Mountains and People

This book (plus a DVD) explores the lives of Lantau's residents – both indigenous and newcomers – through words, photography, and video. It features a Chinese monk who spent half a century chanting in Mandarin at the Trappist Haven Monastery, a Double Tenth Day feast hosted by KMT villagers before the 1997 handover, an old farmer who lived a remarkably eco-conscious life long before LOHAS became a trend, and a multiracial family who were subjects of the British Empire. Discover the stories of a Fujianese monk born in 1897, the abbot of the Baxian Taoyuan Cave temple, a craftsman who once built guitars for world-class musicians, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who gathers herbs in the mountains, a British botanist, and even Sir Norman Foster, the designer of Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. These narratives, woven together, offer a multifaceted reconstruction of their lives on Lantau over more than a decade.