablet installed on the interior wall of the temple. It is fortunate that the architecture through all these ages has retained its original style and character,\n\nThe temple, which can be considered a well-endowed and elaborate structure for its time, consists of three halls. In the main hall, a wooden idol of Houwang is installed at a shrine, covered with a canopy with the title \"Imperial Bestowed Loyal and Brave Marquis Yang\" (JAKE) written on each side. Clay statues of a civil official and a military official stand on the left and the right, respectively, as attendants to the local god. Enshrined in the side hall on the left are three spirit tablets. The one in the middle is for the pioneer villagers who established the temple; the one on the left is for those who donated the construction fee; the one on the right is for the men in charge of the reconstruction. In the side hall on the right, secondary divinities, such as mountain gods and earth gods, are enshrined. (See the floor plan of the temple.)\n\nThe facade of the temple is decorated by murals of scenes on walls and doors. On the left and right tips of the roof, there are streaked clay decorations in three dimensions. Figures of the martial arts, embellished with coloured glaze, are installed on the central ridge of the roof. It is recorded that these ceramic figures, of high quality workmanship, were manufactured at the well-known Shekwan kilns in 1910. In terms of structure and design, the Houwang Temple can be considered architecture of characteristic style. If the construction of a temple reflects the wealth of a community, Tung Chung's Houwang Temple seems to indicate that people there fared quite well before the locale declined into a periphery along with the shift of Hong Kong's economic core.\n\nIt is also surmised that a village coalition was being formed at the time of the construction of the Houwang Temple. As hundreds of immigrants moved into the New Territories after the \"Coastal Evacuation\" order in the early Ch'ing had been abolished, cult worship might have contributed to social integration and community building. Tung Chung's Houwang Temple, as mentioned above, is believed to",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213838,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 190,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "163\n\nhave served as the focal point of village coalition organization as early as the 18th century. Pending verification is the identity of Houwang. As commonly held, he was the Chinese folk hero, Yang Liang-chieh, who had loyally protected the last emperor of the Sung, fleeing by sea from the victorious Mongols. The young emperor and his bodyguard, under Yang's leadership, finally landed near what is now Kowloon. Legend also holds that they spent some of their last days in the Tung Chung Valley. It is suggested that not only Yang's honourable behavior, but also the fact that he was a refugee far from home, deeply touched the hearts of early immigrants to this new land, especially the Hakka people.\n\nIn local people's minds, indeed, there is no doubt of the efficacy of this hero-turned-god. For their families and themselves, they come to procure divine assistance in connection with serious illness, financial problems, the picking of propitious days for marriage, long journeys, house construction, and so forth. By casting the divining blocks before the altar, the deity's instructions are revealed to them. Small-scale ritual transactions between the deity and individual worshippers are usually carried out with the assistance of the miao-chu, the temple's keeper and religious specialist. In the case of marriage, for instance, it is the Houwang who decides, through the temple keeper, whether the betrothed are well-matched.\n\nBesides day-to-day ritual transactions invoking the local god's help in meeting personal or family needs, annual religious activities also strengthen villagers' patronage of the temple. Examples are the occasion of tso-fu (make blessing), usually held in the second lunar month, during which the worshipper requests the god's favour in the coming year, and the observance of huan-shen (repay the spirits), held at the end of the year to repay the god for his blessings. While these relatively small-scale rituals are performed on behalf of individual worshippers, the Houwang's Birthday celebration is held on behalf of the community as a collectivity. Thus it best demonstrates the role of the local principal deity in maintaining a communal sense of identity among villages, which have formed a united body in the territory, and the function of the temple as a village-coalition temple.\n\nEven the date for the festival carries distinctive local characteristics. While the Houwang's Birthday is on the 6th of the sixth lunar month",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213839,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 191,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "164\n\nin Tai O, following the practice of the Houwang Temple in Kowloon City, Tung Chung sets the date on the 15th of the eighth lunar month. As explained by local villagers, people in a farming community such as Tung Chung, in contrast to the fishing community of Tai O, are busy with farm work until mid-autumn. Setting the date for festival celebration in the slack season guarantees mass participation and enjoyment to the full,52\n\nDuring this festival of four days and five nights, representatives of Tung Chung's villages present the best sacrificial offerings to their local principal temple. All inhabitants from the area participate in the mass worship of their patron god. It is the climax of religious and social activities of the year as operas, Ch'iang-p'ao (rocket-snatching) contests, and other forms of entertainment are incorporated in the god's birthday observance. For the performance of the opera show, a bamboo stage is built in the open area in front of the main entrance of the Houwang Temple. On two sides of the stage, many stalls are set up in rows selling food, oblations, religious souvenirs, and even toys. Among these booths are some for the \"rocket associations\" which are formed mainly by competing villages and organizations in the names of 'ang, to vie with one another in the capture of lucky rockets. These rockets are considered relics of the temple god, or representations of the deity, which will bring good fortune and glory to the winning units. They must be returned to the temple with a thanksgiving observance on the god's birthday in the following year.