Indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories
In order to protect the tradition of villages, male indigenous inhabitants have the right to apply for small house, known as Ting Uk (Chinese: 丁屋; Hong Kong Hakka: Den1 Vuk5).The interests of indigenous inhabitants are represented by the Heung Yee Kuk (Chinese: 鄉議局; Hong Kong Hakka: Hiong1 Ngi4 Kiuk6).They amounted to mini-wars, often lasting for years and marked by deaths in armed struggles and the destruction of houses and crops.The causes of strife were often rooted in access to, or protection of, precious water for irrigation, and other economic assets, such as the control of ferries and markets.Disputes over fung-shui of settlements or ancestral graves were not uncommon because the belief of sitings being directly linked with prosperity or adversity.