[
    {
        "id": 210362,
        "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-1984",
        "page_number": 333,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "312\n\nHONG KONG HILLTOP RETREAT FOR CROSS AND LOTUS\n\nHUGH WITT*\n\nThe town of Shatin in Hong Kong's rural New Territories is a mushrooming area of rapid growth. High rise apartment blocks, factories, shops and offices are rapidly transforming this valley community into a major urban district. Shatin is one of six new town developments designed to reduce the heavy concentration of Hong Kong's population in densely congested Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It is a typical example of Hong Kong's ability to keep pace with the need for progress and expansion in a highly competitive world trading economy.\n\nBut there is more to Shatin than a reflection of Hong Kong's material needs. It is also a monument to more lasting values. For Shatin holds a unique place in east-west religious thought; it is the place where Christianity and Buddhism blossomed side by side in the teachings of a far-sighted Norwegian missionary. High on a hill, overlooking the changing landscape below, is the Christian mission of Tao Fong Shan the Mountain of the Wind of the Way. Hidden by trees from view below, the site of the mission is marked by a 40 feet (12 metre) cross which can be clearly seen from afar.\n\nToday Tao Fong Shan is a study centre dedicated to ecumenical work and the role of the Christian church among the Chinese. But it continues to carry the influence of its founder, Dr. Karl Ludvig Reichelt, who perhaps more than any other missionary to China, sought and found common ground between the ideals of Christianity and Buddhism.\n\nThe church, its dormitories and the other buildings erected by Reichelt, are set in peaceful tree-lined gardens. And although the\n\n* This article, originally published in a number of Scandinavian theological publications, and in some newspapers in Norway, is printed here as background to the visit to Tao Fong Shan by the Society in the Spring of 1984.",
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    {
        "id": 210363,
        "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-1984",
        "page_number": 334,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "313\n\nteachings of the mission are Christian, the appearance of the eight-sided church and its surroundings are uncompromisingly Chinese, a gesture to the Buddhist pilgrim monks who found shelter there.\n\nKarl Ludvig Reichelt was born in 1877 at Bardu, near Arendal, Norway. The son of a sea captain, who died when Karl Ludvig was a child, he trained as a teacher at Notodden. He taught for a short period in Telemark and became a lay preacher in his spare time before entering the Norwegian Missionary Society training college at Stavanger.\n\nShortly after his ordination, Reichelt sailed for China, where, after language study, he was appointed to Ninghsiang, Hunan, where the Norwegian Missionary Society was active. It was his experience at Ninghsiang that influenced the rest of his missionary career. The impressions gained while on a visit to the famous Weishan monastery remained with him for the rest of his life.\n\n“I got a glimpse,” he wrote, “of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world charged with deep religious mysticism, a world full of tragedy and heart-rending but also marvellously rich in points of contact with sacred religious material.”\n\nIn response to what he felt to be a call from God, Reichelt decided to prepare for “special work among these people by the cultivation of friendly intercourse with the monks and enlightened lay people.”\n\nFrom that time Reichelt devoted himself to the study of Far Eastern religions and became in time one of the greatest contemporary authorities on the subject.\n\nReichelt's influence grew and he was later appointed to the staff of a Lutheran Theological Seminary at Shekow, near Hankow. His ideas on a Christian-Buddhist relationship matured sufficiently for him to submit to his home board a proposal for special work among Buddhists in China. He received support from his own missionary society, from the Church of Sweden and the Danish Missionary Society. He also toured Germany, Finland and the",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210367,
        "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-1984",
        "page_number": 338,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "317\n\nDr. Lee commented: “This organisation was not interested in conversion or evangelism; it became a study centre, trying to relate Chinese religious background to the work and service of the church. It was not just bookish learning. It also provided a meeting place for people and ideas through seminars and other activities. And through it all the spirit of Reichelt carried on, although there was no direct organisational link.”\n\nNow the study centre has in turn given way to the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, a further indication of the centre's ability to relate to changing times and needs.\n\nIt is supported financially by various bodies and is optimistic that it can in time become self-supporting.\n\nThere is one aspect of life at Tao Fong Shan that has, however, remained unchanged - its porcelain workshop. In the past this was used by wandering monks stranded without money, who found that they could work in the shop to earn the means to continue their pilgrim lives. The shop is still operating today, sometimes employing handicapped people, encouraging them to become self-supporting in much the same way as it helped those wandering monks. Some of the artists, who paint the porcelain with exquisite Chinese patterns for sale to tourists and other countries, have worked in the shop since the time Karl Ludvig Reichelt was there.\n\nThe teachings and leaderships of this Norwegian visionary continue at this peaceful spot overlooking the new town of Shatin. As they continue, they will also adapt with time.\n\nSaid Dr. Lee: \"We cannot see ourselves drifting with tradition. We must also concentrate on contemporary questions, internationally and locally here in Hong Kong.”\n\nNOTES\n\nOn Reichelt's life, see S. Holth Karl Ludvig Reichelt and Tao Fong Shan, Tao Fong Shan Christian Institute, Shatin.\n\n2 Personal comment to the author from Dr. Lee.",
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]