Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Hidden away in Sha Tin, two stops from the University MTR station, this place is a gem hidden away from the swarms of tourists in Hong Kong and a perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon in this part of town.

Founded in 1951 by the Venerable Yuet Kai, the monastery is located on a hillside in Sha Tin. With the idea of building a Buddhist college, him and his disciples took 8 years to complete the buildings. Located at the top of 431 steps, the path to the temple is lined with gold-painted wooden statues of Buddhas with various abstract facial expressions.

It is the temple at the top which gives the place its name. The walls are lined with 20cm tall Buddha figures, no two of which are the same, a total of some 12,800, made by Shanghai craftsmen and donated since the temple was built. The name does not refer to the exact amount of statues; the Cantonese phrase "10.000" simply means a very high number. It is also within this temple that the embalmed and masked corpse of Yuet Kai is seated, as he wished, within a glass box.

However, there is much more than the one temple. A large 9-story pagoda is visible from the bottom of the hill, half a dozen shrines with incense and statues of various deities, a great view of Sha Tin, and not least a tranquil place in a bustling city to enjoy a warm summer breeze and a lazy afternoon.