Chairman Andrew McAulay reflects on seventy years of KFBG, shaped by the sacred presence of Kwun Yum Shan, where Nature and spirit dance together.

This article was first published in the March/April edition of the magazine 'Resurgence & Ecologist'.

An elder from the highlands of New Guinea once told me that while his people engage with the outside world on its terms, when it comes to biodiversity conservation the real reason they wish to protect ‘hotspots’ is because of the ‘other beings’ who live there. This reference to the overriding significance of the spiritual dimension of Nature can be found throughout the Indigenous world. The healing function of sacred natural places has always been recognised within traditional cultures. Such sites played a fundamental role in the lives of all our ancestors. While the function of such places may not be easy to measure, they can easily be ‘felt’ and their influence identified in myriad external forms – by the discerning soul.

It was with this understanding that I became intrigued with a particular mountain in my birthplace, Hong Kong. Rising to nearly 600 metres, Kwun Yum Shan lies within the grounds of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG), a 145-hectare site established in 1956 by the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA) to help resettle refugees following the civil war in China.

I used to visit the mountain regularly as a child with my great-uncle Horace, one of the founders of the KAAA, but lost touch with it after being sent to boarding school in England at the age of eight. By the early 1990s I was living in a meditation centre in the US, with no desire to return to Hong Kong. When the immigration authorities refused to renew my stay, however, I found myself back home, twiddling my thumbs and looking for a way to be of service. The timing was fortuitous. Consultants had just been hired to establish a new direction for KFBG, providing an opportunity for me to reacquaint myself with the mountain. I agreed to help reinvent the organisation as a centre for Nature conservation and education and, as its first executive director, oversaw the development of programmes spanning agroecology, forest restoration, wildlife rescue and biodiversity research and conservation, in both Hong Kong and South China.

Kwun Yum Shan is named after the Chinese Goddess of Love and Compassion Kwun Yum (Guan Yin in Mandarin). Located in the New Territories on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest mountain, facing north towards mainland China and straddling the boundary between two distinct valleys, the summit is marked by several round stone altars dating back more than a thousand years. More recently, a statue of the goddess was installed, featuring an array of symbols both scientific and spiritual. Around the time of KFBG’s 50th anniversary in 2006, we chose to renovate the summit, replacing the former car park with a garden for quiet contemplation, with Kwun Yum moved to a position of prominence.

Geologically, the mountain owes its form to a predominance of quartz, which enabled it to withstand the erosion of its surroundings, remnants of a vast ancient volcanic crater. Its interior is shaped like a honeycomb, allowing air entering through its base to warm as it rises towards ‘hot pot’ vents at the summit, where it emerges as what is known locally as ‘the dragon’s breath’. On cold, damp days the summit can feel like a steam bath, transporting visitors into another realm entirely, though even on ordinary days the site carries a magical aura. According to visiting Indigenous teachers, this is one of Earth’s sacred natural sites, part of a network of places that are energetically connected and primarily responsible for the health of the planet and all her beings. Should the power of such a place become dormant, it can be revitalised and sustained by being ‘fed’ with the presence and reverence of those who visit the site with conscious intention.

It seems no coincidence to me that this historic place of pilgrimage, where ancestors once prayed for health and wellbeing, became the base for a programme that uplifted and empowered hundreds of thousands of impoverished people in Hong Kong’s rapidly expanding post-war population. At the time, the rationale was that the features of the mountain – its range of altitudes, slope directions and microclimates – lent themselves to agricultural and horticultural research. Those same qualities continue to shape its present role, including as a pool for the bioregion’s plants, and a home for a rich diversity of fauna, some rare and endemic. Or might it be said that the special energy of this place manifested a programme characterised by love for humans, a love that has since been extended to all beings, including the ‘other beings’ nourished by the holistic dimensions of our educational work? Is the mountain doing the bidding of those of us who work here, or could it be the other way around?

Certainly my own life seems deeply entwined with this place. Significant moments and inner shifts are often mirrored by on-site occurrences. Synchronistic changes in weather patterns and the timely appearances and unusual behaviour of animals are just some of the ways in which the mountain seems to be forever speaking to a deeper part of me. At the precise time that I discovered breathwork as part of a healing journey from cancer, archaeologists were conducting a discreet investigation of the summit’s central altar when it suddenly caved in, opening a new channel of airflow. As the mountain began to breathe more freely, I trained as a facilitator and began offering breathwork ceremonies as part of what became the Kadoorie Earth Programme, created to encourage a shift in the way we think, feel and relate.

Over the decades, the work at KFBG has continued to unfold in response to this subtle guidance. From regenerative farming and forest restoration to science, arts, education and programmes for adults and school groups of all ages, alongside the evolving Earth Programme, each initiative seeks to cultivate direct experience of the mysterious and awesome reality of our true, interconnected nature. Mindfulness, breathwork, tea ceremony, Nature vigils and other contemplative practices help shift awareness, so that thoughts, words and actions can spring from the source of life and not from the limited ideas of the world and ourselves.

This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of this remarkable achievement. We are honouring our founders, Horace and Lawrence Kadoorie, along with all those staff and partners who have lit the way for us. With immense gratitude and love for all beings, we are eagerly hosting our friends and continuing to develop our community.

Here in Hong Kong, we feel fortunate to live in one of the safer parts of our planet, even as we remain mindful that the effects of the polycrisis will eventually touch us all. I can only hope and pray that one of those effects will be a loosening of the cycles of fear and desire that sustain destructive behaviour, allowing us to recognise our interdependence and to reforge the bonds that enabled humans to live with a more integrated and enamoured worldview.

Grounding and inspiring that worldview are Earth’s sacred natural places. It has been my honour to find myself in relationship with one such place, and to be called upon to help steward it back into its full potential, in harmony with humanity. Stay tuned as Kwun Yum’s mission continues to unfold through all of us blessed to be associated with her magical mountain. 

Andrew McAulay is the Chairman of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden and the author of Little Fish, an illustrated book inspired by the mountain Kwun Yum Shan.