Villagers Fight ‘Bad Luck’ Temple Omen

The story of the “bad luck” temple mixes superstition, the profit motive, organized crime and other normal elements of life in Hong Kong.

Residents of Pat Heung, a Hong Kong community 10 miles from the Chinese border, sensed bad luck immediately when they heard of a company’s plan to build a temple in their village to store the ashes of 35,000 people.

Half of the village’s 1,000 residents turned out for demonstrations. They unfurled banners on nearby roads accusing the government and the Treasure Base Development Co. of “wishing the villagers death.”

They even got 80-year-old women to help block access to the construction site.

Drastic, perhaps, but not for tradition-bound villagers who believe in feng shui.

Since the project began in December, 1990, their main objection has rested on feng shui, the Chinese principle of divination. Feng shui says the locations of objects such as houses, chairs or tombs can have great impact on the fortunes of a family, a village or a city.

Architect I. M. Pei’s Bank of China building in downtown Hong Kong is an example. The experts say the design is bad feng shui because its dagger-like edges cut like a knife through the heart of the territory.

In the case of the three-story, $6.4-million temple planned for Pat Heung, the reading goes like this: So much death above ground is bad luck and a potential magnet for ghosts and other troubles.

“There will be danger and deaths, and people will lose a lot of money,” said To Yat-po, a 56-year-old village spokesman and property developer who drives an aquamarine Mercedes. “The feng shui expert said the temple was like a tiger ready to eat us.”

Villagers claim the bad luck already has begun. To said that six people had died in the last few months and that most of the villagers “can’t resume their normal lives because their hearts are upset.”

Police said they could not confirm the deaths.

To block construction, residents built a temporary sacrificial altar in front of the site and defended the flimsy bamboo structure. Eighty-year-old women armed with sun hats, rattan chairs and paper fans led the defense.

Treasure Base halted work in June, leaving the temple half finished.

Then the company tried force, said Paul Barkley, deputy police commander for the district.

Fifty-nine men with ax handles arrived at the site June 10. They supposedly were construction workers, but many turned out to be Triad members, Barkley said. All were arrested for disturbing the peace; their cases are pending.

Triads are powerful associations with close ties to business, government and organized crime. Many have branches in American cities with large Chinese populations and are involved in racketeering, drug smuggling, and gambling.

Anthony Cheung, a spokesman for Treasure Base, acknowledged some of the 59 may have had Triad links, but he also insisted the villagers’ concern with feng shui is a sham.

Cheung said residents of Pat Heung were less concerned about ghosts than the decline of property values the “bad luck” temple was expected to create.

To’s response: “Even if the developers give us all the money in the world, we still don’t want the temple. Money can’t erase the bad luck.”

The government invalidated the permit for the temporary altar Aug. 7, but To said the villagers will continue the fight. “Otherwise, our children and grandchildren won’t be at peace,” he said.