Those hardy souls at the Po Lin Monastery are perfectly happy to chill out

As we rug up against the worst winter weather in years, spare a thought for the monks at the Po Lin Monastery at Ngong Ping on Lantau.

Not only have the temperatures there been the lowest in the city over the past few days - a bone-chilling 2.7 degrees yesterday morning - but the monks still must rise early to pray in their draughty robes. And the big chill is still quite a way from ending, with the Observatory predicting another seven days of cold weather.

When contacted to see how they were coping with the cold yesterday, a spokesman for Po Lin laughed heartily at the suggestion they were suffering.

We wonder whether the spokesman was perhaps not being quite true to one of the Buddha's sayings - 'Three things cannot be long hidden: the Sun, the moon, and the truth' - when he said the cold had not been an issue.

'Yes, it has been very cold up here, definitely colder than it has been in the last few years,' he said. 'But it doesn't matter to us at all. We are all much too busy for that.'