[ { "id": 204871, "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-1964", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n149\n\nAn expert could say what the ranges of such cannons were, but after you have landed at the pier and walked to the fort, you will appreciate that it is 1,200 yards from the coast. It is unlikely that guns in the fort could be really effective at this range, so that one questions the wisdom of its planners in placing it so far from the sea, if it was meant to be a work of coastal defence.\n\nWhat of the garrison? In the later Ching period there were at least three military installations on Lantau at Tung Chung, Tai O and Fan Lau, another on Cheung Chau, and a considerable number of troops in the Kowloon Walled City. These were all sedentary garrisons drawn from the Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) battalion of the Chinese regular forces, which was scattered in forts and guard posts all over the eastern and southern part of the Sun On district, of which the present Crown Colony of Hong Kong formed the major part. The garrison at Tung Chung was commanded by a subordinate officer and probably consisted of a score or two men who were very likely without modern weapons. Writing in 1903 Dyer Ball said of the Chinese military forces that \"matchlocks, gingals, bows and arrows, spears and lances are still the weapons of many\". Their military efficiency was probably very slight. A missionary, who wrote an interesting account of the San On district for the last number of the transactions of the old Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, has an amusing description of the guard post at the Shatin Pass. However, they probably had a deterrent value, but owing to the poor state of local communications at that time, they were much too far away to assist if anything happened elsewhere on Lantau, particularly on the south side, though their influence was felt there. When the local leaders of the Pui O community (South Lantau) rebuilt the Hung Shing temple there in 1875, they persuaded the garrison commander at Tung Chung to make a contribution. In the commemorative tablet recording the event he is styled Fu Ye, a respectful form of address for this subordinate officer.\n\nTo bring these rather rambling notes to a close, the fort was used after 1898 as a police station. The District Officer who recovered the cannons for the fort has left a vivid picture of his occasional magisterial visits there about 1920:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206842, "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-1973", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 113\n\nof Shui Pin Ts'uen, and enlarged to the size of a temple very soon after. It remains almost unaltered since except for the written characters over the door which were put there by Tang P'ooi Ch'oh (**) in the 27th year of Kwong Sui (***) of Ts'ing ( ) dynasty A.D. 1901.\n\nIt is the custom in China for men to count back the generations to their \"first ancestor.\" Thus a man may speak of himself as being the twentieth or fortieth generation meaning that he belongs to the twentieth or fortieth generation after one particular family ancestor who, by being the most ancient known forbear, or the founder of a particular branch or even the first of a particular name to settle in a certain locality, is given the title of \"first ancestor\". In many families there are more than one \"first ancestor\", the Tang family have several whom they venerate equally.\n\nFirst they have Tang Yue ($) their earliest known ancestor. A native of San Ye (†) now Honan province, (i) he was born in the second year of Hon Ping Tai (+) A.D. 2 and died 52 years later in the 1st year of Wing P'ing (†) of Tung Hon (**) dynasty. He was a very famous and high officer, and a personal friend of the first emperor of Tung Hon, Kwong Mo (†). He was only twenty-four years of age when Kwong Mo became emperor, but he was given the high office of \"Tai Sz To,\" (✯a✯) equivalent to Prime Minister (during Tung Hon dynasty), for having helped him to rid the country of the numerous bandits that infested it. After Kwong Mo died his son Ming Tai (8) gave him the honour of “Taai Foo (AM), the second highest honour it was possible to receive from the Emperor, at that time, and he was created \"Ko Mat Hau\" ( 4 ) which means Marquis of Ko Mat, now Kiaochow (*) in Shan Tung (R) province. After the death of Tang Yue his portrait was placed first among those of twenty-eight generals in one of the Emperor's palaces called Wan Toi (雲臺)\n\nTang Hon Fat, forty-seventh generation after Tang Yue, is also venerated by his descendants. It is believed by some, that he was the first of the Tang family to settle in Kam Tin. He was a government officer holding the post of \"Shing Mo Long” (**) and was a native of Paak Sha Ts'uen ( & ††) of Kat Shui ( #7†) district in the province of Kiangsi ( ¿1). According to one old family history he was visiting Kwangtung (*) and coming by chance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207259, "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-1975", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n19\n\npremises of a specific temple rather than conducting them in his own or a client's home.