\n\nBefore World War II, according to the natives, the \"rocket-snatching\" contest was held on the 18th of the eighth lunar month during which rockets were shot into the air by officers in charge of temple management. Representative members of the rocket associations, usually young men assembled in the square in front of the temple, would then scramble for the numbered wooden tablets inside the rockets just fired. Whoever got hold of the tablets could purchase the rocket numbered accordingly.\n\nAfter the War, owing to population increase, fighting over the possession of the rockets became a serious problem. In 1949, to reduce the chances of violent conflict, some rural areas decided that participants would draw lots for the rockets. In Tung Chung in recent years,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213840,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 192,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "165\n\n55\n\nrepresentatives of the rocket associations bid for the rockets Physical violence is avoided, but competition remains keen among bidders who strive to show superiority over each other in terms of wealth and power' To decide who in the winning group can take the representation of the god home, another ceremony should be held whereby the temple keeper, after placing on the temple altar a list of members of the rocket association and reciting a “song to invite the god\" (#), casts the divining blocks thrice for each member The winner is he who passes the divination three times in a row.\n\n1\n\n50\n\nIn addition to the representative associations from villages such as Mok Ka's Yu-ch'ing tang W, upper Ling Per's Ch'un-ying t'ang #*, Ngau Au's Ch`un-lu t’ang San Tau's Ch'un-ch'ing tang # , and so on, other units such as social clubs and recreational societies also form their own rocket associations. According to Hayes's observation in the 1960s of the concomitant celebration of the Houwang feast day and the reopening of the Houwang Temple after the first major repair in 1909, among the rocket associations, two were fishermen's groups, (one from Tung Chung and the other from Tai O) and one was formed by the Seamen's Union from Hong Kong which came to Tung Chung for the festival for many years.\" Many native Tung Chung seamen had joined the union. By forming the associations and attending the festival, members of the same profession can also exchange information and news of their trade. In this sense, the festival functions tend to promote solidarity not only among villagers, but also among colleagues.\n\nFor local residents of different surnames and various social backgrounds, the Houwang worship and its all-pervasive influence provide them with the social bond of union and the ideology of territory identity, through which the Tung Chung community seems to have become a culturally self-sufficient entity Even the fishermen settled in the district seldom visit the Empress of Heaven Temple at Chak Lap Kok or Ma Wan. Like other Tung Chung villagers, they pay homage mainly to the Houwang, the principal deity of the locale, and participate quite actively in the “bid-for-rockets” contest during the annual feast day festival.\n\nThe Houwang's Birthday celebration also provides the local community with an opportunity for contact with the outside world.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213841,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 193,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "166\n\nFor family members who have emigrated to the city or overseas, the annual festival offers the opportunity for reunion that they hesitate to miss. Visitors, tourists, researchers, and guests, including elders from other village alliances, and government representatives who come to observe the celebration and participate in the related activities, are also sources of information from outside. Tung Chung may be a secluded community, but it is certainly not totally insulated from the outside world. In fact, the government and the Rural Committee of the New Territories highly value the annual festival and send representatives to the district as congratulators, or even donors, during the festival season, which has also become a time for informal communication between the government and the local people.\n\n50\n\nWhat impresses the outside world here is Tung Chung's characteristic communal culture crystallized through the ages on the basis of the collective worship of the principal local deity. If the Houwang Temple plays a significant role in maintaining the village coalition system of the area, the territorial cult itself also operates as a system marked by its all-encompassing and pervasive influence on local life and its cyclical self-renewal. Through daily or seasonal rituals, individual or collective worship, ceremonies for invoking and repaying the god's blessings, and all the associated social activities in the year, community members are able to mark, in a concrete fashion, the rhythm of their religious life-cycle. With the annual god's feast day festival signifying the climax of the cycle, the system renews itself for another round of yearly operation. It is through this system of local deity worship that the Tung Chung community has become culturally self-sustaining and integrated.