There are three Jiao meetings in Shatin Township. The Tai Ping Qing Jiao in Kau Yew just ended at the end of last year. The Jiao meeting will be held in Tin Sam Wai (also known as Tin Sam Village) at the end of this year. The next meeting will be held in Tai Wai (also known as Chik Tsun Wai). Other villages in Kau Yew have stopped holding Jiao meetings for a long time due to lack of resources. They only participate in the joint Jiao meeting in Kau Yew. Tin Sam Wai and Tai Wai have the manpower and material resources to hold Tai Ping Qing Jiao meetings every ten years.
Tai Wai, Tin Sum Wai, Siu Lok Yuen Village, Getin Village and Keng Kou Village are the oldest villages in Shatin. Tin Sum Wai, which was built during the Wanli period, was named after its location in the center of farmland. As there is no written record, the exact year is unknown. It is said that its shape was originally like a lotus, surrounded by a lotus pond, so it was named "lotus leaf pearl". In the 1970s, Shatin developed a new town, and the implementation of the Small House Policy gradually disappeared the traditional rural features. The lotus pond in Tin Sum Wai was also filled in. Today, only a gate remains, reminding people of the location of the early walled village.
The gate of the village faces Wangfu Mountain and is said to be directly opposite the dragon vein. There is a wall inside the gate, so outsiders cannot see what is going on in the village. The eight trigrams are painted in the center of the wall, and there is a land god altar on the left. There is no central lane in the village, and there is no shrine or temple built at the end of the village, which is different from other traditional walled villages. It is possible that there are no important gods in the village, so a feng shui wall is added to the gate of the village to prevent evil spirits from invading, which actually helps prevent theft.
Tin Sam Wai is a village with a variety of surnames, including Cai, Wei, Liang, Zeng, Yuan, He, Fang, Li, etc., as well as the Liao family, a Hakka who migrated here in the late Qing Dynasty. There is only one ancestral hall for local residents in the village, named "Zongguang Family Hall", which belongs to the Cai family. The ancestors of the Cai family came from Xiaoluyuan, and their ancestral hall is located in the village.
Editor: Ta Kung Pao