\n\nThe Hong Kong spirit-medium temple may be either a humble structure of makeshift materials, akin to a squatter hut, or an ornate edifice constructed and maintained at considerable expense. Our study concerns a cult whose temple falls into the last-mentioned category. Completed in early 1975 and constructed at a cost of over HK$200,000, the temple is itself a major indicator of the cult's current prosperity. Below we discuss that temple and its cult, with particular attention to spatio-temporal setting, personnel, and ritual.\n\nThe Spirit-Medium Temple: Spatio-Temporal Setting\n\nThe temple is situated on a small hill immediately behind several residential blocks of the Tsui Ping Road Resettlement Estate in the urban-industrial district of Kwun Tong. The temple structure itself is, in fact, only a part of a larger complex which includes a small, one-storey office building, a partially enclosed stage, several outdoor shrines, and a paak ka chi “or Hall of One Hundred Sur-names”. The last-mentioned structure was under construction at the time this paper was written. In marked contrast to the crowded conditions that prevail in the adjacent Mark I estate, the temple complex occupies over 4,000 square feet of land.\n\nThe temple bears the horrific title of its patron deity Tai Wong Ye, which translates into English as \"The Great Ancient King\". It is a common title bestowed on deified mortals who were seldom in the literal sense \"Kings\" but were more often officials of various grades in Imperial China. To better understand the origin and present circumstances of the spirit-medium cult, it is necessary that we briefly trace the history of the Tai Wong Ye and his temple.\n\nThe patron deity of the present-day cult is reported to have been, during his mortal life, an official of the Tang Dynasty surnamed Lei. After his death, he was awarded the honorary title of Man Chung Kung. Temple personnel usually refer to him as \"Lei Man Chung Kung\". The Old Tang History contains the biography of a stateman bearing the surname Lei and the given name Uen-yuen. After death, he was given the title Man Chung Kung by the emperor in recognition of his outstanding loyalty to the emperor, his filiality towards parents and kinsmen, and frugality", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207260, "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-1975", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "20\n\nJOHN T. MYERS\n\nin personal expenditures. Cult members assert that he is the Tai Wong Ye of their temple. The manner of his becoming their patron deity is outlined on a scroll prominently displayed in the temple office.\n\nAccording to the scroll a General Lei fled south with the Southern Sung Court in the late 13th century taking with him the tablet of his illustrious ancestor Lei Man Chung Kung. After the defeat of the Sungs at Ling Ting Island near contemporary Hong Kong the general established residence in the Lo Fu Ngam region of Kowloon. Within the area now occupied by the Lok Fu Housing Estate he is reported to have constructed a shrine in honor of his illustrious ancestor. It is further reported that the residents of the region soon recognized the Tang statesman as a powerful supernatural advocate and developed a popular devotion in his honor.\n\nWe know little about the fate of the shrine and its deity during the ensuing 600 years other than that it persisted as a small structure tended in later years by Hakka villagers. After the Second World War the Lo Fu region changed dramatically as it became the site for squatter huts housing migrants from China. The immediate vicinity of the shrine was staked out almost exclusively by squatters from the Chiu-chow speaking region of Kwangtung Province. To the best of our present information it was with the arrival of the Chiu-chow that the shrine and its patron deity became the focus of spirit-medium activity.