Po Lam Monastery, Buddhist temple on Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Po Lam Monastery is a Buddhist temple on the half-slope of Phoenix Mountain on Lantau Island, at Lot 216, Tei Tong Tsai. Its halls are plain: the main hall, which also serves as a meditation hall, the Vairocana Hall, the Ksitigarbha Hall and a Ksitigarbha Pagoda. The main hall carries the couplet "寶林開鳳山,梵刹接曹溪".
Wuming, an ascetic who had lived alone on Phoenix Mountain for over twenty years, founded Po Lam Monastery in 1955. After his death in 1956, the monk Shengyi took over the temple. It has remained a small mountain monastery reached only on foot.
The monastery's name links it to Baolin Temple and the Caoxi lineage: the main hall carries the couplet "寶林開鳳山,梵刹接曹溪". Monks farm the surrounding land to grow their own food, and several Hong Kong entertainers took vows here — Wong Yuen-san in 1989, Chong Man-ching in 1991 and Ho Po-sang in 2005.
Po Lam Monastery has no road access: from Ngong Ping it is about a three-kilometre walk of roughly an hour along mountain paths, and from Tung Chung about half an hour on foot. The usual approach is the Ngong Ping 360 cable car from Tung Chung station to Ngong Ping, then the trail east.
Monks at Po Lam Monastery farm the land to grow their own food, and only elderly monks are exempt from this work. The monastery is about three kilometres east of Po Lin Monastery and can be reached only on foot, roughly an hour's walk from Ngong Ping. In March 2008, former TVB actor Ho Po-sang, ordained as Dao Sheng, was working there as a guest reception monk when he caught burglars and was injured by them.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,107 contributors worldwide.