In Hong Kong, the legislation to protect Declared Monuments is the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance (Chapter 53), which was enacted in 1976 for the protection of Hong Kong’s heritages. While the Ordinance protects the Declared Monuments, it also prohibits any work being carried out on the Monuments except under permit granted by the Antiquities Authority (a role held by the Secretary for Development). This causes a lot of extra time and effort in carrying out repair and maintenance work on these Monuments. 　　 Besides Declared Monuments, Hong Kong also has an inventory of Graded Historic Buildings, in which such buildings are given Grade I, II and III status with the first grade being of “outstanding merit,” the second of “special merit” and third grade of “some merits.” However, these Graded Historic Buildings have no legal protection, and there is no restriction in the way work is carried out. Under this situation, owners or users of Graded Historic Buildings can carry out their own repair and maintenance work without due consideration of the buildings’ heritage significance. Such heritage insensitive work is most problematic for traditional Chinese heritage buildings mostly found in villages of the New Territories, such as ancestral halls, temples, study halls, village houses and pagodas. Many villagers do not have enough knowledge in repairing and maintaining their heritage buildings, and they employ unsuitable contractors and workers, who carry out the repair and maintenance like the renovation of a modern building. Another problem is that the villagers may not realize the important features of their historic buildings and just replace any damaged or worn parts with new one using modern materials and techniques. They do not have in-depth consideration for the heritage values of the buildings. They think that they can minimize future repair and maintenance problem by shortcuts. For example, paint is applied to fair-face green-brick walls, cement sand mortar is used to repair brick joints. Such works affect the appearance of the historic buildings as well as accelerate the deterioration of the historic building fabric. As explained above, the repair and maintenance of a traditional Chinese heritage building can only be properly done when there is good understanding of the traditional materials and techniques involved. The scope of this dissertation is to contribute to this understanding by documenting the detailed restoration work of a traditional Chinese heritage building type in Hong Kong. The ancestral hall is chosen because it is arguably the most important village building type. The dissertation will focus on a case example – the Tang Ancestral Hall at Ha Tsuen, a Declared Monument. This case is chosen because the author, as a technical staff of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, has been personally involved in the restoration work as well as repair and maintenance work carried out on this building from 2008 to 2014. It would be too large a topic if every detail of the restoration work is documented, and this would exceed the limits of this dissertation. A more feasible scope is to focus on a part of the restoration process to provide a starting point for future researchers to complete the documentation on other parts of the restoration. The restoration of the roof is chosen, because for a traditional building with tile-roof, brick walls and timber structures, the roof is arguably the most important component of the work process. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Liu Dan. / Thesis submitted in: December 2000. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-171). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / List of illustrations --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction: Research Issues and Literature Review --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Questions Raised and Their Significance --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Review of the Study on Ancestral Hall --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Goal and Research Method --- p.14 / Chapter 1.4 --- Content of the Thesis --- p.21 / Chapter 1.5 --- Research Discoveries and References Concerned with Liukeng --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Liukeng Village and Its Ancestral Halls --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1 --- A Brief Introduction of Liukeng Village --- p.26 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Ancestral Halls in Liukeng Village in Different Historic Periods --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Construction of Ancestral Halls in the Context of Social Development in Various Historical Periods --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter3 --- Architectural Character of Ancestral Hall and Its Cause --- p.59 / Chapter 3.1 --- Architectural Form of Ancestral Halls --- p.59 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Reason for the Variety of Architectural Forms --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Zhuanci (Personal Sacrificial Hall) --- p.95 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Tradition of Building Zhuanci --- p.95 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Function of Zhuanxi and Its Association with Residential Buildings 一 Integrated Architectural Complexes --- p.104 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Changes of the Function of the Complex --- p.112 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Ancestral Hall and Sublineage Living Units --- p.118 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- The Functional Shift of Ancestral Hall 226}0ؤ Ancestral Halls Used as Dwellings --- p.126 / Chapter 6.1 --- Rooms in Ancestral Hall --- p.126 / Chapter 6.2 --- "The Phenomenon ""Ancestral Halls Used as Dwellings"" from mid-Qing to the Republican Period" --- p.132 / Chapter 6.3 --- A Survey of the Residential Functions of Ancestral Hall --- p.137 / Chapter 6.4 --- The Behavioral Setting of Ancestral Hall --- p.145 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.151 / Appendix --- p.156 / Bibliography --- p.162

Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The training to become a traditional healer has been under scrutiny because of the symptoms that are experienced during ancestral calling. Ancestral calling usually presents itself in the form of a mysterious physical or psychological illness that will not ordinarily respond to western treatment. The Eurocentric perspective interprets the symptoms of ancestral calling and the resultant process to become a traditional health practitioner as a manifestation of some psychological disturbance. The researcher embarked on a journey with traditional health practitioners to understand their lived experiences and explored the psychological meanings of Vhavenda ancestral calling with a view to identifying and documenting the psychological meanings embedded in this culturally entrenched practice. A qualitative research method located within the interpretative paradigm was used. A descriptive phenomenological research design was adopted to explore the lived experiences of traditional health practitioners who have gone through the process of ancestral calling. Both snowball and purposive sampling methods were used to recruit 17 participants until saturation was researched in the findings. The six major themes that emerged are: a) signs of ancestral calling; b) meaning attached to ancestral calling; c) help-seeking pathway following an ancestral call; d) responding to the ancestral call; e) roles of the master healer; and f) post training realities and experiences. The findings of the study revealed that there are several symptoms that are indicative that one has an ancestral calling. These symptoms are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed when interpreted from the Eurocentric perspective. However, accepting the ancestral calling and going through training is linked with identity formation. The findings also revealed that ancestral calling is a life-transforming and therapeutic experience and a journey of self realisation / South African Humanities Deans’ Association and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences