When two unrelated entities meet, apparently through destiny, it's called yuen fan. It could well describe how performing arts group Zuni Icosahedron and the Hong Kong Buddhist Association got together for a spectacular interpretation of a sacred sutra.
Hua-yen Sutra is a multimedia stage performance that opened last night using installations, special lighting, moving images, music and dance to explore the teachings of one of the most highly valued Buddhist scripts.
Directed and designed by Zuni's creative director, Mathias Woo Yan-wai, the performance is based on the original Hua-yen Sutra text by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. Buddhist monks Hin Hung and Tsang Chit acted as advisers.
'The coming together of Zuni and the Hong Kong Buddhist Association is a beautiful coincidence,' says Hin Hung, the founding fellow of the Centre of Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He also wrote the script for the show. 'Zuni is regarded as a progressive organisation, whereas Buddhists are usually viewed as conservatives,' he says. 'Buddhists believe in pre-ordained fate.'
Hin Hung learnt of Woo's plan to stage a piece based on the Hua-yen Sutra and they arranged to meet. He had seen none of Zuni's works, but after watching several performances he says he realised that a collaboration was viable. The project took nine months to complete.
Hua-yen Sutra, regarded as the king of sutras, is said to be notes from the first teachings of the Gautama Buddha after his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Comprising more than half a million verses, it tells how to become a Buddha. It was translated into Chinese after being brought to China from India during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420).