Temples Run

During my run this morning, I realised I was passing by some of the many storied temples of Hong Kong.  

The first one, right at the start, near our home, is the Kwun Yum Temple.  There are many similar ones around Hong Kong.  But this is one of the most popular.  The particular incarnation most commonly worshipped in Hong Kong is a female goddess of mercy.  People come here praying for wealth, success for academics, children, etc.  The most dramatic annual event that draw the most people is the opening of the treasury around the Lunar New Year. 

Then this ruin of a temple near the Eye Hospital.  The Chinese title of “上帝“ is the same used for the Christian “God” in some Chinese translations of the Bible. But this was a temple dedicated to the “Emperor of the North” in the Daoist tradition.

There is a Temple dedicated to the “Marquess” on Junction Road in Kowloon City.  There are multiple claims as to whom this temple was dedicated to.  Some say it was some general in the late Southern Sung Dynasty.  When the emperor was forced to flee, passing through Kowloon, this general defended the emperor resolutely, thus earning the respect of the people.  

Others say it was some local deity.  

There is a temple dedicated to the “King(s) of the Three Mountains”.  Was it the three kings of three mountains?  Or the king of three mountains?  And which three mountains?  

Such ambiguities seems to be common to many of the temples in Hong Kong.  But these do not seem to bother the worshippers too much.  Hong Kong people are very practical.  They generally are willing to worship whomever that seems to be good to them.