Buddhist monk in Hong Kong accused of misleading public over reasons for meat consumption
School director Peggy Chen says monk Tam Wei-keong ‘unnecessarily’ implicated her for his rule-breaking behaviour, according to court document
A monk and former head of tycoon Li Ka-shing’s Tsz Shan Monastery in Hong Kong has been accused of spreading misinformation about his reasons for consuming meat after admitting to doing so to supplement his protein intake.
A High Court writ reviewed by the Post on Friday claimed Buddhist monk Tam Wei-keong made false allegations to the public after a picture of him consuming a dish of meat was widely circulated on social media in March.
The writ was filed by a woman named Peggy Chen Kam-yee. Tam told reporters she had taken care of him and his diet in 2021 when he was medically advised to eat food rich in protein due to health reasons.
The pair’s relationship was not immediately clear in the court document, but Chen said she had known the monk as early as 2018 and was asked to prepare curry chicken, meat skewers, pork soup and others for Tam in their first encounter. In the following years, Chen said she had witnessed the monk eating meat “frequently”.
Chen, a director and shareholder of Austin School, an international institution in Tsim Sha Tsui, also did not deny preparing meat dishes for Tam.
She said she believed the monk’s explanation for his diet being different from other Buddhists because he said he was a Malaysian monk whose branch of Buddhism allowed him to “kill as many animals as he desired”.
In another interview on YouTube last month, Tam explained his meat consumption and told the host that the Chinese medicine practitioner, who was said to have advised him to eat meat, was arranged by Chen.
Chen argued that the monk only wanted to divert people’s attention by framing her and to harm her “out of spite”.
She was said to have been emotionally distressed and embarrassed after Tam had “unnecessarily” included her name in these interviews.
She added that the monk was trying to blame her as the person for his own rule-breaking behaviour.
Besides claiming for damage, she asked the court to make an injunction order to restrain Tam from further publishing or making any false allegations.
She also sought an order be made for Tam to apologise to her.
Buddhists are traditionally known to follow a vegetarian diet, but the practice may vary and there has been ongoing discussion about the practice.
For instance, in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, monastic regulations prohibit all meat consumption as it was followed by an imperial decree laid down in AD520, almost a thousand years after the birth of Buddhism.
Hong Kong court grants bail to 2 medical staff accused of ill-treating girl whose heart stopped
Registered nurse Cheung Tin-wing, 26, and patient care assistant Wan Mei-kwan, 62, not required to enter plea at this stage
A Hong Kong court has granted bail to a nurse and a healthcare assistant accused of ill-treating a young girl whose heart stopped after a stitching procedure.
Registered nurse Cheung Tin-wing, 26, and patient care assistant Wan Mei-kwan, 62, appeared in Sha Tin Court on Monday over a joint count of ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child.
Prosecutors did not ask Cheung and Wan to enter a plea at this stage, as the hearing was adjourned for 12 weeks until December 23.
173 Hongkongers allegedly splashed with bodily fluids in public over past 8 months
Group collects reports after victim in recent case slams court’s decision to fine man who used pipette to squirt her with liquid containing semen
More than 170 Hongkongers have said they were splashed with what they feared were bodily fluids in public over the past eight months, a concern group has revealed, after a woman criticised the penalty given to a man who used a pipette to squirt her with a liquid containing semen.
While some men were among the victims, the online group said on Friday that about 99 per cent of the 173 cases were reported by women.
It summarised that most of the victims were splashed with suspicious liquids, with some saying they felt depressed and anxious after the incidents.
Earlier this week, a court ordered 26-year-old PhD student Lai Changwei to pay a fine of HK$5,000 (US$642) for splashing a liquid containing his semen onto a woman’s buttocks at a university in Hong Kong, blaming his actions on stress.
CCTV footage from the Kowloon Tong campus showed Lai tailing the woman immediately after spotting her inside a university building at around 3.30pm on June 6, the court heard. He then squirted liquid onto the victim using a plastic pipette.
The victim did not realise she had been attacked until noticing the stains on her jacket and trousers in a washroom moments later.