\n\nTo sum up, the religious, social, and entertaining rituals centering around the Houwang worship in Tung Chung have effectively maintained village cohesion, rejuvenated the system of cultural patterns, and served to show off the pride and glory of a local tradition. Via the annual celebration of the god's feast day, a set of customs which villagers consider their own is maintained and continues to represent a living community. Through the festival's ritual cycle, bonds between the deity and worshippers are renewed and ties between community members are reaffirmed. It is the community rituals that embody a universal body of knowledge, overarching territorial cohesion and communal solidarity. Compared to the chiao ceremony which was held",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213842,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 194,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "167\n\nonly once in three years, the annual festival to commemorate the Houwang's birthday serves better, in terms of higher frequency, to boost the sense of community identity through mass worship of the principal local deity and large-scale general activities of celebration and entertainment. When the community finally had to suspend the chao ceremony out of financial consideration, the Houwang's Birthday Festival remained. The latter has become even more extensive in scale as demonstrated by the development in the post-War period.\n\nReligion and the Evolution of Local Power Structure\n\nTo prepare for the annual god's feast day celebration has never been an easy job. It requires financial as well as organizational support from the local élites. In a multiple-clan community, as observed by many scholars, its principal temple is always the focal point of village coalition organization and the seat of territorial social leadership. Tung Chung's Houwang Temple as a focus of religious activities has also been a locus of sociopolitical action. It is known to have kept a legal code, dated 1893, on a wooden board hung in one of the side rooms. Put there as a permanent record for all to note was also a list of the procedures to be followed in trying crop-stealers or other trouble-makers caught in the valley and their penalties in fines to be paid.61 In addition, on the temple wall, there is an inscription detailing the history and final settlement of a long dispute in the 18th century between Tung Chung's tenants and their landlord. That local rules and dispute-settlements were publicized at the village coalition temple signifies the role of the temple god as judge governing a well-defined territory63 and the place as the centre of community organization both symbolically and practically.\n\n62\n\nLike most local shrines, Tung Chung's Houwang Temple has been maintained by community members and shopkeepers. Because of substantial financial needs in temple management and maintenance, support from richer residents has proved indispensable. By sponsoring festival activities as well as temple renovation projects, local élites can in turn increase their social influence, for in a society where religion has ubiquitous influence, economic power often needs religious sanction. In Tung Chung, as in many other rural areas, the richest people have usually been the most zealous patrons of local religious activities. According to a 1910 inscription on the wall of the Houwang Temple",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213843,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 195,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "168\n\nrecording a list of money donors who sponsored a reconstruction project then, those who served as Directors of the renovating work or donated the largest sums of money were the K'ungs from the Tung-yuan t'ang and shopowners from the Hsi-yuan t’ang\n\nThey were apparently Tung Chung's social leaders.\n\nElderly people testified that the K'ungs from lower Ling Pei and the Hsiaos from Ngau Au were the largest landowners in the area, renting out their plots to tenants at neighbouring villages. They also ran commercial businesses on Tung Chung Street. The Ta-sheng t'ang Store, owned by the K'ungs, and the Yao-ho Store, by the Hsiaos. As the most influential people in the community, they naturally became the managers of the temple reconstruction project. With their economic power, they were able to act as sponsors of large-scale religious functions, which in turn legitimized their status as cultural and sociopolitical élites of local society.\n\nTheir role in the annual festival commemorating the Houwang's feast day made their social position even more conspicuous. Before the War, it was the Neighbourhood Association which took charge of the preparation for the Houwang's Birthday Festival. The association was formed by shopkeepers who were elected by all shops on Tung Chung Street. Members would take turns in leading the association for a term of three years. Making arrangements for the annual festival stood out as the most important job for the association and its leader who, after taking up the post of Chief Director, would serve as the head leader of the festival. A red paper with this title would be put on his shop's signboard. The festival was thus an opportunity to show off one's wealth and power and to increase one's influence within the community. This function is especially significant to multi-surname villages where no single lineage dominates the situation.\n\nCommon practice requires that every household member makes a donation to support the festival activities. The amounts of their donations are publicly detailed on a wall bulletin called \"the long paper in red\". In the pre-War period, when Tung Chung Street became a local commercial centre, the list was posted on the exterior wall of the Yao-ho Store, one of the largest shops on the street. A few outside donors, from Tai O and Bak Mong, for example, would also volunteer to support the function. Because of substantial expenses involved,\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213844,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 196,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "169\n\nhowever, donations from ordinary villagers (about HK$0.3-0.5 per person) always fell short of the demand. It was almost inevitable that the head leader of the festival would be called upon to contribute a large amount. For instance, he would donate HK$500, whereas each of the other members of the Neighbourhood Association would contribute only HK$100. In addition, the head leader would pay HK$600-700 in advance, for matshed construction and opera troupe hiring. He was also responsible for miscellaneous expenses of the temple “To assume this heavy responsibility required substantial wealth.