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Ling Wan Monastery Visit

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“Kwun Yum Treasury Opening”(觀音借庫) is a local custom folk in Hong Kong, according to oral history, “Kwun Yum Treasury Opening” is from the Kwun Yum Tong of Tai Ping Shan Street. The Kwun Yum Tong was rebuilt in 1895 during the Guangxu Era of Qing Dynasty. Tang Kei-tsun, the fifth generation successor of the establishment, said the temple was built long before Hong Kong became an open port. The temple is the first Kwun Yum Temple of the Hong Kong Island, and was later moved to its present address. Because of its antiquity, it is difficult to trace the beginnings of the Kwun Yum Treasury Opening Festival, or the reason why the custom is set on the 26th of the 1st month of the lunar calendar. One only knows that the people of those days, seeing that many children did not have the money to attend school, followed a Kwun Yum-related folklore to collect donations from worshippers to help children in need. Although “Kwun Yum Treasury Opening” is not a Buddhism festival, Ling Wan Mon

Field trip to Pou Mun Temple

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                                                                                  Hong Kong Pou Mun Temple On 24th Mar, we visited the Hong Kong Pou Mun Temple for volunteer service. At first, we were really nervous since we did not have so much experiences on serving the elderly and we did not know much about the culture of Pou Mun Temple. However, after the volunteer service, we all think that it was a very meaningful and great experiences and we learned a lot. On that day, we arrived at 10 am and we started to help the elderly to go upstairs to sit in the temple. We were amazed by the wonderful looking of the Pou Mun Temple. First, we saw the statue of Bodhisattva(觀世音菩薩). Bodhisattva also know as Lord Buddha(本尊菩薩) and is a very great god in Buddhism. It was really big and beautiful and we really enjoy looking at it. Also, we saw different statues such as Skanda(韋陀菩薩 ), it is also known as the  Mahayana bodhisattva(護法菩薩) who is the guardian of Buddhist monasteries.          

Social Service - Visit Buddhist Foo Wong Hop Neighbourhood Elderly Centre

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                                                    19th of March 2018, Buddhist Foo Wong Hop Neighbourhood Elderly Centre                                                   On the 19th of March 2018, our group went to the Buddhist Foo Wong Hop Neighbourhood Elderly Centre together which is located in Kwai Chung to do social service. Different groups needed to plan some interesting activities for the elderly to entertain them. This was our second time to visit an elderly centre, so many of us had related experience. During the preparation, we introduced ourselves and tried to build up a harmonious environment. We tried to ask them some simple questions, such as “How are you today?” and “Do you know where do we come from?” And then we decided to play a game which was named “估歌仔”. When we played the preludes, they had to raise up their hands and answer the name of the songs. If they were correct, we would give them a small biscuit as a gift. The songs that we chose were all quite po

Social Service - Visit Home for Elderly in Kwun Tong

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12th March (Buddhism) service  Home for elderly in Kwun Tong On the 12th of March 2018, our group went to the elderly center together which is located in Kwun Tong to do social service. We needed to plan some activities for the elderly and talk with them. It was the first time to visit an elderly center so all of us were quite excited, so we decided that we would sing "獅子山下" together as a performance. At first, we were not familiar with how elderly center work and we were worried can we spent our time with the elderly nicely. Lucky, we had a great time with the elderly and we learned a lot from this experience. During the preparation, we introduced ourselves and tried to build up a harmonious environment. To be surprised, some elderly were quite funny. When we asked them, "Do you know which university do we study in?", they replied lots of interesting answers, such as Cambridge University. After that, we started to sing the song. Many of them knew Lo Man(羅

Group 1 Site Visit 2: Lo Hon Monastery

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On the 9th March, 2018, we visited Lo Hon Monastery which located in Tung Chung together. This visit includes two parts which are the group discussion of some main Buddhism concepts and  the activity of  "Nung Chan" (農禪). This trip aims to link the Buddhism concepts with our daily life in order to help us understand deeper about the concepts than before. This is the Chinese plaque which was hung outside the monastery. The monastery was built in 1974 and it housed some great halls with the main hall being "The Great Hall" which was 12 meters high laid out in such a way it gives a sense of space.   Before the group discussion, we visited the monastery and took some photos. There are two stone lions placing outside the door. They are sitting and watching like two securities of the monastery. We believe that they could protect the monastery's safety. Inside the hall, there are three Buddhas sitting in the middle of the monastery who are Sak

Buddhism Group 1 Blog 1

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  Tsing Shan Monastery, as one of the three most historical temples in Hong Kong, has a history over 1600 years. According to the introduction, Master Pei Tu, the founder of Tsing Shan Monastery, had travelled and arrived at the position of this monastery in the middle of 5 th century A.D. There is a fairy tale about Master Pei Tu said that he had some superpower which made him could cross the channel by wood cup and that is why he is called Pei Tu which mean sailing the sea by cup in Chinese. He lived in a small cave in the mountain and stayed in Tuen Mun until he left the mountain in his old age. Besides, Tsing Shan Monastery is also one of the biggest temple in Hong Kong. It is said that in the middle of 20 th century, one third of the Buddhist monks in Hong Kong came from Tsing Shan Monastery. There have also been a lot of famous people visiting here, such as Han Yu and Damo founder, which made Tsing Shan Monastery more known by others.  One of the interesting points is