There are fine golden lines of stitches on a Buddhist monk's robe that have to be removed one by one every time a monk breaks the rules. So what one says while wearing a robe entails heavy responsibility and consequences, monk Sik Hin Fun says.
What he says as the so-called guardian of a 70-year-old Tsuen Wan temple is likely to have an especially big impact on his life, as he faces a possible legal battle with a Buddhist monastery over ownership of the temple where a suspected illegal columbarium has been built.
Last Saturday, representatives of the Sai Chuk Lam monastery in Tsuen Wan issued an eviction note to him at the Kai Yuen temple.
The monastery, a prominent Buddhist institution in the city that claims ownership of Kai Yuen, said Kong Wing-hon, alias Hin Fung and the Reverend Kwo Lam, has illegally occupied the site at Ha Fa Shan near Route Twisk for years.
The site has a two-storey temple, a single-storey ancillary house and more than 10,000 sq ft of agricultural land.
Last year, the ancillary house was found to have been converted into a columbarium, with at least 300 niches priced from HK$10,000 up to HK$150,000 each. At least five of them have been sold, although urns have yet to be placed in the niches.