The Hong Kong Cultural Center in Victoria Bay was packed on Thursday night, and loud applause periodically echoed through the neon lit sky. It was not rock music nor was it pop -- it was traditional Chinese Buddhist music that made an instant hit in the modern metropolis.

Hong Kong is the fourth leg of the Buddhist music performance tour by a troupe consisting of more than 130 monks from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. And this is also the first time monks from across the Taiwan Strait had jointly set up a troupe to perform on global stages.

Crowds of Hong Kong residents were lining up at the local port waiting to welcome members of the troupe who were sailing in from Macao, where they had just ended another successful performance on Wednesday night.

The monks returned the enthusiasm of the residents with a powerful performance. Almost without sleep, the monks drove to the concert hall preparing the stage and doing the rehearsals.

Buddhist music, which originated from ancient India, found its way into China some 2,000 years ago, and after absorbing elements of traditional Chinese folk music, court music and other religious music, a unique form which is now call Chinese Buddhist music came into being.

The monks of the troupe come from prestigious Buddhist temples including Fo Guang Shan Temple in Taiwan, Shaolin Temple in central Henan Province, Labrang Temple in northwestern Gansu Province, and General Temple in southwestern Yunnan Province, representing the three branches of Buddhism in China, namely Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Pali Buddhism.

The wind sweeping across the Victoria Bay was cool, but the atmosphere in the concert hall was hot. The audience was mesmerized by the great variety of genres of Chinese Buddhist music.

"It's great to see so many genres of Chinese Buddhist music performed on the same stage," said a female bank employee surnamed Chang, "It's so fascinating," she said.

Calling it a happy event in Hong Kong, the Venerable Kwok Kuang, president of the Hongkong Buddhist Association, said that the concert served as a prelude to the display, in Hong Kong on May 26,of a relic from Famen Temple preserved in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

He said that Buddhism and Buddhist music in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong had the same roots, and through the performance by monks from across the Taiwan Strait, the traditional religious art would be further developed and bring more happiness to the Chinese.

Co-sponsored by the Chinese Buddhism Association of China and Fo Guang Shan Temple in Taiwan, the troupe was formed in February this year and has since staged four successful performances in Taiwan and Macao, and will move on to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the U.S. and Vancouver of Canada from Friday.

Hailing the joint performance as a major event in the history of Buddhism, Hsin Ting, deputy chief of the troupe and abbot of Fo Guang Shan, said that both the monks and the support staff had been working together very harmoniously ever since the formation of the troupe, indicating their inherited strong ties.

"I hope the troupe's tour to North America will help the world community better understand Chinese traditional culture, especially the harmonious relationships among the people across the Taiwan Strait," he said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2004)