Tung Lin Kok Yuen

The suffering that Lady Clara experienced in her life has made her devotion to Buddhism stronger as she held on to her faith while going through the tough times. The early death of her eldest son, serious illness contracted by her immediate family, such as Sir Robert Ho Tung contracting a serious case of pneumonia, her parent's death and her throat condition had energised her faith greatly.[5] She sought relief of suffering by continually reciting the name of Buddha and found herself in a state of peace, comprehending the realities of human suffering.[5]

Lady Clara made the Bodhisattva vow – that she would commit her life to help alleviate the sufferings of all sentient beings at Putuo Shan, when she was there with her eldest daughter, who had then just recovered from post natal depression.[5] Her husband supported her fully in her decision. After returning to Hong Kong, Lady Clara contacted followers to promote Dharma activities in the colony. Some of these activities include a seven-day retreat in 1922, where she invited many reputable and prominent monks to Hong Kong to spread teachings of Dharma and a series of talk on Mahayana Buddhism, lasting three months in 1925, addressing the misconceptions and misrepresentation of the Buddhist teachings in the colony.[6] All the events attracted many believers and the response was positive. Lady Clara travelled widely to visit esteemed monasteries to pursue her journey to truth. She visited in total twenty one famous mountains and other famous monasteries such as Mount Wutai and Mount Lao.[4]

Lady Clara herself did not have much education and she did not want the future generation to follow her footsteps. She believed that education for women is essential for advancement of social stability.[7] She founded the Po Kok First Free school in Hong Kong in 1930 and soon after Po Kok Second Free school was started in Macau too.[5] The primary purpose of these schools was to provide practical education to women in the society so as to promote greater independence. Lady Clara Lin-Kok wholly dedicated the latter part of her life to promoting Buddhist education at Tung Lin Kok Yuen. She worked diligently until the day of her death in 1938. To continue her mission in posterity she nominated successors to posts in Tung Lin Kok Yuen's board of directors in her will.[4]

Tung Lin Kok Yuen contains a dharma hall, lecture theatre, library, sutra hall, dining hall, ancestral hall and dormitories. One main feature of Tung Lin Kok Yuen is the amazing and valuable collection of calligraphy and Chinese-style couplets written by renowned personages.[9]

Italian stained glass window in Tung Lin Kok Yuen.

The fittings inside the building were mostly carried out by Shanghainese craftsmen who also worked on Sir Robert Hotung's house on the Peak.[8] Within the Yuen there are two halls which are devoted to the maintenance of memorial tablets for the dead.[5] One of these is part of the original building and the other was made later as an extension in 1959.[5]

The construction style of Tung Lin Kok Yuen is a fusion between the traditional oriental elegance and classical western construction elements. The imported Italian stained windows resemble those typically used in churches.[10] Conventional architectural features of imperial palaces such as curved ceramic tiled roofs are prominent and the mixture of different styles give Tung Lin Kok Yuen its own unique characteristics. The appearance of the entire temple is shaped like a boat, which matches with the symbolism that Buddha will guide the people in the sea of suffering to the way of light.[10]

Historical buildings, site and ancient structures in Hong Kong may be legally protected under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance. The procedure for declaring a building or site to be protected is fully contained in the legislation. In brief, the Antiquities Authority may, after consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, with the approval of the Chief Executive and publication of notice in the government gazette to declare protection of a place. In practice, the Chief Executive will also consult the Executive Council in controversial case.[11]

Tung Lin Kok Yuen has been classified as a Grade I Historical building in Hong Kong. According to the guidelines issued by Antiquities Advisory Board and the Antiquities and Monuments Office, Grade I is defined as "Buildings of outstanding merit, which every effort should be made to preserve if possible."[11]

When a building is selected to be classified, extensive repairs and restoration work would be conducted if needed by the government in order to preserve the historical heritage.[11] Tung Lin Kok Yuen, although only 70 odd years old, suffers from groundwater infiltration, which degenerates the teak floor layer. The conservation work performed in the temple include recovering of concrete foundation and teak flooring; insertion of plastic between ground and concrete foundation; and adding of underground drainage system.[5] All these work aim to facilitate the discharge of underground water and prevent infiltration.

The Tung Lin Kok Yuen, Canada Society headquarters is on Victoria Drive, not far from downtown Vancouver.[4] Vancouver was chosen as an ideal location for the first international branch of Tung Lin Kok Yuen because of the large number of immigrants, many of Chinese ethnicity there.[4] Tung Lin Kok Yuen, Canada Society was therefore founded to meet the religious needs of the population as well as to provide an accessible venue for Buddhists and general public to come together and share the value of Buddhism.[16] Indeed, the establishment of the Canada society coincided with a period of marked increase in the number of Buddhists residing in Vancouver – official figures recording a rise of 84% in the ten-year period spanning 1991 to 2001.[4]

The temple is a contemporary building of over twenty thousand square feet and consists of two main sections.[4] One houses a Worship Hall, Longevity Hall (Hall of the Medicine Buddha), Meditation Hall, Memorial Hall, library, offices, living quarters, vegetarian kitchen and a Multi-Purpose Hall[4] which can be used for conferences, exhibitions, cultural performances, lectures and seminars. This section also houses a retail shop selling Buddhist artefacts. Another section houses an ancestral hall, a function hall, small meditation rooms as well as a garden.[16]

In 2004, the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Foundation was established. The aim of the establishment is to promote Buddhist education to the tertiary education sector in Canada and since 2005, several Canadian universities have been sponsored by the foundation for their Buddhist programs.[17]

Robert Hung-Ngai Ho established the foundation aiming to form a "global network" of Buddhist studies scholars and institutions, making maximum use of modern communication technologies.[17] His goal is to establish Centres of Buddhist Studies at major universities in the globe which can share and exchange information according to each speciality in the school.[17] Such centres have already been established in Hong Kong and Canada, and there has been plans to expand such network to universities in the U.S. and Europe.[17]