\n\nFormer residents of the squatter settlement indicate that they found the shrine in disrepair and untended when they established their squatter huts. A small group of the Chiu-chow migrants soon undertook its repair and began active worship of the deity. After several months one of their number, a dockyard coolie, began to act strangely. An elderly kei tung judged that he had become possessed by the shrine's patron, Tai Wong Ye, and had been chosen to serve as that deity's medium. The new kei tung soon became the central focus of religious rituals sponsored by the shrine.\n\nA new phase in the temple's existence began in 1957 when the government announced plans for the removal of the squatter area preparatory to constructing on its site the Lo Fu Housing Estate. Most of the Chiu-chow squatters were allocated quarters in the soon to be completed Kwun Tong/Tsui Ping Road Resettlement Estate. The spirit-medium and 18 male devotees of Tai Wong Ye", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207261, "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-1975", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n21\n\ndubbing themselves \"the 19 Brothers\" formulated plans for the construction of a new temple in Kwun Tong. With the assistance of leaders from the wider Hong Kong Chiu-chow community they managed to effect peaceful occupation of 4,000 square feet of Crown land immediately behind blocks 18, 19, and 20 of the new estate. The new site was dedicated in 1963 and at the same time the local cult was incorporated as a branch of the predominantly Chiu-chow syncretic cult known as \"Tak Kaau The Virtuous Teaching.\"\n\n10\n\nToday, Tai Wong Ye gives evidence of being one of the most popular, if not prosperous, temples in Kwun Tong. It boasts approximately 200 ritual associates known as \"tan sang,\" claims nearly 1,000 worshippers a month, and at the time of original field research was serviced by four spirit-mediums. Members of the temple association are virtually unanimous in attributing the cult's success to the efficacy of their \"kei tung,\" especially the senior one who was first possessed in the Lo Fu squatter village. Below we discuss in more detail the role of \"kei tung\" and the personal characteristics of those who perform that role at Tai Wong Ye Temple.\n\nTai Wong Ye Temple: The Spirit Mediums\n\nAs mentioned above the mediums who serve the Kwun Tong temple are known by devotees as \"kei tung.\" In a literal sense the term refers to a young man who does \"spirit writing,\" i.e., the first character, \"kei,\" means the process of spirit writing as performed in a basin filled with sand, and the second character, \"tung,\" indicates a young man who assists in ritual activity. In combination the characters may be used in their literal sense of one who only does spirit writing or they may be used for a spirit medium. Even though mediums are able to do spirit writing, it is by no means necessary that one be a medium to perform that ritual. Henceforth in this paper we shall employ the word \"kei tung\" with sole reference to the type of mediums who service Tai Wong Ye Temple.\n\nTo date Jordan has published the most detailed study of the Chinese \"kei tung,\" devoting special attention to life history events relating to the initial experience of spirit possession. Like shamanistic religious specialists elsewhere, the \"kei tung\" insists that he has been chosen by the deity rather than vice-versa. The initial possession experience ordinarily occurs at a time of personal crisis and is manifested by behavior that the actor is unable to interpret.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207262, "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-1975", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "22\n\nJOHN T. MYERS\n\nwithout assistance. The diagnosis of spirit possession is invariably rendered by an older kei tung. It is a common belief that those chosen by the gods to serve as their mediums are persons destined to die at a rather youthful age. Their lives are prolonged in order that they may serve the possessing deity. Confirmation of a predes-tined early death is sought by the Taiwanese in the possessed's horoscope and by the Chiu-chow in his having fairy bones shan kwat.