\n\nStores on Tung Chung Street, such as the Yao-ho, Te-ho, Ching-ho, and Kuang-hsing, etc., were among the chief members of the Neighbourhood Association in charge of festival preparations. In this sense, Tung Chung Street, the local business centre, also became the centre of social power in the territory. The most influential power holders were, of course, the storeowners who became chief directors of the Neighbourhood Association. As they had to shoulder the heavy financial burden of sponsoring the festival, only the richest could afford the positions. In the 1920s, it is remembered, first Mr. Kuan from lower Ling Pei, owner of the Te-ho Store, and then Mr. Hsiao from Ngau Au, owner of the Yao-ho Store, served as head leaders of the Festival 70\n\nMr. Kuan, who had a little knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, sold medicinal herbs and sundry goods at his store.\" Mr. Hsiao, as the largest landowner in Tung Chung, was especially qualified for the post. The Hsiaos derived their wealth from landholding, mostly at Ngau Au and some at Ling Pi, and from business. On the one hand, they rented out land to tenants, who were easy to find as not many non-farm jobs were available then. On the other hand, the Hsiaos' grocery store on Tung Chung Street also engaged in moneylending on security.\" With their business diversified into rent collecting, shopkeeping and moneylending, the Hsiaos managed to establish their social power, based on wealth, and played a significant role in patronizing local religious activities. Under his leadership, both the Houwang's feast day celebration and the chiao ceremony in the 1920s were conducted.\n\nSince the War, the Houwang's Birthday Festival has been extended in scale and its rituals have become more elaborate and ceremonious.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213845,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 197,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "170\n\nIn the area surrounding the Houwang Temple, colourful embroidered banners and decorated archways are erected. Before the formal feast day, i.e., the 16th of the eighth lunar month, nuns from Tei Tong Tsai are invited to pray for a successful festival by reciting Buddhist scriptures and burning paper cloth. To raise funds for the ever-expanding scale of the celebration, a party is held on the 17th, where rocket association representatives come to bid for sacred relics, i.e., items such as idols, vases, ornaments, etc. blessed by the deity. This is another opportunity, in addition to the bidding for rockets, for better-off villagers to boast of their wealth.\n\n74\n\nIn recent years, expenses for the festival have increased to around HK$500,000, including $100,000 or more for building the matshed and $200,000 or more for hiring opera troupes. Participating rocket associations increased from about five in the 1960s to more than fifteen in recent years. Showing off their financial capacity, some nouveaux riches since the War have become festival sponsors. They are settlers in Ma Wan Chung, which replaced Tung Chung Street as the local business centre, after a pier was built in the village vicinity in 1958 and a road leading to the pier was constructed in the 1960s. With improvements in water and electricity supply, medical services, etc., two-storey new houses were built in the pier area of Ma Wan Chung, changing the physical and social landscape of Tung Chung.5\n\nWhen Tung Chung Street's economic status was taken over by Ma Wan Chung, the Neighbourhood Association became obsolete and a new body emerged, under the name of the Preparatory Committee for the Houwang's Birthday Festival. The Committee consists of more than ten members, including village representatives and volunteers.76 With chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer, this organization seems to be a modernized one, though people with economic power—shopowners in the area of Ma Wan Chung this time—continue to hold important positions. Even the location of the bulletin, recording the list of money donors in support of the god's feast day celebration, has changed from the exterior wall of the Yao-ho Store on Tung Chung Street to that of the Shun-ch'ang Store at Ma Wan Chung.\n\nWorth noticing is the effect of demographic change in Tung Chung since the 1950s. A great number of new immigrants moved in and settled in the district, filling the gap left by the male population, who",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213847,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 199,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "172\n\nmeans of legitimizing their permanent residency in the district and increasing their local influence and power. When some seamen returned home, after foreign steamships had significantly reduced the recruitment of sailors from Hong Kong in the 1950s, they had become so unfamiliar with local affairs, as a result of their long leave from home, that even if they were elected village representatives on the Tung Chung's Rural Committee established in 1950 under government auspices, they served mainly as liaison men. Newer settlers at Ma Wan Chung, with their wealth and their leading role in organizing activities to commemorate the Houwang's feast day festival, have actually been among the leading local social élites, though not necessarily holding formal official positions.\n\nAdaptability and Tenacity: The Tradition of the Houwang Worship\n\nIn effect, the Houwang worship transcends blood ties and bridges the gap between old and new settlers, and thus functions to maintain a strong village coalition in Tung Chung. As a multi-lineage community, Tung Chung can be used as a case to support Judith Strauch's argument that economic and ritual cooperation and overarching unity, implicit in shared \"native place,\" instead of constant internal conflict and all-round uneasiness, can prevail in a mix-surname settlement.** It also fits Burton Pasternak's model of “villages in which families of different surnames joined forces and played down agnatic differences for the sake of survival.\"84\n\nIt is indeed in the villagers' interest to accept newcomers to the community, in order to make up for shortages of material and human resources.