10 000 Buddhas

Each life size, fiberglass, gold painted figure is different.

Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (Man Fat Tsz) is a Buddhist temple in Sha Tin,Hong Kong. It is located at 220 Pai Tau Village, Sha Tin. It is not an actual monastery as there are no resident monks and is managed by laypersons. It was built by Yuet Kai, a devout Buddhist layman who dedicated the last years of his life to constructing an elaborate temple containing nearly 13,000 statues of Buddha.^[1]

In 1951, Venerable Yuet Kai (Ch. 月溪法師, Yue Xi) founded the Monastery, coming to Hong Kong in 1933. He preached Buddhism in a local monastery. He planned to establish a Buddhist college when he accepted an estate from a pious Buddhist who was also a rich merchant. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery was constructed at the beginning of 1949. Despite his old age, Yuet Kai carried the buildings materials personally from the foot of the mountain together with his disciples to build the monastery. It took eight years to complete all the buildings and another ten years to finish the 12,800 Buddha statues. construction was finished in 1957.^[2] Today, his preserved body is presented in the main hall of the monastery in a glass case, often the main attraction of the temple.

The Main Temple and the Pagoda of the Monastery are graded as Grade III Historic Buildings due to their historic significance.^[3]

My Dear Great Ones,

The Buddhist religion is the predominant religion in Hong Kong. About 80% of the region is Buddhist. Hong Kong has numerous temples, statutes, and shrines dedicated to Buddha.  In fact one of Hong Kong's main tourist attractions is the Big Buddha on Lantau island.  I am going to be brutally honest, and I will sound very judgemental here, but I don't get Buddhism.  Case in point, Thailand is 97% Buddhist and at least 90% of the population is in poverty.  There are numerous golden shrines of Buddha in that country that if melted down and invested properly could bring millions of people out of poverty.  Instead the leaders of that country allow millions of woman to prostitute themselves to "rich," western men.  It's disgusting and very upsetting.  When the Tsunami devastated Thailand a few years ago, several Christian organizations around the world, including Christians from Red Deer travelled there to help rebuild the affected areas.  Where were the Buddhists?

In Hong Kong 6% of the population is Christian yet it is home is to several thriving ministries and churches who are world reknowned for their work with the poor, drug addicts, troubled youth, homeless, refugees and those caught in the sex trade.  There is also a ministry that collects old stuff from around Hong Kong and sends it all over Asia to those less fortunate.  Christianity just makes a lot more sense to me.

To further hammer home my skepticism of Buddhism I went to visit the 10 000 Buddhist monastery a few weeks ago.  To say it was bizarre is an understatement.  You first had to walk up a rather lengthy trail bordered by life size gold painted fiberglass Buddhist figures.  Each one was different.  The actual monastery building had thousands of (10000?) mini sitting  buddhist figures stacked on top of each other in their own little cubicle from the floor to the ceiling.  Each had a little red light.  I could go and on about the many other strange things I saw at the 10000 Buddhist site.   Yet I can not help feel that if a faith has to rely on another person's different faith to help them in a time of need then why are you following it?   If a faith seems to be more concerned about maintaining idols rather than building and taking care of people than why bother following it.

God bless you all.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

 Near the top of the monastery.

 Fat happy buddha with his kids.

Weird, a buddha with my legs and body form.