\n\nThe mere fact of spirit possession, however, is not sufficient to qualify one as a new kei tung, capable of mediating effectively between the world of man and that of the gods. To determine whether the possessing spirit is a benevolent one or an evil spectre the neophyte is initially subjected to ritual exorcisms by an older kei tung. He will also be required to demonstrate the authenticity of his possession by an ability to endure without apparent discomfort various types of bodily mutilations. At Tai Wong Ye Temple, even after he is judged authentically possessed, the neophyte is required to undergo a further period of training and observation by the senior kei tung before he is allowed to handle the petitions of worshippers during public ceremonies. The length of the \"training period\" is indeterminate depending in large measure on the judgment of the senior specialist. Once he is satisfied that the neophyte is ready the new \"Ki Tong\" is allowed to conduct unassisted public ceremonies, dispensing advice, amulets foo, and/or medicinal herbs to petitioners.\n\nDuring the period of intensive field research (1973-74) the Kwun Tong temple commanded the services of three \"official\" kei tung and one who was \"in training\". The undisputed hup cheung or cult leader was the medium who had experienced his initial possession in Lo Fu squatter camp. Employed now as a foreman of dockyard coolies he is likely on any given evening to be found at the temple. Subsequent to his possession by Tai Wong Ye he has been chosen by another deity, The Third Prince, to act as his medium.\n\nThe second medium is a Chiu-chow in his early 30's whose father is one of the founding members of the temple, i.e., one of \"The 19 Brothers\". Employed as a textile worker in Kwun Tong he frequently works overtime at the factory and is therefore more often to be found at the temple on feast days than on an ordinary\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207263, "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-1975", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n23\n\nweekday. His possessing spirit is the saintly monk Buddha Sha僧。\n\nThe third medium is also a Chiu-chow in his early 30's. He is employed as a performer in a Chiu-chow opera troupe and seldom appears at the temple except on major feast days, e.g. Chinese New Year. His possessing deity is the Supreme Buddha.\n\nThe medium \"in training” is a Chiu-chow in his early 20's who was until recently employed as a security guard at a local transportation facility. He now supports himself by odd jobs such as take-home piece work from local factories. His possessing deity is the mythical Monkey of Chinese legend.13\n\nIt is obvious that an individual kei tung's rank within the cult is not based on the relative position of their possessing deities within the Chinese pantheon. Rank is predicated on the kei tung's experience as a medium and degree of involvement in the affairs of the temple association. The mere fact that the cult master's possessing deities would be judged as relatively minor personages in the Chinese pantheon in no way affects his recognized position of dominance among the ritual specialists. His over twenty years of experience as a kei tung, and his role as one of the founding “19 Brothers\" of the temple association, render his position unassailable.\n\nMany elaborate ceremonies are conducted by Tai Wong Ye kei tung, the most ostentatious being those held during Chinese New Year and the Yu Laan or Hungry Ghost Festival. It is our contention, however, that the keystone of the cult's appeal as a religious centre lies in the simpler ritual held each evening at 10 p.m. It is that ritual which we will now discuss.\n\nTai Wong Ye Temple: The Possession Ritual\n\nEighty-seven years ago a Christian missionary in Amoy described a spirit possession ritual as follows:\n\n\"The graven idol can be seen sitting in the shrine, with its attendant figures by its side. The group of men that are chanting in a steady, monotonous voice charms that are supposed to bring the spirit are usually men of no reputation in the village. There is no scholar in his long role present, and no man of influence standing by to do honor to the idol. The men seem fit for scenes of darkness and remind one of Macbeth's witches making their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207264, "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-1975", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "24\n\nJOHN T. MYERS\n\nincantation around the cauldron. On they go for hours in darkness. The voices at times grow louder and the drum beat more vigorous. All at once the medium who has begun to sway his body from side to side as if to invite supernatural influences begins to be violently affected. He dances and leaps in the air, the beat of the drum becomes more rapid, and the voices of the men louder and shriller. The wildest confusion reigns. It seems as though some horrid scene from the infernal regions were being enacted on earth and the devils had been let loose for a time to carry on their orgies among men.