\n\nThis receptive and inclusive feature of local culture also grew out of a universal cult centering around the village coalition temple. While ancestor worship is only an individual or family/lineage activity and the worship of the earth god and Hsuan-t'an is usually on an individual or village basis, religious and social rituals in honour of the Houwang involve mass participation by the territorial community and work to renew collective consciousness of local identity repeatedly and systematically. During the time when the chino was held in the area, the Houwang as the principal local deity also played a role in that large-scale communal festival. The Houwang worship continued to dominate local religious life, and was even promoted by concentrating\n\n|\n\n|",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213848,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 200,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "173\n\nfinancial resources in support of the god's feast day celebration, after the chiao ceremony had finally ceased to take place.\n\nOther religions such as Buddhism and Christianity did present themselves in Tung Chung in the post-War period and were not excluded by the local community, though they were not very popularly received. In the 1950s, a village called Tei Tong Tsai was established on the southern border of Tung Chung when a group of monasteries, nunneries, and Buddhist halls were built to provide monks and nuns with a self-sufficient retreat resort. Although monasteries are customarily institutions outside the village community, and the monks and nuns at Tei Tong Tsai seldom mingle with other villagers, the place is considered, officially and formally, part of the Tung Chung district. To fulfill the obligations of a community member, Tei Tong Tsai has to send its head monk to attend meetings of Tung Chung's Rural Committee. Monks and nuns also make voluntary donations to support the annual celebration of the Houwang's feast day. Before the festival begins, representative monks and nuns are sent from Tei Tong Tsai to chant Buddhist prayers and burn paper offerings at the Houwang Temple. In return for their service, they might receive courtesy recompense from the Preparatory Committee for the Houwang's Birthday Festival. Tei Tong Tsai's participation in the festival activities commemorating the principal local deity, however limited, manifests how essential the Houwang worship is for members of the Tung Chung community.\n\nAnother Buddhist monastery, the Lo-han Monastery (4), was built on the hillside at Shek Pik Au [!] in the 1970s. Outsiders, instead of local villagers, sponsored the construction and participated in worshipping activities there. The influence of the monastery on the religious belief of Tung Chung's residents is negligible. On the other hand, it is one of the regular donors supporting the annual celebration of the Houwang's feast day, as a means of demonstrating its membership in the Tung Chung community.\n\nAs for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to establish bases in Tung Chung. For example, the Chous, of the San Tau village on the western border of the district, were converted to Catholicism under the influence of priests dispatched from Tai O. Nevertheless, missionary work has ceased since the beginning of the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213850,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 202,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "175\n\nThe number of Tung Chung's population, especially the young, have moved to the city since the 1960s in search of better jobs and education. Consequently, fields are left uncultivated and the community suffers from depopulation. Yet the local communal culture and religious tradition, passed down from generation to generation, has not simply died down overnight under the pressure of urbanization and emigration. Fellow villagers and family members, including some of those who have emigrated overseas, return home every year to celebrate the Houwang's birthday as attested by the last festival.\n\nIn fact, emigrants are always on the list of money donors in support of the annual celebration. While the actual number of village occupants in 1991, for instance, was only around 300, mostly old people and children, the donors' list that year indicated that Tung Chung consisted of 430 households amounting to a population of almost 2700. Apparently, this figure denoted the total membership of the Tung Chung community, including emigrants. It is in the territorial cult and community rituals that homecomers look for their cultural roots, ties with their ancestors, refreshers of customary beliefs and the socio-religious milieu in which they were brought up. They also return to appreciate the joys and excitement of communal entertainment, and to perform traditional homage to their native god in return for his renewed blessings.\n\nThe temple will remain at its present site even after the demolition of Tung Chung's old villages to make way for the building of a new airport at Chek Lap Kok. This age-old principal local deity is going to witness a new era of drastic man-made transformation with unprecedented impact. This time, not only will some old community members leave forever and new residents arrive, but totally different surroundings will emerge with strong metropolitan characteristics of urbanization and commercialization.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213851,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 203,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "176\n\nThe Floor Plan of Houwang Temple\n\nC\n\nH\n\nH\n\nA: Yang Houwang (E) B: Military official (4) C: Civil official (X) D: Earth god (±)\n\nE: Other deities (F)\n\nF: Stone altar ()\n\nG: Ritual paper Burner ( )\n\nH: Earth god (1)\n\nI: Small yard (X#)\n\nJ: Window\n\nK: Commemorative Tablet (大奚山東西涌姜山主兩相和好永遠照納碑)\n\nL: Commemorative tablet (ALL)\n\nM: Commemorative tablet (EMI)\n\nN: Commemorative tablet (EITH LO)\n\nO: Iron bell (£)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213855,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 207,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "180\n\nThe\n\nIssei, \"The Jiao Festival in Hong Kong and the New Territories,\" in Julian F. Pas, ed., Turning of the Tides: Religion in China Today (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 271-298\n\nInterviews: K'ung Chao-hsiang (age 79), Lung Tseng Tau, Jul 6, 1991; Hsieh Ch'i, op. cit.