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SCMP Reporter

A private columbarium in a Sha Tin temple began selling thousands of funeral urn niches yesterday despite a warning from land officials that it may have breached its land lease.
Operators of the Taoist To Fuk Shan Tze near Sheung Wo Che  village said they had legal advice that the columbarium was within the law and there was nothing unusual about having urn niches in a temple.
But the Lands Department said it had written to the owner, To Fuk Shan Ltd, warning that 'operating a columbarium at the site is a breach of the land lease and it might attract law enforcement actions'.
The sales come as the government ponders how to regulate the urn industry, which is booming in response to a serious shortage of public niches.
The hillside temple, converted from a group of  post-war three-storey buildings, is offering niches for HK$28,000 to more than HK$200,000 at sites with  views over the Sha Tin town centre.
The opening was marked with Taoist  rituals and lion dances watched by dozens of funeral agents and local political figures. They were led on a tour of the buildings where more than a hundred Buddhist and Taoist statues are placed. 
The government took no  action yesterday but a group of Sha Tin land officers inspected the site. They plan to block two cement-paved staircases leading to the main entrance tomorrow because they are on government land.
The department last year warned several other private columbariums in Sha Tin and  Fo Tan over land-lease violations.
A Sha Tin funeral agent confirmed that niches at the temple went on sale yesterday, though there were still thousands of vacant niches at  private columbariums in the area, including the Sai Lam Temple downhill from To Fuk Shan Tze. 
A temple spokesman, who did not want to be identified, said the niches occupied only part of the religious facility catering for Taoist followers. 
'This is a Taoist temple and there is nothing unusual about having urn niches, just like the Po Lin Monastery,' he said.
The spokesman said the owners would like to find a way to have their operation officially recognised, such as through a voluntary registration scheme proposed by the government but the scheme had yet to come into existence.
He said their legal advice suggested that there was no problem in operating a columbarium on the land previously occupied with houses and governed by a lease dating back to the 1930s. 
'You might have doubts that it is legal. But definitely we believe it is not illegal,' he said. 'We have also spent lots of efforts to improve the design of our facility like the installation of an environmentally friendly incense-burning chamber.' 
In order to win the confidence of would-be buyers, he said all sale contracts would have a clause allowing a full refund if the operators were to lose any lawsuit involving the government over the legality of the columbarium.
Sheung Wo Che village head Nam Chi-cheung, who yesterday blocked a car-park entrance in protest against the operation of the columbarium, said the facility was built next to unstable slopes and might pose a threat to the public. He said  some slope maintenance orders had not been complied with so far.
A place in the temple
With some urn niches costing more than HK$200,000, the columbarium's opening offers start at, in HK dollars: $28,000



Columbarium sells urn niches despite lease breach warnings