Devout City: Tin Hau Temple
Director: Lai Wing Tung (3036231370)
What does the belief of Tin Hau have brought to Hong Kong people? Does it bring mental stability to Hong Kong people in different ways?
Among all the temples, Tin Hau Temple had the largest number in Hong Kong, this had demonstrated the importance of this belief for the people of Hong Kong. Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple is the largest Tin Hau Temple in Kowloon. It is located near Chung Fong Street in Yau Ma Tei Temple Street and is currently managed by the Chinese Temples Committee commissioned by the Tung Wah Institute. It is listed as a Grade 1 historical building by the Antiquities and Monuments Office. The Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple is centered around the main hall of the Tin Hau Temple, with each building worships different deities.
To study related topics, I went to the largest Tin Hau Temple in Kowloon, Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple to do some on-the-spot investigation.
When I got to the spot, the first thing that caught my eye was a huge lantern sign, which is now celebrating the birthday of Tin Hau. Once a year, mostly held from the 20th to the 24th day of the third lunar month, depending on each location. With some research, in 2018, the Tung Wah Hospitals organized the largest Tin Hau Festival in Kowloon – the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Festival – to inherit local traditional culture, pray for disaster relief for the public, and wish Hong Kong prosperity and stability.
I had done some interviews with the believers at the site to collect more first-hand sources for the research. Some of them said that this is a long custom, it is a tradition, and by doing this they believed that Tin Hau will protect them and make them a great and safe life. But apart from this,some of the answers are beyond my expectation. Some of them said, there is actually no real stance that they succeed and stay safe because of their beliefs, that is more of a spiritual sustenance, but it is significant that with their belief, they have a more stable inner self and are firm in their choices, which is the meaning of faith. We could know that actually there is a different angle for the people who come to the temple to look at the faith.
The temple carried the beliefs of many people, they pray, they trust in this world, with their beliefs to their goddess. Walking into the temple in person, one can see the solemn statue at a glance. Inside, incense is brightly lit, and there are many citizens who come here specifically. They have their hands together and sincerely pray, perhaps for safety, happiness, wealth, or for themselves, family, and friends. In addition, there are also people who are drawing fortune sticks in front of the gods, their actions become faster and faster, as if their hearts are becoming increasingly eager to obtain answers. Perhaps they want the gods to use this as a way to guide them, or perhaps they want to strengthen their own choices. This is one of the ways people thought about how Tin Hau supported them.
In the temple, by reading the notices and paper that are being stuck on the wall of the temples, I could also know more about the activities that they usually carry out for religious work. For example, there is an activity called ‘Tin Hau Temple Dragon Boat Well-wishing Gold Foil’. It is one of the activities that people do to pray for study, work, business and luck.
In my recording experience, I had faced some difficulties. All of the religious places, just like this temple is a really sacred place, there are many taboos involving taking photos and recording. With this sense, I am really having some scruples when I am doing the recording work, including recording the statue of the goddess. On the other hand, I had tried to do an interview with the working personnel. However, they are not allowed to do unauthorized interviews, so I can only do the interview with the visitors and the locals.
In the video, I had included the way going to the temple, what the temple had and included some scenes of people coming to the temple and doing different religious activities, like lighting license and drawing fortune sticks. Including these scenes, can give the audience a brief knowings of how the Tin Hau Temple looks like, the whole feeling of the atmosphere there, and the devotion of the people doing different activities there, and it might help the audience to know about how the activities are more intuitive.
Scientifically, do the activities really help directly with them? No one knows. However, the trust among people makes the goddess help, when people have enough trust on their goddess and themselves.
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