\n\nInterview of Mo Shu-ling (age 65), Mok Ka, Jun 29, 1991\n\nInterview of Lo Ch'uan, op. cit., Jul 8, 1991\n\n[hid]\n\n\"Ho, op. cit.; while some villagers did not remember the role of the Houwang in the rituals, an old man, who had witnessed the festival three times, indicated that the Houwang idol would be \"invited\" from the temple and enshrined on an altar set up for the ceremony (Interview of Lo Ch'uan, op. cit., Chap Mun Tau, Jun 22, 1991)\n\n\"Tanaka, op. cit., pp. 273-274\n\n*Faure, 1986, op. cit., p. 84\n\n14\n\nJames Hayes, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 159-160\n\n\"Ho, op. cit., p. 6\n\n16\n\nInterviews: Cheng P'o, op. cit.; K'ung Chao-hsiang, op. cit.\n\n\"Interviews: Cheng Man-hung, op. cit.; the Tung Chung Public School, Jul 1991; Tseng Kuan-hsing (age 60+), Upper Ling Pei, Jul 12, 1991\n\n*Interview of K'ung Chao-hsiang, op. cit.\n\n14\n\nJCH\n\nIbid.; Interviews: \"Uncle Li\", op. cit.; Cheng Man-hung, op. cit.; the Tung Chung Rural Committee, Aug 12, 1991\n\nInterview of Feng Po (age 65), Ma Wan Chung, Jun 16, 1991\n\nBrum, op. cit.\n\n*James Hayes, \"Chinese Temples in the Local Setting,\" in Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today, Week-end symposium, Oct 2, 1966, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, p. 92\n\n\"Faure, 1981, op. cit., p. 76\n\n**\"Ch'ung-hsiu Houwang-miao pei-chih,\" IV, 1910, collected in K'o Ta-wen, Lu Hung-chi, & Wu Lun Ni-hsia, comp., Hsiang-kang...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213856,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 208,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "181\n\nper-muing hia-pren, diffighi Vol 2 (Hong Kong Urban Council. 1986), pp. 395-402\n\n* Interview of Lo Ch`uan, op cat Jun 22 1991\n\n46 Interviews La P'o † # (surname Ho, age 70+), Ma Wan Chung, Jun 30, 1991, Ch'en Kuang-sheng P4144 (age 63) Fishermen's Village. Jul 8,1991 & by telephone, Aug 1,1991, 20 Mall, op cit\n\n1\n\nAnthony KK Sau “Distribution of Temples on Lantan Island as Recorded in 1979.** JHKBRAS, Vol 20(1980), p 138\n\n** Ch^en Po-Cao BR1MB \"Touwang ku-mao sheng-shih per-chu,” (Kowloon: n.p., 1917) the Flouwang Temple Kowloon City For different opinions on the Houwang's identity, see Hsiao Kuo-chuen \"Hstang-kang Hou-lung so ssu-feng chih 'Yang-hou-ta-wang' k'ao,” in Hstang-kang ch'inh-tai-shih huu-chu (Taipei: Taiwan Shang-wu yin-shu-kuan, 1985), pp 307, 313, Jao Tsung-yı \"Yang-1'ai-hou chia-chih yu Chit-lung Yang-Houwang miao,' in Chu-hung vu Sung-chi shuh-hao (Hong Kong: Wan-yu t'u-shu kungssa, 1959), pp 84--92\n\n* Ronald Ng. \"Culture and Society of a Hakka Community on Lantau Island,” in I_C Jarvie, ed, A Society in Fransition. Contributions to the Study of Hong Kong Society (London: Butler & Tanmer Lid. 1969), pp. 55, 62\n\n40\n\nAccording to an interview at the Tung Chung Public School, Jun 24,1991, see also interviews. La P'o †% (age 63), upper Ling Per, Jun 15, 1991, Cheng Man-hung, op cit\n\n1\n\n5? Interview of 11 Chii-sheng PL/ (age_73), Lam Che. Jun 18,1991\n\n* Interview of M. Huang (age 76), Wong Ka Wai, Jun 25, 1991\n\nBrim, op eit, p. 100, N 10\n\n** Interview of Cheng Man-hung, op uit, upper Ling Per Aug. 11. 1991\n\nHo, op ett. p 13\n\nFlayes, 1967, op eit, p 91\n\n* Ho, op. cit, p9\n\n5 lbid. p 13\n\n* Brum op eit,p/103",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215322,
        "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": 99,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "47\n\nShenggong and Li Shan Shengmu. Also noted in Hainanese temples in the vicinity of Kluang are Under Altars, usually connected with Cantonese temples, though again presumably \"borrowed\" by Hainanese. Only two such Under Altars have been noted - both are typically at floor level and contain spirits of tamed demons unfit to be honoured with places upon the main or side altars. Finally, not too uncommon in Malaysia and Singapore where ethnic communities live cheek by jowl, a dark-skinned deity in the Hainanese temple in Jalan Pindu in Singapore was identified as General Supramaniam, placed there by a local Tamil and with the usual tolerance of Chinese devotees, though not revered by them, he has incense placed before him by passing Chinese devotees who realise and accept that he is a foreign deity and not of the Chinese pantheon.\n\nFrom 1949 until the late 1980s folk religion images were banned and removed from altars within China and therefore Hainanese deities have had to be researched mainly within overseas Chinese communities. To carry out the necessary research on Hainanese temples and gods it has been necessary to visit as many of the temples run by and in Hainanese communities outside China, mainly concentrated in Singapore, southern Malaysia and Cambodia. The regular visits to temples in Singapore over a period of years revealed changes within the temple community which would not have been apparent under normal circumstances. Accepting that the circumstances were unique in that the Singaporean authorities forced the resettlement of old and especially 'temporary matshed or corrugated iron' temples to the suburbs in the targeted population relocation of the sixties and seventies, a good example of the change was the resiting in 1984 of an atap hut temple, the oldest Hainanese community temple, in Lorong Ah Soo to a custom-built complex in Hougang Avenue 5. The layout of the altar images in the new Hainanese temple was unchanged as reflected in black and white photographs taken in Lorong Ah Soo in the late fifties and colour photographs taken in Hougang in 1985. The four custom-built temples, one of which is the Hainanese re-located temple, consist of a terraced row of four brick buildings, similar to two-car garages but with high ceilings and much wider than a standard garage.\n\nIn the years up to the 1950s not only did the diversity of language amongst the overseas Chinese in south-east Asia [Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Chaozhou, as well as Hainanese] impose a real barrier",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215327,
