Religions in Hong Kong

 

                                   

Hong Kong is the home of many peoples from many different nationalities and representing many different religions. As Hong Kong is primarily a place that people come to live in and do business, over the years the different faiths have managed to establish themselves here, building places of worship and establishing organisations to help members of their religion settle into Hong Kong life.

On our Religious Trail we looked at four different places of worship used by the Hong Kong community – some of them are very old

For your assessment task you are to produce a brochure that is the length of a two sided sheet of A4 which will be a guide for someone new coming to live in Hong Kong. It will be entitled “Religion in Hong Kong: All you need to know”. In it you will have the following information: 

  1. Introduce the four different religions that you are going to focus on
  2. Where their places of worship are in Hong Kong
  3. What facilities are at their places of worship
  4. What times their places of worship are open
  5. A symbol which represents the religious diversity of Hong Kong

You will need to start with a little bit of text to introduce Hong Kong and religion….you can use the following to help you – the missing words are:-

CHINESE            DIFFERENT           CHINA              INTERNATIONAL      SOUTH EAST ASIA

Hong Kong is a city in - - - - -  - - - -  - - - -.It is known as the gateway to - - - - -, a county of growing significance in the financial world. Most people in Hong Kong are of - - - - - - - origin although it is recognised as an - - - - - - - - - - - - -  city and has people living in from all over the world. This means that Hong Kong has to cater for people from all over the world and their  - - - - - - - - -  beliefs. Throughout the last two hundred years Hong Kong has built different religious buildings to reflect all of these beliefs.

 

If you brought a camera with you on the trip you can include photos from your visits. If not, you can use the photos on the RS website. You will also want to use the notes you made on the day. This piece of work will form part of your end of year assessment mark and will form the grade that you get on your interim and final year report so it is worth doing well.

Below is some information for you on the different places we visited. There are also some useful web sites that you can visit to help you with your work.

  1. The Sikh Gurdwara, Happy Valley Hong Kong. 

The Sikhs in Hong Kong are a very small group who have been here since the nineteenth century. They came here with trade groups and some served with the British army and decided to make their home here. This is a picture of the Sikh Gurdwara:

You can find information at www.geocites.com/gurdwaraworld/gurd8.html where there are pictures of the Hong Kong temple and the history of the community.

The Jewish Synagogue, Robinson Rd, Midlevels.

 Established in 1857, the synagogue is the oldest one in Hong Kong. Check out this site for more details:

http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/Synagogue/Hong-Kong.asp

 

 

 

The Muslim Mosque, Shelley St, Central

Built in 1915, this mosque still stands on its original site.

http://home.netvigator.com/~iuhkadm/HK/Mosque.htm

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/travelneeds/faith/mk_fait_isla.jhtml

The Protestant Church, Garden Rd, Central.

cathedral.jpgThis is the main protestant cathedral of Hong Kong. It is called St Johns and is in Central. It used to be on its own in the hillside and have views over the harbour but now it is surrounded by tall buildings. It was built in 1849.

 

 Try looking at http://www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/ for some more information.

 

 

 

Even though we didn't visit here, you may like to know a bit more about it!

The Hindu Temple, Happy Valley. 

The oldest Hindu shrine in Hong Kong is the Happy Valley Temple, founded in 1952 through the efforts of S.T. Melwani to fulfil the religious needs of Hong Kong's largely Sindhi community

The central shrine contains Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi, the right shrine houses Lord Siva and Goddess Parvati and the left shrine is for Jhulelan.

The Hindu temple in Happy Valley is the centre for Hong Kong's 15,000-strong Hindu community. Among various activities at the temple, devotional music sessions and religious discourses are held every Sunday morning and Monday evening.

There is a little more information at http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1989/10/1989-10-03.shtml