The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

High above a lush hillside in the town of Sha Tin in the New Territories, Hong Kong is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. It is not an actual monastery as there are no resident monks—instead, it has more than 13,000 statues of Buddhas of all shapes and sizes. To reach the monastery, one must first climb over 400 steps up the hillside—the path lined with life-size statues of Buddhas.

The entire path is dotted with statues of Buddhas—slim, flabby, bald, hairy, with animals like dogs and dragons, etc. Once inside the monastery, admire more statues—Buddhas in the garden, Buddhas in the pavilion, Buddhas in the tower, etc. The walls inside the temple are lined with thousands upon thousands of miniature Buddhas.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery was founded in 1951 by Yuet Kai—a monk who preached Buddhism in a local monastery. The construction of the monastery began in 1949. Despite his old age, Yuet Kai carried the building materials personally from the foot of the mountain together with his disciples to build the monastery. It took eight years to complete the construction and another ten years to finish 12,800 Buddha statues. Today, his preserved body is kept in the main hall of the monastery in a glass case, often the main attraction of the temple.