        "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": 104,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "52\n\n1101. Though well known for his poetry, he was a celebrated scholar-statesman who has been deified by popular acclaim. However, though not recorded as such, it would be unlikely for him not to have been deified by posthumous imperial decree, an honour coming into vogue at that time.\n\nHe was born in Meixian in Sichuan province and died in Changzhou in Fujian shortly after being permitted to leave exile on Hainan island. His father was a distinguished scholar, and owing to his father's long absences from home, Su received most of his education from his mother. At the age of 21, he entered the state examinations and headed the list of competitors. He rose in public office and was prominent among the strenuous opponents of the political economist, Wang Anshi. His first fall from grace in 1079 was from ministerial office when he was downgraded to be Governor of Hangzhou Fu. In 1086, at the start of a new reign, he was restored to favour but again incurred imperial displeasure, this time being exiled, first to Huizhou in Guangdong and finally to the semi-barbarous island of Hainan in 1097 where he was appointed to the petty office of sub-prefect of Yaizhou. During his exile, having complained that Hainan was wild and its \"frontier\" people, settlers from the mainland, without culture, he took a genuine interest in their welfare as well as the welfare of the original non-Chinese inhabitants. He was permitted to return from banishment in ca. 1100 and died shortly after. He spent the four years of his exile in Hainan in Wenchang, in the north-east of the island, and was the first great name in Chinese history connected intimately with Hainan. His memorial temple in Haikou in Hainan island is now a museum. Within the grounds of the temple is the spring which he is said to have had dug during a severe drought.\n\nd] Zhu Chuping was a magistrate in Hainan who had preceded Su Shi in the post as magistrate by some twenty years.\n\n3: Major Hainanese Deities noted in all Hainanese communities\n\nThese are uniquely Hainanese Gods\n\n13\n\na] Images of the Marquis of Wenzhou, Wenzhou Houwang\n\nI have been seen only on altars in temples founded and run by ethnic Hainanese. According to devotees, he is uniquely worshipped",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215328,
        "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": 105,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "53\n\nby the Hainanese and especially those from the Hainanese county of Wanning where he is primarily prayed to by the sick. He is claimed to be extremely efficacious and able to cure or heal any sickness or injury. He usually sends his Black or White Horse Generals to help devotees and only leaves the Heavens himself for very important cases. His image has only been seen in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Borneo, Bangkok and Phnom Penh where his festival is generally celebrated on the 15th of the fifth lunar month. However, he must never be prayed to for prosperity.\n\nTwo entirely different legends describe the origins of this deity, one more popular in Singapore and southern Malaysia, and the other in Thailand and Cambodia. In neither is the Marquis identified by name and he therefore remains unidentified.\n\nHe is also referred to as:\n\nthe Lord of the Seas, Wenzhou Haizhu Houwang\n\nTongzhu Houwang The Marquis Lord of the Aboriginal People\n\nShanqin Houwang The Imperial Marquis of the Mountains\n\nThe first legend claims that a petty king in China was waved by an individual who, in the city of Wenzhou on the coast of Zhejiang province, north of and nearly opposite the island of Taiwan, was awarded the title of Marquis. This happened a long, long time ago. The ruler of Hainan, as a separate state, so the legend continued, had an image of the Marquis brought to the island of Hainan and placed in a specially built temple where he has been worshipped ever since.\n\nThe second story relates that the Marquis was, variously, a Ming governor of Hainan island or a minister of an ancient dynasty against whom, through jealousy, evil ministers plotted. They killed him and threw his body into the sea where it turned into a log and floated away. A fisherman found it, realised that it had spiritual properties and so carved it into a statue which he revered and quickly became wealthy,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215329,
        "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": 106,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "54\n\nThe Marquis is usually represented on altars by tablets though where there is an image it conventionally portrays him as a scholar-official, sitting wearing a scholar's winged cap. He has a pink face, a black beard, a rolled scroll in his left hand and a plaque bearing the characters 'May the State Prosper and the People Enjoy Peace' in his right hand.\n\nHe is usually accompanied by two aides, generals on horseback:\n\nYinma Jiangjun The Silver Horse General [mounted on a white horse]\n\nJinma Jiangjun The Gold Horse General [mounted on a black horse]\n\nIn the temple in Hougang Avenue 5 in Singapore where the main deity is Shuiwei Shengniang, the side altar stage left is dedicated to Wenzhou Houwang whose image stands on the left hand of and paired with a deity simply known as 'Da Laoye' whose image is remarkably similar to that of Wenzhou Houwang. Da Laoye has two guardians mounted on horses and armed with long handled swords. They are Generals Gan and Meng [see below 4e - list of deities in temple loose-leaf records]\n\nb] \"The Holy Mother of Shuiwei,' Shuiwei Shengmu, is primarily a Hainanese local deity who, in Hainan, was a protective deity prayed to mainly by fishermen. In South-east Asia where her cult has been established within Hainanese communities, she has also been adopted by devotees of other Chinese ethnic groups. In Singapore she is worshipped as a goddess who heals the sick by both Fukienese and Chaozhou devotees, the two ethnic groups which dominate the Chinese community in the island state. Her shrines have been seen in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia [even in a Chinese temple on the island of Bali], in Vietnam and Cambodia but not in either Hong Kong or Taiwan. It is claimed that the oldest Chinese temple in Thailand is dedicated to Shuiwei Shengmu, at Paknam pho. Other old temples dedicated to her have been noted in Korat and the surrounding area. Her images have no unique identifying characteristics. She is a motherly matron, sitting on a throne, attended by several assistants, and in several places she is portrayed wearing a cap bearing one to five birds with open wings.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215336,
