1. From David Johns, retired
professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
I almost
forgot to mention Ron and Veronica Clibborn-Dyer who lived in a temple in the
New Territories. (Veronica sold her tea set to you if I remember correctly.) On
one of their hikes in the NT they came across a temple with a notice posted on
the gate requesting interested parties to apply to live and restore the temple.
Ron who was fluent in Cantonese contacted the number and discovered a Chinese
expat living in the UK who came back to assist in trying to get someone to live
in the temple. There were ancestral bones in large earthenware jars stored for
the return of loved ones to pay tribute each year so there weren’t too many
takers to live nearby. Anyhow, Ron and Veronica expressed an interest and to
this man’s surprise took on the job.
The temple had been deserted for years and there was an enormous amount of work to be done to make it habitable. Over the years they did quite a lot of cleaning up but it was in no way a place where you or I would want to call home. They expanded their independent living by keeping goats, chicken and anything that would produce something useful for their consumption. When we visited we were in awe of their Spartan lifestyle but they seem to enjoy being away from the madding crowds of HK.
What was most fascinating being their stories of intruders interested in their livestock. In particular, the appearance of some very large pythons who would regularly devour the odd chicken or on one occasion a goat! Literally opened up its throat and swallowed a goat. According to Veronica she caught the snake in the process of devouring the goat and retrieved the goat before it managed to get the horns past the point of no return. Not sure what the reptile thought of that but she assured us that the python was not aggressive but they always knew when a python had paid a visit as the hens went very quiet presumably mourning the loss of a friend or relative. Once discovered hiding in the chicken shed Ron and Veronica and their helper would bag the snake and record the markings under its chin and return it to the surrounding bush. We imagined that they gave names to the pythons all beginning with the letter “P" and accepted that the word got around among Peter, Penelope and Philippa that they could always rely on a good meal at the temple.
2. From Ian Wilson, retired professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
I read the message by David Johns on the nunnery and Ron and Veronica. We were friends almost from when we arrived at CUHK in 1990. We left in the Summer of 2002 when Ron was in the last stages of his cancer. I was one of the volunteers clearing the grounds and making the roof almost leak tight (Veronica never unpacked her boxes). Ron was an expert in the local Gods and the history of the local villages, looked after the bone shed and restored the waterways round the nunnery. We spent many a happy evening sitting in a pool he made by damming the stream sipping beer or on their balcony with wonderful views of the villages below, Tolo Harbour, the border hills, and Egret Island. We were there when the annual ant flight took place and I asked why he had not closed the windows, he told me that was because they were coming out from the inside. As a retired policeman he could not kill the protected pythons that fed on his stock, he took them away as far as he could and released them. We always thought there were python signposts guiding them back. Ron was also a keen gardener and was very proud of his lovely flowering ginger plants, bougainvillea, roses, etc.
It is great that he is remembered, a wonderful man.
3. From the South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/article/3
Very
interesting article from 2000.
4. From the Royal
Asiatic Society of Hong Kong
Royal
Asiatic Society Hong Kong 2018. Recent
Activities Visit to the Wan Jing Jai Temple (蘊貞齋) &
Garden of Veronica Clibborn-Dyer Written by Helen Tinsley
On this cool and cloudy Saturday, Hong Kong’s urban areas, including nearby Fanling MTR station, were full of hustle and bustle in preparation for the coming New Year Festival holiday period leading up to the Chinese New Year of the Dog. However, about 30 RAS members and guests chose to take this special chance to accept Veronica Clibborn-Dyer’s generous invitation and visit her beautiful temple based home and extensive gardens. These are situated in a quiet and peaceful New Territories setting, overlooking Starling Inlet (沙頭角海) and the start of the Wilson Trail, in the north east corner of Hong Kong not far from the border with mainland PRC. For most of us this was a first visit.
Veronica
Clibborn-DyerAfter some interesting car and taxi rides followed by a short walk along a path to reach our secluded destination, Veronica welcomed us warmly, with steaming mulled wine and open wood fire braziers in the courtyard. She then introduced us to the temple buildings (Kwun Yam (觀音) and Shing Wong (城隍) their gods and altars, and surrounding terraced gardens --with their history, along with the fascinating story of how she and husband, former policeman Ron, came to live there after 1996, initially with a menagerie of animals and birds. For years in the past the place had been used as a refuge- with very basic facilities- for retired amahs, once their working lives were over. Some of the Chinese character signage reflects this role. Wan Jing Jai ( 蘊貞齋 ) here ‘Wan’ means to gather/store/collect/accumulate/save/amass, ‘Jing’ means chastity, and ‘Jai’ means temple/ hall/ vegetarianism/ Buddhism. So putting them together, it literally means Gathered Chastity Temple.
After Ron passed away a few years ago, Veronica chose to stay on as custodian and continues to enhance this beautiful setting with help from her local gardener—truly a place of wonderful peace and tranquility. With some vivid story-telling and videos Veronica guided us around the buildings, before we enjoyed an informal but magnificent and delicious buffet curry lunch, catered by Shaffi’s of Yuen Long.
5. Postscript
Ron Clibborn-Dyer retired as a senior superintendent of police and passed away in 2009.
And my link to all this? The Clibborn-Dyer’s donated a lovely Noritake tea set to the Chinese University Women’s Organization’s annual auction, and I bought it. When I retired from Hong Kong, the tea set first traveled to Sri Lanka and then to my son’s home in the USA.
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