Time Travel – Hong Kong 2009 – 10,000 Buddhas Monastery

Today we’re journeying back in time, up a mountain, and through the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery in Hong Kong.

It’s mid-March, 2009. We’re in Hong Kong, enjoying a trip that Debra won (yes, that’s what I said – she won) courtesy of Central Market, a wonderful up-scale food store in Texas, and Intercontinental Hotels.

[There is a story behind her winning the trip – aside from the fact that she is a lucky lady – but that will have to wait for another day. Trust me, I took something like 1,200 pictures on that trip, so there is a lot of material for posts. I’ll tell you the “winning story” in connection with one of them.]

We see something in a guidebook or somewhere about a place called the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. How can we not be intrigued? So we go and find it.

10,000 Buddhas – But What’s an Arhat?

The 10,000 Buddhas Monastery is on the side of a small mountain. The Wikipedia site –  you can find that here – says that you access it by means of “431 ‘steep steps’ … surrounded by statues of arhats – the Buddhist equivalent of saints who have achieved enlightenment.” Since it’s 2009 and if Wikipedia is even a thing, we’ve never heard of it, we don’t know anything about the 431 steep steps. Or the arhats. (I’ll call them “arhats” in this post since I have the benefit of 2017 research. But back in 2009, we don’t know anything about them.)

We figure out the steps pretty quickly.

 

We’re not sure what the arhats are, but they’re pretty cool.

Each one is different – not just in facial features, like the terracotta warriors – but in dress, demeanor, and personality. And degree of weirdness. More about that later.

There certainly are a lot of them. Are these the 10,000 Buddhas?

Debra tries her hand with one of the rustic brooms that we find along the way.

It seems we’ve been climbing a long way. I ask this fellow how much further, but he just smiles.

Finally, we’re in sight of the top – or, at least, what we think is the top.

Courtyard at the Top

Once we reach the top of the stairs, we pass through the first of several courtyards, this one with yet more statutes. What are these? More arhats? Bodhisattvas? I think probably the latter.

They’re as peaceful as they are beautiful. But as we soon will see, not all of the figures in the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery are so serene.

Main Plaza – Up the Pagoda

We make our way into what looks like the main plaza, with a Temple at one end, a pagoda at the other, and various statues and pergolas scattered throughout. Beginning here, many – but certainly not all – of the figures are brightly and realistically painted.

When we’re traveling, Debra and I can’t seem to pass up any opportunity to climb whenever we see a tower – even if we’ve just come up hundreds of stairs. The pagoda is open with a spiral staircase running up the center. We go in and up.

At the top, there is a chamber with a centrally-seated Buddha.

The view of the Temple with the crest of the hill (or peak of the mountain, if you’re looking with a Texas perspective) as a backdrop is lovely.

We come back to ground level, then head into the temple.

The Temple

At this point, we’re thinking that the name of the place derives from the arhats we’ve encountered on the path. Turns out, it doesn’t. At least not solely.

We’re not prepared for the thousands of Buddhas covering the walls of the Temple, guarded by yet more stern-faced arhats.

The interior of the Temple step up the opulence a notch. The golden figures with little or no color to them gleam, as if they are covered in leaf, rather than paint. And I’m sure that some of them are – or are actually fashioned from gold.

The contrast of light and shadow gives the interior of the Temple a surreal quality.

As we travel further into the Temple, we see some figures colored with spectacular lacquers.

The brilliant colors aren’t reserved for the statues.

Nor are they restricted to the walls.

We leave the confines of the Temple and wander onto other paths that we’ve not yet traveled.

Outside Again – Other Paths

There is so much to see that at times it’s a little overwhelming.

While walking along a path lined with brightly painted arhats, we encounter a sweeper, putting one of those rustic brooms to use.

Remember that I mentioned that the arhats all differ in their degree of weirdness? The slideshow below will illustrate that. I don’t know if these are all intended to represent enlightened beings. I suspect not. Whatever they are intended to depict, they stretch the boundaries of our Western experience. Here are some of the more bizarre figures we encounter on our trip through the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery.

A Collection of Oddities

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”2″ gal_title=”Collection of Oddities 10000 Buddhas Monastery”]

Continuing the Journey

Continuing along the path, we look back to the Temple Plaza and see the Pagoda, standing like a sentinel.

Soon, we come to a hillside with golden arhats, their attention directed away from us – as if toward some spiritual display that we’re not privileged to see.

Then, a little farther, we see another hillside of golden arhats, overlooking a … I’m not sure what. Perhaps a cistern?

There was a massive mudslide at the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery in 1997 that killed the caretaker and caused the site to be closed until the turn of the century. This is obviously new construction and may have something to do with drainage control. We’re in no danger today, however, so we keep exploring.

We Conclude Our Visit

We encounter more interesting characters along the way:

And when at last it’s time to go back down, the arhat version of Peter O’Toole bids us farewell.

We begin our descent under the watchful eye of a happy – and well-fed – Buddha.

We make our way down the path, grateful for the time we were able to spend at the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery among so many enlightened and interesting beings in such a spectacular place.

So we end our 10,000 steps through the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery and travel back to 2017.

Thanks for coming along on this adventure With the Barretts. No matter your country, your color, or your creed – we wish you peace and prosperity.

Dan

p.s. – Let us know how you liked the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery in the comments. And, if you haven’t already, sign up to get emails of our adventures in travel and home transformations as they happen – no time travel required!