“Hong Kong 🇭🇰 ~10,000 Buddha’s Monastery, and Chi Lin Nunnery”

• December 4, 2017
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

“10,000 Buddha’s Monastery”

Overlooking lush Sha Tin in the northeastern New Territories of Hong Kong, the 10,000Thousand Buddha’s Monastery is one of the city’s most memorable cultural sites. After all, it’s not every day you’re surrounded by 10,000 gold Buddhas and a handful of monkeys. About an hour from Central district by metro, the experience promises a peaceful afternoon in the foothills of Hong Kong’s countryside.
Also known as Man Fat Sze, 10,000 Buddha’s Monastery is a bit of a misnomer. For starters, it’s a Monastery with no monks, and there are actually more than 12,000 Buddha Statues. When visitors arrive, the experience begins with a steep climb up some 400 steps, lined with golden Buddhas in a mixture of poses. As visitors work their way up the leafy switchbacks, shameless Macaque Monkeys are known to make appearances, often snatching plastic bags in hopes of a treat; so beware! After the last curve of the hill, the main hall rises overhead, awash in dramatic red paint and dragon motifs.

Click on this link below, to see all the photos of 10,000 Buddha’s Monastery:

https://picsbypen.smugmug.com/Places/AsiaLife/Hong-Kong/Ten-Thousand-Buddahs-Monastery/

“Chi Lin Nunnery”

One of the most beautiful and arrestingly built environments in Hong Kong, is this large Buddhist complex; originally dating from the 1930s, it was rebuilt in 1998, completely of wood (and not a single nail) in the style of the Tang dynasty. It is a serene place, with lotus ponds, immaculate bonsai tea plants, bougainvillea, and silent nuns delivering offerings of fruit and rice to Buddha and arhats (Buddhist disciples freed from the cycle of birth and death), or chanting behind intricately carved screens. The design (involving intricately interlocking sections of wood joined without a single nail) is intended to demonstrate the harmony of humans with nature. It’s pretty convincing, until you see the high-rises looming behind the complex.
You enter the complex through the Sam Mun, a series of “three gates,”representing: the Buddhist precepts of compassion, wisdom and skillful means. The first courtyard, which contains the delightful Lotus Pond Garden, gives way to the Hall of Celestial Kings, with a large statue of the seated Buddha, surrounded by the deities of the four cardinal points. Behind that is the main hall, containing a statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha flanked by two standing disciples and two seated Bodhisattvas.

 These featured large stones, smoothed (naturally) by water, date back 260 MILLION years!

Click on this link below, to see all the photos of Chi Lin Nunnery:

https://picsbypen.smugmug.com/Places/AsiaLife/Hong-Kong/Chi-Lin-Nunnery/