Monks win first round in fight against tourism development

Monks at the Po Lin Monastery have won a partial victory in their battle against plans to turn the area around their temple into a tourist haven.

It has been revealed that the government has scrapped a low-rise hostel planned for near the temple. The move will be gazetted today in the Ngong Ping outline zoning plan. However, the plan retains other proposals the monks are unhappy about and have described as blasphemous, including a 'tourist corridor' featuring souvenir and food stalls.

Under the original plan, a 100-room, low-rise holiday resort would have stood next to the monastery and not far from the Big Buddha, on Lantau.

Near the proposed cable car terminal to the northwest of the monastery and the Big Buddha, the department also suggested building a 6,000-square-metre tourist bazaar, about half of which would be made up of restaurants or small shops.

The Islands district planning office was not available for comment, but a spokesman for the Planning Department said that the Ngong Ping outline zoning plan would be gazetted today with 'changes'. Monastery supervisor the Reverend Sik Chi-wai hit out strongly at the government in May for disrupting the monastery's tranquility with the tourism plans. He has vowed to take his protest to Beijing if his demands are not heard, claiming the monastery was designated a temple for Buddhism by the central government.

A spokesman for Po Lin Monastery confirmed yesterday that the SAR government had promised dropping the hostel plan near the monastery, but said talks would continue on other issues.