Changes

The Old Order

Tahiti's Chinese Neglect Their Temple

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Aug. 20.

OFTEN, after dark, when the daylight noises have ceased, residents of the far eastern district of Papeete hear, through the silence of the night, the sound of a deep-toned bell partly muffled as though struck by a wooden mallet.

The solemn distant tones issue from a low building, situated in extensive grounds, shadowy with great trees and coconut groves. It is the temple of the Chinese of Tahiti.

The temple is built about a square open to the sky. In a deep, dark recess at the south side is a gilded altar on which (screened by hangings of old rose elaborately embroidered with silver and gold, and surrounded by vases, and censers, and a multitude of un-nameable objects) stands an image of Buddha.

In the foreground are braziers on which are burned prayers written in ideographs on strips of scarlet paper and incense to carry the petitions on fragrant smoke to the presence of the deity.

There was a time when this place was the centre of Chinese life in French Oceania. It was frequented not only at periods of ceremony, but on occasions of celebrations and feasting. Nearby are great ovens where cooks and bakers were accustomed to labour all night, with much clamour and chattering, preparing the banquet of the morrow.

When the Manchu dynasty fell, politics of their home country divided the Chinese of Tahiti into hostile factions.

Club houses were erected in the crowded sections of Papeete, and steadily the temple went into neglect and decay until the hangings became tarnished, and the building itself began to disintegrate.

Then, for a while, there seemed to be a revival of the old worship. The build ing was repaired and painted. Salvos of fire crackers and the tones of the temple bell proclaimed that the rites were be ing celebrated. Gradually, however, these sounds abated and the intervals length ened until again there is silence; save only in the watches of the night when the venerable hierophant beats the ritual numbers on the temple bell and bows alone, or with the few ancients who in habit the temple grounds, before the abandoned altar.