Kowloon League of seven
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Nga Tsin Wai is the head village of an inter-village union called the Kowloon Tsat Yeuk , the "Kowloon League of Seven". This was a sworn alliance of villages for mutual defence against outside attack, and a vehicle to allow the elders of the several villages involved to meet to discuss matters of inter-village interest. This inter-village alliance is very similar to many others within the New Territories, and can be compared, for instance, with the Alliance of Nine in Sha Tin, or the Alliance of Six at Sai Kung.
According to the Nga Tsin Wai villagers, the League of Seven in fact comprises some nine villages, not seven. The reason for this may be that originally the League was not of seven villages, but of seven Pao-chia ({^^P), or Tithing-Groups. The alternative name of the League, Tsat Po, certainly suggests this. Several of the villages included in the League are very tiny, and would certainly have been combined for Pao-chia purposes with other, larger, villages nearby.
The villages of the League of Seven were: Nga Tsin Wai itself, Kak Hang, Tai Horn (also known as Tai Tan), Shek Kwu Lung, Ta Kwu Leng, Sha Po, Nga Tsin Long, Ma Tau Wai, and Ma Tan Chung. Of these, Ma Tau Chung was so closely connected genealogically and socially with Ma Tau Wai that they were usually considered just one village. Ma Tau Chung is, in fact, a classic example of the local dialect term "Mau Tsuen", or "Detached Village" - an independent group of houses, but considered a detached part of a village a short distance away.
The traditional political position with regard to Hau Pui Long, Yi Wong Tin, Ma Tau Kok and Kau Pui Shek is unclear. These villages were all cleared well before the War, and little is known of their local political affiliations in the years before the clearance. At least Kau Pui Shek was probably within the League of Seven - it was certainly surrounded by land belonging to other villages that were members of the League. Ma Tau Kok, Hau Pui Long, and Yi Wong Tin were probably outside the League.
Of the villages of the League, Kak Hang, Sha Po, Nga Tsin Long, Shek Kwu Lung, and Ta Kwu Ling are closely connected genealogically with Nga Tsin Wai, and the Chans of Nga Tsin Wai had a branch resident in Ma Tau Wai and Ma Tau Chung, among the many clans of that double village. Other groups of Chans claiming a relationship with Nga Tsin Wai, but not descendants of Chan Chiu-yin or his brother were also to be found in Ta Kwu Leng and M;i Tau Wai.
It vvi!l be seen that Kowloon City, Kowloon Market, and the suburban villages around them, apart from Sha Po, (that is, Tung Tau, Sai Tau, Hau Wong, and Hoklo Villages) had no part in the League of Seven. These areas were considered to fall immediately under the control of the Sub-Magistrate in Kowloon City, or under the control of the Kowloon Market Kaifong. Apart from these places, the League of Seven covered all the area around Kowloon City.
The Kowloon City and Kowloon Market areas worshipped at the Hau Wong Temple outside the Walled City, and did not worship at the Nga Tsin Wai Tin Hau Temple. There was a Tin Hau Temple at Sha Po where the residents in tVie Market also worshipped. Ma Tau Wai had a temple of its own: this was to Pak Tai, worshipped under the title Sheung Tai (Jvitf). Only the gate pillars of this temple survive today, in the Lomond Road Garden.
To the east of the area of the League of Seven was the large and ancient village of Po Kong, belonging to the Lam (W) clan. Po Kong never joined the League of Seven. Po Kong had its own temple (it was dedicated to Tin Hau), and the Po Kong people did not go to the Tin Hau Temple at Nga Tsin Wai. Chuk Yuen and Sha Tei Yuen were genealogically connected with Po Kong. According to the Nga Tsin Wai elders, the villages of Po Kong, Chuk Yuen, Sha Tei Yuen, Nga Yiu Tau, Ngau Chi Wan (including its "Mau Tsuen" of Pak Uk Tsai, or Ping Shek), and Yuen Ling (both the Upper and Lower Villages) formed an inter-village alliance of their own, the Six Villages Alliance (7* \f$). Ngau Chi Wan had its own temple, to the Sam Shan Kwok Wong - this temple still survives. According to Ngau Chi Wan village elders, there was no Six Villages' Ta Tsiu, but Ngau Chi Wan conducted these rituals on its own every ten years. Ngau Chi Wan also held the She ( t t ) feast before their higher earth god, every year, when every family made an offering of food, which later formed the basis of the communal feast. Ngau Chi Wan was, clearly, rather independent where the worship of the deities was concerned, and may well have been rather less wellintegrated into the Six Villages than the villages closer to Po Kong. Ngau Chi Wan was a Hakka village, founded in the very early eighteenth century. It was founded by the Lau (I1!) clan, but the To ( t t ) , Yeung ( l i ) , Tsang ('S'), and Yip (H) clans joined the Laus.