Chi Lin Nunnery, Buddhist monastery in Wong Tai Sin District, Hong Kong.

Chi Lin Nunnery is a Buddhist monastery in Diamond Hill, Kowloon, rebuilt in the Tang dynasty style. Its halls are made of cypress wood joined without nails, based on a Sukhavati drawing from Mogao Cave 172. The complex has 16 halls, a library, a school, a pagoda, a bell tower and a drum tower across more than 33,000 square metres. The main hall has a double-tiered grey-tiled roof with golden ridge ornaments, red columns and latticed doors, reached by a broad stone stairway with white stone lanterns on the terrace.

Founded in 1934 by monks Wai Um and Kok Yat with lay supporters, the nunnery began as a retreat for Buddhist nuns. In 1988 the government cleared the site and surrounding squatter huts for the Tate's Cairn Tunnel; reconstruction started in 1989 and was completed on 18 May 2000, when the halls opened as an exhibition.

Chi Lin Nunnery is Hong Kong's only "ten-direction nunnery for women", a monastery where senior nuns from different places come to practise. Its halls hold Buddha and bodhisattva statues modelled on High Tang sculpture, each with its own gesture, hand position and attribute. The four lotus ponds follow the seven-jewelled pools and eight-merit water described in the Amitabha sutra illustrations.

You can reach the nunnery on foot from Diamond Hill MTR Station Exit C2, which takes just a few minutes. The grounds are open daily from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM at no charge, and visitors should move quietly through the complex out of respect for those in prayer.

The nunnery is Hong Kong's only "ten-direction nunnery for women", a monastery reserved for senior nuns arriving from many places. Its charitable arm also runs an elderly home, a Buddhist primary and secondary school, a night college and a library, and regular dharma assemblies are held in the halls.