Chieftains
Each village in the area has its own chieftain who takes care of ceremonial activities as well as tourist information. The chieftains also make decisions on any change in the area, for example whether a new house should be allowed to be built or if a building need to be demolished. They also represent the village when they go to gatherings with other villages from the New Territories.
New chieftains are chosen through voting from the local area of the village when the current chieftain decides to retire from duty. Chieftainhood is not hereditary and cannot be passed down to their children. Anybody from the village, regardless of status or personal finances can apply as long as the person's surname is the same as the village's. The system is to some extent democratic, however so far there has not been a female chieftain in any village around the New Territories.
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Famous quotes containing the word chieftains:
“Much wondering to see upon all hands, of wattles and woodwork made,
Your bell-mounted churches, and guardless the sacred cairn and the rath,
And a small and a feeble populace stooping with mattock and spade,
Or weeding or ploughing with faces a-shining with much-toil wet;
While in this place and that place, with bodies unglorious, their chieftains stood....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)