Unwanted gods find new home in Hong
Kong
14 October
2016
Hong Kong (AFP) - Tucked away on a coastal Hong Kong hillside is a
different type of recycling point -- here, thousands of unwanted
statues of deities look out to sea, gathered and repaired after
their owners discard them.
Dedicated volunteer
Wong Wing-pong attends to the colourful collection of figures which
are perched on a rocky slope running down to the sea in the south
of the city.
Twice daily
he sweeps away leaves and burns incense sticks as offerings to the
unwanted gods, ranging from Buddhist and Taoist to local deities
and Christian icons.
A retired
butcher, 85-year-old Wong has been looking after the statues for 17
years after stumbling across a small neglected collection on the
outskirts of the site, near the residential district of Wah Fu,
while he was out walking.
Back then
there were a dozen unattended statues, some broken. Now the spot
has grown into a popular destination for discarded figures, and is
known locally as "A sky full of gods and Buddhas".
Wong says
new statues arrive every month from a number of sources --
restaurants that are undergoing renovation, private homes where
they can no longer be accommodated.
He spruces
them up and some who have donated figures still come to worship
them.
"No one
should demean god. If they are out here, we should treat them
well," Wong told AFP.
"If they
are broken, I will glue them back together...I don't dare throw
them away. It goes against the conscience."
Residents
say they are thankful to Mr Wong.
One woman
in her 80s, who gave her name as Ms Wan, said she still visits
statues of local deities Guan Yin, goddess of mercy, and Guan Yu,
inspired by a Chinese general, which she left at Wah Fu five years
ago.
"The place
is very well kept. I am thankful to him," said Wan, who removed the
figures from her home because some of her relatives converted to
Christianity and did not want them on display.
Another
resident, 65-year-old retiree Tse Sum swims off the shore near the
site every day and also praised Wong for his dedication.
"If they
are dumped they are trash," said Tse of the unwanted
gods.
"But if
they are kept in order, they can be works of art."
- 'Give
them shelter' -
Religion
and local customs permeate Hong Kong, where Buddhist and Taoist
temples are common and incense offerings are regularly burned
outside local businesses.
Private
homes often have a shrine to a local deity, with Christian churches
and mosques also in the mix.
But with
space at a premium in a city were rents are sky high, informal
collections of discarded gods often decorate roadsides and public
spaces.
In a leafy
park next to a police station in the northern district of Fanling,
around 30 statues sit quietly under the branches of a banyan
tree.
Unlike Wah
Fu, this site is not cared for daily by a guardian, but still draws
visitors.
Yoyo Ng,
54, has come to leave a Guan Yin statue, one she kept for more than
30 years, saying she had to remove it from her home to make room
for new tenants.
"I didn't
want it to go...Hong Kong is just too small. I had no choice. I
keep it in the shade so it's not exposed to sunshine," says Ng, who
works at a rehabilitation centre for the disabled.
To Ng,
leaving the statue in the park means she can continue to worship it
regularly there. She said volunteers from her neighbourhood in
Fanling come several times a month to clean the figures.
Discarded
deities have disappeared from some areas over the years --
residents say they are unsure who was responsible or why they were
removed.
The
government says it has no specific policy of clearing them,
although they may be taken away if they are blocking the
footpath.
Wong says
he has no intention of abandoning the figures at Wah Fu. Looking
after the statues has given him peace of mind.
"I feel I'm
more healthy now. I have good sleep," he says.
"I will
come here until I can't walk...I don't care which religion they
belong to. I will look after all of them."