\"14\n\nWe have quoted at length the 19th century description because it is our opinion even the most zealously anti-pagan observer may have a difficult time identifying it as essentially the same type of ritual enacted each evening at Tai Wong Ye Temple. Scheduled at 10 p.m. for the convenience of a working class population the ceremony incorporates little of the din and frenzy which characterized its Amoy counterpart.\n\nOn almost any given evening shortly before 10 o'clock petitioners begin arriving at the temple. The number commonly varies from 10 to 15, with a distinct majority being middle-aged and elderly women. After burning joss sticks and offering prayers to the deity, petitioners at the direction of various tan sang who tend the altar, inscribe their name, birthday, and the names of other family members on a red sheet of paper. This accomplished they gather around a red table in the middle of the shrine chamber. The atmosphere is casual as greetings and gossip are exchanged between them. On the red table is a can of red paint, a slender paint brush, a rubber stamp, a stack of yellow paper slips, a rather large compartmentalized box with various types of herbs, and a basin of foo shui or \"sacred water\" #k. Near the table is a red, throne-shaped chair.\n\nAt approximately 10 p.m. the medium enters the temple. After greeting those present he approaches the table and takes a sip of the sacred water. Continuing to stand before the table, he begins to move his head from side to side. He then starts pounding the table with his fists while emitting loud guttural grunts. After a few moments he adopts a stylized posture signifying to all present the identity of the possessing deity. The tan sang provide him with the throne-like chair and he sits to hear the petitions of worshippers. The possession is usually effected within two minutes of his sipping the sacred water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207265, "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-1975", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n25\n\nOnce possessed, the kei tung is addressed by tan sang and petitioners alike with appellations appropriate to the deity deemed present. Each worshipper is called to approach the kei tung individually, giving details of his/her particular request. To some, the kei tung will simply offer advice; to others, especially the ill, he will give a sacred amulet consisting of a character painted in red on a slip of yellow paper. Depending on the specific nature of the illness, the amulet is given by itself or accompanied by a handful of medicinal herbs. The petitioner then thanks the deity and leaves the altar to deposit a few dollars in a red box near the temple entrance.\n\nAfter the last petition has been heard, the kei tung places his head on the table. The tan sang wipes his brow with a towel dipped in sacred water, and in several moments, the medium regains his normal consciousness. The worshippers return home, and the kei tung, with the tan sang, proceed to the temple office for relaxation.\n\nReaders familiar with Elliott's volume will no doubt find that the ritual conducted at Tai Wong Ye Temple is decidedly more low-key than those held by the spirit mediums of Singapore. Seldom lasting over 20 minutes, the Kwun Tong ceremony rarely incorporates acts of self-mutilation or feats of superhuman strength. Mutilation, when it does occur, is ordinarily limited to major feast days, but even then, seldom involves more than the chewing of broken glass15 and the ingestion of burning joss sticks. In brief, the Tai Wong Ye mediums present less of a spectacle than one would perhaps expect from religious practitioners who engage in what one anthropologist has labelled as \"Ecstatic religion\".16\n\nWe suggest that the low-key approach adopted toward ritual by Tai Wong Ye Temple is not accidental, but indicative of the role that the temple plays in the local community. Unlike the Singapore temples studied by Elliott, the Kwun Tong one does not cater to a general, undifferentiated population, some of whom may be attracted by the feats of its mediums. Tai Wong Ye's appeal is selective, and that selectivity, we suggest, is a major factor in the temple's current success.\n\nThe Basis of the Temple's Success\n\nEven a casual observer visiting the temple on several occasions may conclude that it is an enterprise exclusively supported and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207266, "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-1975", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "26\n\nJOHN T. MYERS\n\nmanaged by members of one Chinese speech group, the Chiu-chow. The \"honorary\" committee members, the working committee members, the tan sang, and the kei tung are Chiu-chow. Observation of numerous possession ceremonies reveals that it is rare to discover a non-Chiu-chow among the worshippers. This de facto exclusivity is rendered more formal in a brochure advertising places for tablets of the deceased in the “Hall of 100 Surnames\" by the statement that the places are reserved for heung lei or fellow countrymen, i.e. fellow Chiu-chow.