History and Development
The Coffin Home was originally established in 1875 by the Man Mo Temple in Kennedy Town near a slaughter house. In 1899, it was rebuilt in its current location under the new management of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, thus giving its present name, Tung Wah Coffin Home. The Coffin Home is a temporary coffin and urn depository awaiting transference to the birthplaces of the deceased. The coffins mainly belong to overseas Chinese who are transferred and buried in their home villages in China.
The Tung Wah Coffin Home has always been changing and developing since its relocation in Sandy Bay. The Coffin Home experienced its first reconstruction period in 1913, which built a designated storage place for cremated ashes. Later in 1926, the government allotted approximately 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) of land for the expansion of Tung Wah Coffin Home. Bing Yan Hall (丙寅莊), a 3-story building, was then built within this space.
Due to Japan's invasion of Hong Kong during World War II, coffins were unable to transport back to China and remained in the Coffin Home. The board of Tung Wah Hospital group thus initiated a plan to build more room clusters in order to meet the high demand of coffin space. Later in 1947, the board proposed a change in the use of room clusters in order to cope with the increasing demand. The Tung Wah group carried out several constructions in the years 1948, 1951, and 1957 in order to solve problems dealing with the lack of storage space for bodies after exhumation. In 1960, there were a total 670 coffins, 8060 exhumed bodies and 116 cremains (cremation) stored at the Tung Wah Coffin Home.
The Sandy Bay Sanatorium under the Tung Wah Group was soon in need of expansion. Thus in 1961, the board of Tung Wah group decided to incorporate the Bing Yan Hall into the Sanatorium. At the same time, Yut Yuet Hall (日月莊) was built to replace Bing Yan Hall in order to store coffins. In the following years, the social climate had changed. Due to the lack of graveyard space, the government advocated a cremation policy. In 1974, the board of Tung Wah group decided to reconstruct the garden of the Tung Wah Coffin Home into a place for storing cremains since some of the room clusters were too old to be repaired. This provided 900 shrines for citizens to place their ancestors' cremains. Later in 1982, another group of room clusters were rebuilt into a massive hall for cremains, and this provided around 5,800 shrines to accomplish the need of the citizens.
As the demand for the depository service diminished in recent years, the compound gradually deteriorated. However, a large-scale repair and conservation project was carried out to restore the Coffin Home from 2002 to 2004 so that the respective historical appearance of the compound could be preserved.
Currently, the Coffin Home has an area of approximately 6,050 square meters consisting of different architectural buildings including a garden, a gateway, a pagoda, 91 rooms and 2 halls.
In 2005, the project won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award (Award of Merit). Moreover, it received the award of Honor in Heritage Preservation and Conservation Awards offered by the Antiquities & Monuments Office under the government of HKSAR.
- 1875 – Establishment of Coffin Home at Kennedy Town near a slaughter house
- 1899 - Relocation in Sandy Bay, new management under the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and renamed as Tung Wah Coffin Home
- 1913 - First reconstruction
- 1926 - Expansion of Tung Wah Coffin Home, Bing Yan Hall built
- 1947 - Proposal to change use of room clusters
- 1948 - Reconstruction
- 1951 - Reconstruction
- 1957 - Reconstruction
- 1961 - Bing Yan Hall rebuilt for the use of sanatorium, Yut Yuet Hall built to replace Bing Yan Hall
- 1974 – Reconstruction of the Tung Wah Coffin Home garden into a storage place of cremains
- 1981 - Proposal to build another building for storing cremains
- 1982 - Room clusters built for storing cremains
- 2003 - Phrase 1 restoration started from January to March and Phrase 2 restoration started form November
- 2004 - Phase 2 restoration till March
- 2005 - Won the UNESCO(Asia-Pacifica Heritage Award) and received the award of Honor in Heritage Preservation and Conservation Awards
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