There are many brown cattle and water buffalo across Lantau Island, from the southeast (Mui Wo) to the south (South Lantau) and to the west (Tai O); however, they are not found in the urbanised Tung Chung and Discovery Bay because they have nowhere to inhabit.
Long queues are often seen at the bus stops for travelling to Mui Wo or Tai O during holidays, with an average waiting time of 1 to 2 hours. Once, to express my dissatisfaction towards the long bus queues, I decided to half-run, half-walk from Tung Chung to Mui Wo for work in the afternoon on a holiday, passing via Pak Mong, Ngau Kwu Long and Tai Ho. I started chatting with an old man who sells soft drinks when I reached Pak Mong. He shared that the villagers used to mainly rely on agriculture and supplement with fishing, which allowed them to have a decent living. The most difficult period was the “three years and eight months” (Japanese occupation of Hong Kong) when the Japanese gendarmes stole their property and food. “I don’t hate the Japanese but I hate those Taiwanese soldiers.” After hearing this story, I continued on my trip, running into the green mountain, following the streams to go up and down.
You will know you have arrived at Mui Wo when you see cow dung, wetlands and muddy puddles near farmlands. Mui Wo used to be a village with rice fields everywhere. Cattle were raised for their great strength to assist in farming. They were a vital tool for clearing land, as well as an important asset. If you have time to slow down and talk to the old people, you might hear phrases such as,“The more cattle you owned, the wealthier it meant you were!” Or you may hear, “It is better to raise cattle than humans because cattle are powerful and important for farming.”
When the world became more industrialised in the 1960s, the younger villagers started choosing to earn money in the city while many of the older farmers became construction workers because “farming couldn’t make money!” The villagers no longer needed cattle — they were no longer seen as an asset, and even became negative equity! The cattle were released; they became free. They started to live in groups and formed their own community, etiquette and culture; they took care of each other and found their own food.
I recall meeting a Lantau resident in Mui Wo one morning, two years ago. She likes to observe the cattle and record them through video. She would lead the cattle to the pedestrian walkway every morning to prevent them from blocking the vehicles or causing inconvenience to the villages. All she wanted was for the villagers to not scold or harm the cattle. She also shared with me that the cattle in Lantau are social animals, each group has their own leader and a few cattle as guards who are all male as are stronger and larger in size so as to protect the weaker ones. The leader would lead the group to search through the fields, forest and village to look for food and a safe place to settle.
Sadly, the nonstop village development has turned farmland into concrete paths, buildings or barbed wire fences. The landowners without farming experience hate the cattle, “Why do they always drop dung? It makes my car dirty!” they claim. These people are always angry when cattle walk on the man-made paths. The cattle are just following nature’s cycle and what they have learnt from their elders: walk along the grassy mud and riversides to eat and drink everyday at 6am and in the evening. It is humans who have turned mud into concrete, narrowed the rivers and called this “infrastructure for life improvement.”
Cattle have supported generations of Lantau people, and the cattle now and their future generations simply want to have sufficient food and a safe place to live on Lantau. 2021 is the Year of the Ox and we hope their wishes will come true.
FUNG Siu Yin, Community Journalist of Lantau Connects
Further Information:
Wild animals in Hong Kong – Water buffalo and brown cattle
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcv5jXc5M4D6f-NZFAPAo2A/videos