The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is a famous Buddhist monastery in Hong Kong and was located on the mountain behind Shatin Pai Tau Village nearby the KCR Shatin railway station. It was founded from 1949 by the Reverend Yuet Kai and completed in 1957. The monastery is divided into upper and lower portions and occupied over eight hectares. It consisted of five temples, four pavilions, one pagoda and one veranda.

Main building of the monastery is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple in which over 12,800 pieces of exquisite Buddha statues each with different posture were placed on the walls. Moreover, the immortal body of Rev. Yuet Kai is situated in the central portion and let the people worship. At the opposite side of the main temple is the 9-storey Pagoda, which was selected as the symbol of Hong Kong printed on the HK$100 note. Between the temple and pagoda is the Vitasoda - Kwun Yam Pavilion, and the 18 Arhans are situated at both sides of veranda. Besides, the Manjusri and Samantabhadra Pavilions can been seen near the veranda. All above facilities were built at the lower portion.

At the upper portion there are the Temple of The God of Heaven, the Candi Buddha Temple, the Kwun Yam Temple and the Temple of the Nei Tor (Amita) Buddha. Each temple all placed different statues of Buddha for people to worship.

History

Reverend Yuet Kai roamed to Hong Kong in 1933. At the beginning, he preached Buddhism in a local monastery and many people followed him. Some years later, he planed to establish a Buddhism college when he accepted an estate that presented by a pious Buddhist who also a rich merchant. But finally he decided to found a monastery on this estate. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery was constructed beginning in 1949. At that rough time, Reverend Yuet Kai, despite of his old age, carried the building materials personally from the foot mountain together with his disciples to build this monastery. It spent eight years to complete all buildings and another ten years to finish the all more than 12,000 Buddha's statues. Consequently, the Monastery became one of the most popular monasteries in Hong Kong.      The biggest redecoration after built started in 1982. At this time, the Vitasoda - Kwun Yam Pavilion, the 18 Arhan Verandas were rebuilt, and all the statues including Buddha, Vitasoda, Kwun Yam and Arhan were repainted or coated by pure gold. In 1997, a seriously landslip occurred in the Monastery due to the stormy rain that destroyed some buildings of the monastery including both upper and lower portions, with among the Temple of the God of Heaven and Temple of Kwun Yam were heavily destructed. The lower portion reopened to worshippers and tourists after nearly two years' reconstruction.. However, the upper portion still close for further remedial work. Today, the present abbot of the Monastery, Mr. Ng Sing Tat, is carrying out a new project to glorify the monastery by making 500 gilded Arhan statues with the size as big as human. Once the project completed, the gilded Arhan statue group placed outside would be an unique Buddhist scene around the world

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Monastery

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery totally has five temples, four pavilions, one veranda and one pagoda. They are located in upper and lower floors in the Monastery. Five temples are The Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, The Temple Of The God Of Heavens, The Candi Buddha Temple, Kwun yam Temple and The Temple Of The Nei Tor (Amita) Buddha. The four pavilions are Vitasoka, Kwun Yam, Manjusri and Samantabhadra pavilion. The veranda and the pagoda are 18 Arhans and The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda representatively.

The Founder - Reverend Yuet Kai

Reverend Yuet Kai, the founder of the monastery, was a saga. He was not only a skilled player of Lyre, but also a talent poet. He was born in a wealth family and then studied philosophy in a famous university in China. At his age of 19, he determined to embrace Buddha to consecrate his own life to Buddhism, he flamed his small and the next fingers on left hand, and cut down a piece flesh as big as a palm from his chest to light forty-eight oil lamps in front of Buddha for showing his aspirations: first, never seeking the luxury living; second, reading and studying all Buddhism scriptures and the third disseminating Buddhism to people and benefiting them. And he had achieved all what he wished. Reverend Yuet Kai passed away in 24th April (23rd March in Chinese Calendar) 1965 at his age of 87. After eight months of burying, his disciples followed his will to take his body out from the coffin, unbelievable miraculously, just as Reverend Yuet Kai himself anticipation before death, the body did not any change at all. Then the disciples coated the body with Chinese lacquer and gold leaves. Up to now, the immortal body of Reverend Yuet Kai has still been preserved perfectly and placed in front of the altar in the main temple for people to worship. Besides, Reverend Yuet Kai gave his family a precious heirloom. His will stipulated that his corpse be buried in a wooden box for eight months, then disinterred. After eight months, his body really did not decay. Then, his family followed his will to cloak his corpse in red, to cover his corpse in gold leaf .

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Photos

One of the many life-size buddhas adorning the upward path to the monastery. One buddha sits atop a giant blue dog.     The inner temple of the monastery. Towards the left is the embalmed corpse of the monk who founded the monastery, covered in gold. A closeup of the pagoda, decorated with more Buddhas.     Top