\n\nWhile from a ritual point of view Tai Wong Ye is correctly described as a spirit-medium temple, from a social point of view it is akin to a type which Feuchtwang2 designates a \"Compatriot” temple. It is a place where members of the Chiu-chow minority speech group can gather to converse freely in their native tongue, exchange useful information, and enjoy that sense of solidarity which Durkheim posits as the chief product of shared ritual. The low-keyedness of the ritual offerings is understandable when one realizes that the target population is one already predisposed by regional socialization to accept the reality and effectiveness of the kei tung's mediumship. Our conclusion therefore is that the success of the Kwun Tong spirit-medium temple is due more to the social selectivity of its appeal than to a heightened interest in spirits and their mediums on the part of the general population.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Firth 1959, p. 141.\n\n2 Feuchtwang, no reference details available.\n\n3 Elliott, 1955.\n\n4 Jordan, 1972.\n\n5 Ahern, 1973.\n\n6 Potter, 1974.\n\n7 This observation is based on casual questioning of Hong Kong residents over a three-year time period.\n\n8 Potter, op. cit.\n\n9 The Chiu-Chow and Hoi-Luk-Fung people's native regions are the eastern coastal counties of Kwangtung Province. The Hokkien are natives of Fukien Province which is immediately east of Kwangtung Province.\n\n10 Tak Kaau is a syncretic cult which claims tens of thousands of supporters from the Chiu-Chow communities in Southeast Asia. Although more ritual attention is awarded to Chinese deities the Tak Kaau pantheon includes Christ, Allah, and deities from the Hindu religion.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210467, "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-1985", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "55 \n\nremoved in 1952 was coincidental). The 14th day of the 7th month was the day for remembering all those who at death had received no proper burial. Any seafaring community would be likely to know of many such, and like most Hong Kong Boat People, Kau Sai's fishermen marked the month of the 'Hungry Ghosts' with ceremonies of exorcism, both privately on the junks and publicly in the temple. The day of the Moon Festival (the 15th day of the 8th month) was the next occasion for making family offerings in the temple, and on the Double Ninth came the second of the annual dates for visiting the family graves.\n\nOn the 10th day of the 10th month a public offering of pork (and/or fish) was made to Shui Shing Ye, whose image stood next to that of Hung Shing Kung in the temple, and after that came the celebration of the winter solstice (fixed, of course, by the solar calendar, like Ch'ing Ming, but falling usually in the eleventh month). Finally, on the 15th day of the 12th month a pig was slaughtered and offered in the temple on behalf of the community as a whole in public thanksgiving for the successful completion of another year before the preparations for the New Year ceremonies once again got under way.\n\nOnly four of these ritual occasions were publicly observed in the sense that the offerings made and ceremonies performed were provided at joint expense and on behalf of the village as a whole. The rest were private, that is family celebrations, taking place on or about the same dates but quite independently. The four public occasions were the festivals of two gods of the local temple, Hung Shing Kung (13th of 2nd month) and Shui Shing Ye (10th of 10th month), the exorcism of the Hungry Ghosts (14th of 7th month) and the general thanksgiving at the end of the year (15th of 12th month). By far the most spectacular of these was the festival for Hung Shing Kung, for which a group of priests was always engaged to carry out the religious ceremonies and an opera troupe performed plays on five consecutive nights and four days. The organisation of this festival, which involved the collection and disbursement of well over 10,000 Hong Kong dollars each year, was much the most important single joint activity in Kau Sai.