HONG KONG: 10,000 BUDDHAS in SHATIN

HONG KONG: 10,000 BUDDHAS in SHATIN

For those of you looking for off-the-trail tourist attractions in Hong Kong, you can go to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin district. 

It is a famous Buddhist monastery located on the mountain behind Shatin Pai Tau Village near the Shatin station of the East Rail Line of the  Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in Hong Kong.

This place is near IKEA Shatin. We dropped by IKEA Shatin after our visit to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery.

It was founded in 1949 by the Reverend Yuet Kai, a devout Buddhist layman who dedicated the last years of his life to constructing a temple containing nearly 13,000 statues of Buddha, and completed in 1957. 

There are no resident monks in this monastery. The ones managing this monastery are laypersons.

The monastery is divided into upper and lower portions. The whole complex occupies over eight hectares. In this complex are five temples, four pavilions, one pagoda and one veranda.

The main building of the monastery is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple which has more than 12,800 pieces of Buddha statues (in different postures) placed on the walls. 

The immortal body of Rev. Yuet Kai is located in the central portion of the temple.

The climb to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery is not for everybody though. 

You should have strong knees to climb the path up to the 10,000 Buddhas Temple. 

Juice mi aside from parang bundok ang aakyatin mo, aba may blessings pa nang pumunta kami doon. Yes! Inulan kami! Kaya ayun kesa 45 minutes inabot kami ng 2 hours bago namin naakyat ang tuktok ng bundok, pero naman sulit talaga!

At first, we got lost and took the wrong way because we missed the very small signage pointing to the direction of 10,000 Buddhas Monastery (see the above picture). 

We found ourselves climbing the cemetery (which has an escalator from the ground level) beside the Monastery. So, better take note of that "signage."