Funeral niche owners at a Tuen Mun monastery have been told that their ancestors' ashes might not have to be moved - even though the government has ordered the niche structures demolished and the operators have failed in a court challenge against the order.
Most of the 4,900 niches at the Gig Lok Monastery - about 1,400 of them occupied - are in structures erected on government land, and the Lands Department ordered earlier this year that they be demolished by October 10. An application for a judicial review was rejected by the Court of First Instance on Thursday.
Dozens of niche owners went to the monastery yesterday and asked staff what would happen when the structures were demolished.
They were told their niches would not be demolished and if they were, the urns could be moved to nearby Ching Leung Nunnery, although the department does not have it listed as a legal columbarium. The monastery is listed as an illegal columbarium.
'They said ours wouldn't be demolished,' one owner, Lee Lap-shui, said. 'And even if the urns had to be moved, they would be moved to a building nearby in a few years.'
Lee's friend, So Mui-ying, who went to the monastery with him, said she had bought a niche in an underground hall for her parents three years ago for HK$40,000.
'Where can I place the ashes?' she asked. 'When my mum died three years ago, I brought my dad's ashes from Fujian so they could be in the same niche.'