Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, Buddhist temple in Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is a Buddhist temple complex at 220 Pai Tau Village in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, built on a hillside. Its main temple and a tall multi-tiered pagoda with red walls, dark curved eaves and a gold finial are Grade III historic buildings. An open pavilion with a red hip roof on orange pillars houses a large seated golden Buddha, and a long single-storey hall with an orange tiled roof stands nearby. A paved path is lined with golden standing Buddha statues, each with a circular halo and hands in varied gestures.
Venerable Yuet Kai founded the temple in 1949 and completed it in 1957, with followers carrying building materials up the hill by hand. Construction was paid for by donations from the lay public, not by the state. Yuet Kai died in 1965; his embalmed body is displayed in the main hall.
The name comes from the golden figures lining the slope and halls, though the complex holds nearly 13,000 statues, not ten thousand. No monks live here: laypeople, after 1965 the founder's nephews, have maintained the site. The path's arhat statues each show a different pose and gesture.
The site sits a short walk from Sha Tin MTR station and opens daily without admission charge. The paved climb counts around 400 steps and passes through shaded sections to the upper levels.
Yuet Kai died in 1965, eight years after the monastery opened. His followers wrote that his body was found incorruptible eight months later because of the seated lotus position he was buried in, but newspapers reported that he had been embalmed. His intact body is displayed in the main hall.
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