Then & Now | When Hong Kong hills were alive with ... the solace of hermits
Indigenous Hongkongers and Europeans alike once craved the solitude of remote hillsides in Lantau, Sha Tin and Castle Peak for both religious and personal reasons, writes Jason Wordie
For a culture that historically has emphasised the importance of family and community, the widespread acceptance – and occasional celebration – of hermits and recluses in China is remarkable.
Many Taoist practitioners became recluses and, allegedly, cultivated magic powers in the process. Early varieties of Buddhism, formed as the religion migrated to China from India from the third century BC onwards, emphasised seclusion from the world and renunciation of materialist values. Periodically taken to extremes by various sects, in particular during the Tang and Song dynasties, these values generated official disapproval of Buddhists, and their occasional persecution as socially undesirable influences followed.
In much the same way, 1,000 years later, Christians (followers of another imported belief system) became officially viewed as agents of foreign imperialism, and pests in other people’s lives.
Chinese hermits gravitated towards secluded places where they could enjoy their lives undisturbed. From the 19th century onwards, Lantau’s isolated mountainsides became home to numerous recluses.
Other relatively inaccessible parts of the New Territories – such as pre-war Sha Tin and Castle Peak – attracted hermits, too. Not all were Chinese; more than a few Europeans chose to live in remote, beautiful places where they could enjoy the solace and pleasure of life away from urban Hong Kong’s manifold distractions.
Hermits fall into two broad categories. The general stereotype – particularly prevalent in the contemporary West – maintains that recluses are invariably cranky, world-hating misanthropes. And there are certainly plenty of those.