Today was fairly eventful which helped a lot to keep my mind off things...well except the first thing I did because that is one of the things I want to keep my mind off of, which is that I went for a blood transfusion. And as with every time I have to go do it, it either leaves me incredibly tired or as was the case today, incredibly hyper. And so, I decided I would try to accomplish what I really should not have done in that condition and headed up to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin.
The best way I can describe the place is to give a reference to the Tiger Balm Garden that were shut down many years ago (shame), but I'll get to that in a minute. First, there was the entrance... Now when one thinks of an entrance to a monastery, one assumes that it will be welcoming. Well this one couldn't have wanted to tell you to go away and mind your own business. For one, the entrance was near what looked like a ditch in a farm. From there, you start walking uphill along a modest slope with several gold fibreglass Buddhas on either side of you... But then you turn the corner and you see another one of Hong Kong's 80-degree-gradient steep slopes with steps... not just a few steps, but about 500 steps...literally. But to cheer you up, there's 500 or so more of those gold fibreglass Buddhas on either side of you to keep you amused. I even saw one that had a marijuana leaf for a fan (though I'm sure that is not what the artist wanted to portray).
But in all honestly, it was not too bad because I took it slow and it had all been worth it once I was up there (as it always is). Now the reference to the aforementioned Tiger Balm Garden: gaudy. That's what the monastery is...gaudy. There's lots more of those gold statues that line every boundary of the holy place, 4 very scary looking statues (including one of a big blue dog that's there for no explained reason), a 9 story bright red pagoda (which was actually very cool) and oh yeah, a gold-gilded body of the founder of the monastery with very large letters in front of it saying "Corpse of Rev. Yuet Kai." That bit was slightly creepy. But no, I'm being a little too cynical about it all. It was actually very cool I thought and almost had the exact charm the colourful scenes at the Tiger Balm Garden used to have. Added on top of that, there were some beautiful urban views of Shatin valley below, but the coolest part was that the walls inside the temple were lined with rows upon rows of Buddha statues (pictured above). There's 13,000 in all just within that small building...it was amazing. In fact, the whole monastery holds countless Buddha statues, and the name "Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery" comes from a Chinese saying whereby "Ten Thousand" is merely used to describe something myriad.
Here's a couple more photos:
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