10,000 Buddhas Monastery, Hong Kong

During our last trip to Hong Kong Aimee and I visited the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas. I was perplexed by the name at first; I wondered "are there really 10,000 Buddhas at this Monastery? Surely such a thing isn't possible?" Well, I discovered IT IS possible. Here's a little history lesson about the Monastery:

Built in 1957 by Reverend Yuet Kai and his disciples, the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas took eight years to complete. It took an additional ten years to make the 10,000 plus gold plated ceramic Buddha statues that adorn the interior walls.

Getting to the Monastery is either extremely hard or easy depending on your point of view (and current fitness health). To reach the top you need to follow a path of 400 steps.

The path starts at this very simple and unattractive sign. Somehow, in my mind, a pylon with a sign stapled to it isn't the best way to advertise a Monastery. But ugly sign or not we ventured on.

Once you reach the main path you're greeted by thousands of Buddhas. No, these aren't the 10,000 Buddhas, those are at the top. These statues are life-sized, painted gold, and every one of them has a distinctive appearance. It's really quite amazing actually. Thousands of statues that all look different. All have different poses and expressions. Some are carrying props, some aren't. I found myself stopping every couple feet to take photos of the different ones I saw. Aimee's goal was to get to the top of the 400 steps as quickly as possible. My fascination with the statues meant I would spend several minutes taking several photos of the Buddhas only to realize I lost Aimee and would have to run after her. It was tiring, but rewarding. This photo here shows how the path was organized. Buddhas sitting on both sides. Watch the video below (bad quality and all!) for a better viewpoint of the path.



400 steps of pure excitement!

Here are some photos of my favorite Buddhas. I say the word 'favorite' loosely. It's impossible to pay attention to all of the thousands of statues and pin-point which ones are my favorite. When I say 'favorite' let's just say these are the random ones I happened to notice and took pictures of. Random or not, some of them are pretty interesting to look at. Here's a photo of my buddy, his elephant, and me!

Rows upon rows of Buddhas. The one in the foreground looks pretty relaxed doesn't he?

This one ... ah, um, yeah ... not quite sure what's going on here... moving on.

"Good morning Mr. Frog"

"Good morning to you too my jolly Buddha friend"

After a hard day of praying at the Monastery there's nothing more relaxing than to sit down on a nice comfortable ... peacock.

This guy looks like he just swallowed a bug. I like how his little dragon friend has the same expression.

I like the peaceful nature of this one.

Once your travels of the 400 steps has ended and you reach the top, you're rewarded with this beautiful courtyard. There are two levels to the Monastery; this is the first. The lower level is made up of a pagoda, two pavilions and a tower.

Looking down the center of the courtyard.

Here's a closer look of the pagoda. To get a sense of the tower's size, remember the statues are all life-sized. The pictures below are various photos taken around the lower level.

This is an exterior shot of one of the pavilons, a temple.

Inside the temple are thousands of miniture gold-plated Buddhas statues (10,000!!).

Here is a closer shot of the miniture Buddhas.

Also in the temple is the embalmed corpse of Reverend Yuet Kai (the monk who founded the monastery), covered in gold. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which of these three statues is Rev. Yuet Kai.

Leaving the lower level and starting my walk up to the upper level, the first thing I notice are the statues are now painted in brightly lit colours.

Like the golden Buddha statues leading up from the bottom these statues are placed on both sides of the path. Only 100 steps this time!

The upper level houses four large temples and a wide assortment of statues.

One of the temples, The Amita Buddha Temple, with its 45-feet tall gold-plated Amitas Buddha is the most visited tourist attraction at the Monastery.

The Amita Buddha is quite an impressive site. I wish I had a picture of me standing beside it so you can experience the massive size but unfortunately I was the only tourist up there and Aimee stayed on the lower level. No picture of me and Buddha, so sadly, Buddha had to pose alone.

Sometimes I find myself thinking thoughts that other people may or may not think. My thoughts while walking those 400 steps and passing all those gold painted Buddhas was, "who keeps these statues so clean and the gold paint so vibrant?". Well, my questions were answered: THIS GUY! From the moment we got to the top I noticed this guy adding another coat of gold paint to the statues. Aimee and I stayed at the Monastery for about 45 minutes and during that time this guy painted only two statues. Imagine being this guy and your sole job was to paint and repaint Buddha statues all day? THOUSANDS of Buddha statues? I wonder if he goes home every night seeing golden spots in his eyes?