        "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": 113,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "dressed in robes and a scholar's tile cap. The eyes are rounder than those of Guan Gong and they have a pink face, though they are sitting holding an open book in the left hand as does Guan Gong. The other versions are, in general, standard seated scholar-officials, with black beards and holding, in one case a seal in his left hand, and in the others a sword or fly switch in his right. In four of the images he is wearing Daoist robes decorated with the bagua signs. In every temple his image is flanked by two anonymous military attendants.\n\nImages of the Plum Blossom Immortal have no unique characteristics and vary considerably from temple to temple. Two depict him seated, and at first glance looking somewhat like Guan Gong, dressed in robes and a scholar's tile cap. The eyes are rounder than those of Guan Gong and they have a pink face, though they are sitting holding an open book in the left hand as does Guan Gong. The other versions are, in general, standard seated scholar-officials, with black beards and holding, in one case a seal in his left hand, and in the others a sword or fly switch in his right. In four of the images he is wearing Daoist robes decorated with the bagua signs. In every temple his image is flanked by two anonymous military attendants.\n\nHis festival is celebrated annually on the 20th of the ninth lunar month and his full title copied off one of the temple notice boards is Shangqing Sanwu Mei Xian Yuan Zhangui dongxian Zhang Dadi 上清三五梅仙院斬鬼洞仙張大帝,\n\nd] The Loyal and Fierce Marquis, Zhonglie Houwang 忠烈侯王, was a secondary image on the main altar in a rural hut-temple in Singapore. He was paired with Wenzhou Houwang 溫州侯王 and sat on an ornamental chair on Wenzhou Houwang's left hand side, holding in his right hand a jade-like sceptre identical with the one Wenzhou Houwang is holding in his right hand [May the State Prosper and the People Enjoy Peace]. Little was known about Zhonglie Houwang apart from a hazy memory from one of the temple elders that he had been a famous village headman many, many years earlier, his personal names now lost in time.\n\ne) A page in a loose-leaf book kept by the temple custodian in a small atap1 Hainanese temple in Lorong Ah Soo in Singapore listed the titles of the five deities [*] and nine minor spirits or aides [#] revered by devotees, some understood to be portrayed in image form on the temple altars whilst the majority were simply known by their titles and",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215352,
        "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": 129,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "77\n\na] Changhua Laoye Shen\n\nIt\n\nseen in Singapore on a Hainanese wayyang street theatre altar connected in some way with the major China-wide deity Hua Guang Dadi.\n\nb] As with small folk religion temples in all southern Chinese communities there are very minor deities on their altars about whom nothing is known. The following stand on a side altar in a small Hainanese temple on the Tampines Road in Singapore and are largely ignored though they are prayed to by a few devotees, more in passing rather than specifically for protection:\n\nmain deity: The Marquis of the Heaven of the Buddhas, Fo Tian Houwang\n\nSoldier astride a red horse, wearing green and gilt armour, with a pink face, black beard and a sword raised in his right hand.\n\nflanked by: Shata Zunwang Qi Guan\n\nand\n\nSoldier astride a white horse, with green-gilt robes, black beard, brown face and sword raised in his right hand.\n\nYongmeng Yatou Wang San Guan\n\nSoldier astride a black horse, with green-gilt robes over his armour, black bearded and a sword raised in his right hand.\n\nConclusion\n\nThere are some seventy to eighty major Han Chinese folk religion deities to be found in every part of China, and Hainan is no exception. However, in Hainan as in every local community, be it province, county, town or village, and even ethnic group, there are also local deified heroes and worthies not seen beyond their immediate area.\n\nTaken all in all, the range of deities on Hainanese altars is much the same as in all the other southern Chinese Han ethnic group temples. Hainanese communities, however, do have a number of uniquely Hainanese cult deities both on Hainan island as well as within Hainanese communities in south-east Asia. Although their legends are unique to",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215358,
        "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": 135,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "The main altar of a modern temple in Hougang in Singapore with the images and tablets transferred here when the former old temple was demolished to make way for public housing. In the centre is Shuiwei Shengniang, stage left is Wenzhou Houwang and stage right, the tablet to the 108 Brothers.\n\n83\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215366,
        "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": 143,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "Yet another minor deity on a side altar rehoused in a new temple in Hougang in Singapore. It is the Saintly Lord of the Dragon Tail, Longwei Shenggong\n\nwhose image is in the centre and\n\nflanked by the Third Prince, Li San Taizi on his right hand and an unidentified deity swathed in a silk robe on his left.\n\n16",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]