A case study on the exploration of the intangible Buddhist cultural heritage: understanding of the Guangdong (廣東) style ritual for saving and feeding the flaming-mouth hungry ghosts

Abstract

Buddhist cultural heritages have always been rich with their countless religious rituals. Through the vicissitudes of time, these rituals, embodied with the Buddhist benevolent spirits of saving all sentient beings, have functioned as charitable social services to the community. Due to limited public understanding and relevant academic research, these Buddhist rituals have largely been overlooked and some of them are now situated in an endangered position. In correspond to The Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritages of UNESCO calling to care and concern about the survival and preservation on intangible culture heritages, we are carrying out a research on “Understanding of the Guangdong style ritual for saving and feeding the hungry ghosts (Guangdong Yujia Yankou)” in Hong Kong. This paper aims to exemplify a feasible model to preserve intangible Buddhist cultural heritages with contemporary academic research. With ethnographic studies on 1) historical development of Guangdong Yujia Yankou in Hong Kong; 2) how the development of the ritual reflects Hong Kong people understanding of death; 3) how local Buddhists continue to maintain the performance and service of Guangdong Yujia Yankou; and 4) how local funeral service sector has interacted with the development of Yujia Yankou, this research will yield substantial academic documentation, analysis and unraveled social meanings of the Guangdong Yujia Yankou ritual in order to delineate support for the recommendation to enlist the ritual as an UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. We hope that this project will yield insightful findings and act as a foundation for future exploration and preservation of other intangible Buddhist cultural heritages.