When One is Not Enough: 10,000 Statues of Buddha

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall is the  main attraction at the Monastery

One of the advantages of living in Hong Kong is the fact that we get two New Year's celebrations:  a "western" New Year on January 1, and a Lunar or Chinese New Year that follows (for what we learned about Chinese New Year, see last year's blog post called Kung Hei Fat Choi).  A second New Year provides another shot at New Year's resolutions, in case the first round didn't quite go as planned.  Following our return from the States last month, we fell into a bit of a post-holiday slump and our blog was one of the casualties.  But the approaching Chinese New Year gives us another shot at getting back on track, and the place we ventured to yesterday was a really nice motivation.  

The steep path to the Monastery involves over
430 steps lined by 500 life-sized gilded statues

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (10kbuddhas.org - in Chinese only) is in Shatin Pai Tau village, located about eleven miles north of  Central Hong Kong in the New Territories.  Although the monastery is not residential, it is one of Hong Kong's most famous Buddhist temples.  For Jeff and me, getting there involved a one hour MTR (subway) trip with two changes of trains.  The most daunting part of the journey was the 431 steps that lead from the base of the hill up to the Monastery.  The stairs are lined with over five hundred gilded life-sized Arhan statues, each with different expressions, poses and dress.  In Buddhism, an Arhan is one who is considered worthy or who is relatively advanced along the path of enlightenment, but still short of achieving Buddhahood.    The long climb is rewarded at the top with a colorful and ornate complex of five temples, four pavilions, a nine story pagoda, a veranda with sweeping views of the mountains and Sha Tin District, a small vegetarian restaurant and more Arhan statues.

The pavilion in the center of the lower section of the
Monastery features a statue of the Goddess of Mercy

The pagoda was featured on the HK$100 note

The Monastery was founded in 1949 by Reverend Yuet Kai, a philosophy student born into a wealthy family in southern China who dedicated his life to Buddhism.  During the eight years of construction, Reverend Kai and his followers carried all of the building materials for the Monastery up the steep mountain.  Following his death in 1965, Reverend Kai was buried for eight months, then disinterred by his followers. His remains were considered so intact that they were embalmed with lacquer and gold leaf, adorned in robes, and seated before the altar, where they remain today in a glass case with a sign that reads, "The Diamond Indestructible Body of Yuet Kai."

The Monastery is situated on nearly twenty acres of bamboo forest, but most of the buildings are located in a relatively compact area that is easy to stroll around.  In 1997, heavy rain and landslides damaged some of the buildings, forcing the Monastery to close for 2-/12 years.

Offerings are left on the altar under the
 portico of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall

The portico of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall
has an altar where offerings are placed 

Four of the five temples are located in an upper section (a further 69 steps) where reconstruction is still ongoing.  On the
lower or main level of the complex is a large terrace with the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall (the main temple) at one end, the nine story pagoda at the opposite end and a pavilion sheltering a large statue of the Goddess of Mercy in between.  A rogue's gallery of more gilded Arhan statues surrounds the outside of the terrace.

Despite the fascinating structures, the elaborate decoration of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall makes it the main attraction.  In front of the Hall, an elaborate burner filled with incense and joss sticks gives off puffs of smoke.  The Hall has an elaborate frieze and beneath it a portico containing an altar, at which many offerings of fruit and flowers had been left.  Inside, in addition to the lacquer-embalmed body of the Yuet Kai, the Hall features over 12,800 Buddha statues lining the walls, each about 12 inches high with a unique pose and facial expression.  The discrepancy between the Monastery's name and the actual number of Buddha statues is explained by Cantonese tradition:  the term "ten thousand" is merely figurative, representing a very large number (much like the term "tens of thousands.")  Regardless of the precise numbers, the sight of so many Buddha statues is overwhelming to say the least.

The walls of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall are
lined with nearly 13,000 unique Buddha statues 

It may have taken more than 10,000 Buddhas to get us out of our post-holiday slump, but as we begin our second year in Hong Kong, we realize that yesterday's excursion was a good example of how much remains for us to explore here.

An incense burner sits in front of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall