Hong Kong part one – The Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery

Ngong Ping, Lantau Island

The Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery were definitely one of those travel surprises you don’t expect and was certainly one of the highlights of my trip to Hong Kong this week.. When I heard about it I sort of thought to myself, “Oh, ok–it’s just going to be a really big statue on a hill.” But when we arrived I was truly shocked as to its size and scope.

Built in 1993 taking 12 years to complete, the Buddha statue faces north towards Mainland China. It sits 111 feet atop a lotus throne and cost $60 million in HK Dollars (about $7,734 million, US dollars.) There are 268 (STEEP!) steps to get up to the base and on a clear day you can see the ocean from the top!

Inside the Monastary considered  ‘the Buddhist World in the South’, I was lucky enough to catch some audio of the monks chanting, which I really found quite hypnotic!

here’s the link to the audio! 

I usually avoid showing people in my photos if I can, but thought it really helped show the scale in this case.