In a city as busy and noisy as Hong Kong, one may wonder if there is any place of quiet. It turns out that there is-a place of permanent peace.
The first time I passed the Hong Kong Cemetery (also known as Hong Kong Happy Valley Cemetery) was in late December, two weeks after I first arrived in Hong Kong. On a bus to Causeway Bay, I caught a fleeting glimpse of the forest of tombstones. Against the leaden sky, the granite stones, standing in the pouring rain, exuded a profound sense of melancholy.
The sight was so incongruous against its glitzy surroundings of glass and steel, that it begged for further exploration.
So, nearly two months later on a sunny February morning, I went again-this time accompanied by Joseph Ting Sun-pao, a highly-regarded historian and former director of the Hong Kong Museum of History.
For me, the tour promised endless excitement, but for Ting it was just another visit to his usual haunt. After years of research, poking around the gravestones and tirelessly transcribing the epitaphs, Ting has just put to print his latest work -A Preliminary Study-Prominent Figures in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley.
"Believe me, there is no better place to study the contemporary history of Hong Kong than at the graveyards," says Ting.
The Hong Kong Cemetery, founded in 1845, is one of its oldest Christian cemeteries, offering a full picture of the two opium wars.
One coffin-shaped gravestone has a rudder-and-anchor sculpture on it indicating clearly to whom it belongs.
In fact, the largest tombs were erected by officers and crew of the British Navy, often for fellow shipmates and soldiers who died during the war.
One example is the HMS "Cornwallis". Words inscribed on the north face of this tomb states that it is dedicated to the officers of the ship and "marine officers of the Expedition".
"'Cornwallis' was the flagship of the British Navy during the First Opium War," says Ting. "It had participated in some of the fiercest battles in the late stages of the war. And it was on this ship that The Treaty of Nanjing was signed."
However, according to Ting, most people in the British Navy and garrison forces lost their lives not to the battle, but to Hong Kong's tropical weather and the raging epidemics.
A group tomb, for those who died of fever between June and September in 1848, testifies to this. It carries 96 names but the actual number was probably much higher.
Not surprisingly, at that time doctors were held in extremely high regard-a status reflected in the size of their tombs. One of them was the colonial surgeon Aurelius Harland. The epitaph states that he was "admired for his skills and physiology".
|
