ENG-1958 — Page 330

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

established a prayer-hall in Elgin Street, which was moved in 1931 to a new site on Leighton Road. There is no Fire Temple or Tower of Silence.

The Jews, of whom there is a small community in the Colony, were also established in Macau prior to the foundation of Hong Kong, where they were among the earliest residents. Their cemetery, on the slopes of Happy Valley, was founded in 1855, and their religious services were originally held in premises rented in the Peel Street Staunton Street area of the central district of Victoria. The present synagogue, built in 1901, is the gift of the late Sir Jacob Sassoon.

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The first Hindu temple in Hong Kong was built in 1953 and is situated in Happy Valley. There has been since 1902 a Sikh temple in Queen's Road East which has served the needs not only of the Sikh community, but of many of those Hindus from Sind and the Punjab who have been to some extent influenced by Guru Nanak's teachings.

Buddhism maintains a strong hold amongst older Chinese, and is very far from dying out amongst the younger generation. Religious studies are conducted in a large number of monasteries or nunneries, and in hermitages built in secluded places in the Kowloon peninsula and Lantau Island where a dozen or more inmates may reside and devote themselves to quiet meditation. Big monasteries of some attraction to tourists are the Castle Peak Monastery, the Ling Wan Monastery, the Tung Po To Monastery, the Sai Nam Monastery, and Fung Ying Sin Kwun, all in the New Territories. Sutras are also expounded under the auspices of various Buddhist Associations in the urban areas.

Early in 1958 some of the sarira, i.e. relics left after the cremation, of the late Chongkha Lama (a living Buddha) were brought to Hong Kong with a proposal that they should be interred in a suitable spot, on which a memorial would be erected. Different schools of Buddhism joined together in the participation of the Maan Shin Yuen, or Communal Memorial Service, organized by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in September. The objects of the Service were two-fold: to invoke the power of the Truth of Buddha for the emancipation of the spirits of the dead, and to raise funds for charitable work of the Tung Wah Group of

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