\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210766, "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-1986", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "100\n\nCHAN WING HOI\n\nNOTES\n\nBesides \"three-day jius\", there are more elaborate “five day jiu” celebrations in the New Territories.\n\nThe annual ritual takes place typically in Chiu Chau, Wai Chau and Hoklo settlements to make offerings to uncared-for dead spirits.\n\n1 The oldest dated object in the Tin Hau Temple, which housed the main god of the festival, was about one hundred years old. I shall refer to this again later.\n\n6\n\nThere could have been more than one \"chairman\".\n\nProbably part of the golf club, or otherwise a similar establishment.\n\nTanaka Issei 田仲一成, Chugoku saishi engeki kenkyū 中国祭祀演劇研究 (Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo 1981) p. 891.\n\n7 The Fuk-Wai-Chiu immigrants had their own gods and their operas in the Tin Hau festival. According to Tanaka, eleven or twelve gods other than Tin Hau were sacrificed to (op. cit., pp. 891-3). One of them, the Daai Wong Paak Gung of Naam Bin Chyn, is attributed by Tanaka to the Hoklo residents. Tanaka also points out that the Fuk-Wai-Chiu members of the organizing committee were alone responsible for a special part of the festival, that is, the performance of Wai Chau and Chiu Chau operas.\n\n8 Piu-sik are usually carried on frames at a height far above that of the audience in a parade. Because of the rain during the procession this time they stood in a lorry instead.\n\nAbout half of the gods sacrificed to in the Tin Hau Festival, including the Fuk-Wai-Chiu deity mentioned above, were not found among the spirit tablets in the jiu festival.\n\n10 \"Picking green\". In this case the two lions competed in capturing a bank note hanging near the entrance to the house.\n\nGlossary\n\nChoi Paak Lai 蔡伯勵\n\nchoi-cheng 採靑\n\nDai Wong (Ye) 大王(爺)\n\nba-wong-dei 霸王地\n\nChiu Chau 潮洲\n\nbaai-chaam 拜懺\n\nBaak Mou Seung 白無常\n\nBaak-gung 伯公\n\nBak Dai 北帝\n\nBao'an 寶安\n\nbui 杯\n\nbin-ngaak 匾額\n\nChai Wan 柴灣\n\nChan Wa 陳華\n\nCheung Chau 長洲\n\nDaai Si (Wong) 大士(王)\n\ndaai-gat 大吉\n\ndiu-lau 碉樓\n\nDongguan 東莞\n\nfa-laam 花籃\n\nfa-paai 花牌\n\nFaaigou jeungdaai ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214707, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "86\n\nstep (Baker; 1981,15).\n\nThe matshed consisted of a light bamboo frame clad with thin metal sheets, which are more fire resistant than the old rattan mats that were used years ago (see Figure 1). A compartment at one end housed four henchmen and their god, called by the villagers Tai Wong Ye, sometimes translated as 'Great Ancient King' (Myers; 1975,19)(see Plate 3). The same god in urban Hong Kong is usually called Daai Si Wong (Baker; 1979,121). Different names for the same god can cause confusion. The matshed faced southeast (feng shui south), in the direction of the Kwan Yin Ancient Temple. The number of Taoist priests taking part in the ceremony inside the matshed, with some arriving late, fluctuated from five to seven. Even priests get caught in traffic jams. There was a small group of musicians in the matshed playing, between them, a trumpet, gongs, cymbals and a small drum. Percussion instruments took pride of place. The matshed also contained dishes of fruit, to be offered up to the gods, and paper offerings. Joss sticks were burned.\n\nThere was a great deal of incantation, much read from a book taken off the altar, and some kneeling. Rice wine was deliberately spilled on the floor in the process of purification and offering it up to the gods. The gods of east (the Green King), south (the Red King), west (the White King), north (the Black King) and centre (the Yellow Emperor) were beseeched, in rising and falling tones, to come down to protect the district in words that were not easy to link together and to understand. The Chinese animal sign of the year is said to represent a direction. There the planet Jupiter is located (Lo; 1992,162). This has important feng shui implications. One should not disturb the earth in this direction. The Taoist priests who perform such ceremonies are often called, in slang, naam moh lo.$\n\nLooking at Figure 2, in the bottom right-hand corner one can see a metal container in which are situated the five bamboo talismans on which, during the ceremony, are written the respective entreaties to the appropriate gods. Also on the crudely framed timber altar (see Figure 2), draped with a red cloth, are bowls of fruit, three cups of tea, three cups of wine and various items used during the ceremony.\" They include a book of chants, a crown worn by the head priest, musical instruments and sticks for the musicians to strike the percussion", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 } ]