The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals then took over the responsibility of managing the coffin home, and it was rebuilt in 1899 near Sandy Bay on Hong Kong Island.
The board of Tung Wah Hospital group thus initiated a plan to build more room clusters to meet the high demand of coffin space.
The Tung Wah group carried out several reconstructions in the years 1948, 1951, and 1957 to solve problems dealing with the lack of storage space for bodies after exhumation.
However, a large-scale repair and conservation project was carried out to restore the Coffin Home from 2002 to 2004 so that the respective historical appearance of the compound could be preserved.
Currently, the Coffin Home has an area of approximately 6,050 square meters consisting of different architectural buildings including a garden, a gateway, a pagoda, 91 rooms and 2 halls.
[1] A number of well known figures have had their ashes or body reposed in the Tung Wah Coffin Home, including Cai Yuan Pei (蔡元培), the previous vice-chancellor of Peking University; Chen Jiong Ming (陳炯明), a revolutionary figure in the early periods of the Republic of China; famous merchant Lin Bai Xin (林百欣) and Chow Kwen Lim (周君任), the founder of Chow Sang Sang Jewellery.
An undertaker or funeral director prepares the body in the home of the deceased with make-up and new clothes and shoes that family members buy to represent the start of a new life.
On the other hand, funeral parlor staff may retrieve the body in a stretcher or basket woven container from the home of the deceased to the cemetery.
Relatives then accompany a motor hearse in transporting the body throughout the neighbourhood to the cemetery or crematorium, with funeral bands and large silver and blue wicker frames describing the deceased.
Relatives of the deceased sustain a vigil outside the home, and then bury the body in a traditional village area with a small stone at the head of the grave.
The placement of the remains in a funerary urn or horseshoe grave depends on the sex and standing of the deceased, as well as the financial state of the relatives.
At the gravesite, family members present pork, fruits, flowers, rice wine, cakes, and light incense and candles, as well as burn paper money.
As Hong Kong was located at a favourable transportation position, it soon became the central spot for people to travel back to their homeland from other countries.
The entrance to the Main Reception Hall is rich in Chinese adornment, with two classical Roman Doric Order pillars standing boldly on two sides.
A typical typology of traditional Vernacular Architecture is displayed with characteristics of brick walls, tilted roofs, strips of wood and Chinese clay tiles.
Now largely in disuse, the Home has undergone a recent restoration, for which an award was given by the Hong Kong Government's Antiquities and Monuments Office.
All the following pictures were adopted from Tung Wah Coffin Home webpage:[6] The restoration work was conducted with purposes from three main aspects.
[6] The restoration project has successfully preserved the Coffin Home as an important heritage in Hong Kong that not only demonstrates Tung Wah's philanthropic spirit and its role in the territory's history, but also embraces the changes in culture and burial customs of the Chinese community over the centuries.
By restoring the historical buildings with traditional local knowledge and exceptional conservation techniques, the Coffin Home is successful in preserving a significant architectural typology in the Asia–Pacific region, and thereby protecting an important chapter of the history of the overseas Chinese.” 2.