#13 10,000 Buddhas, IKEA, Amah Rock

Asia » Hong Kong
June 17th 2005

Published: December 12th 2005

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Ten Thousand Buddhas

Modest signage

Finishing up April, Part 2

April 24

Tony’s day off, get a late start as usual. Up till 3am the night before - beer, burritos and a movie at home - hmmm, seems like a familiar activity - oh yeah, just like what we did in Milw & LA only the setting has changed.

Want to hike but aren’t sure where, it is late and threatening to rain, a very gloomy day indeed. Head out about 3pm, but are still undecided as to whether to stay close to home or to go to the New Territories, so we stand on a corner with Lonely Planet’s HK guide looking like confused tourists. Getting frustrated by further indecisiveness, I take the plunge and opt for the NT since that’s where Tony wants to go anyway. Off to the Sheung Wan MTR station, the Island Line (blue on the MTR maps), switch in Central to the Tseun Wan Line (red), then off at the Tsim Sha Tsui stop to switch to the KCR system, East line. All of this switching is done through a vast underground network - with clear signage, maps, and helpful staff it’s pretty easy to get around,

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Start of a long hike up the steps

especially with an Octopus card. KCR is above ground and heads north to the New Territories via an East and West line, with the East continuing on to mainland China. Total commute time is less than 1/2 hour.

We want to get two hikes in and start off at the northernmost one, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, so we get off at the Sha Tin stop. Sha Tin is a small community not too far inside the New Territories. A bit of peace and quiet compared to HK island and Kowloon. On Pai Tau street, just outside of the KCR exit is a mall (what a surprise..its specialty is home furnishings, there is a huge IKEA there, more about that later). The mall’s northwest boundary is Sheung Wo Che street. We take that about a block and see the signs for Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and follow the path.

First section of the path has chain link fencing on either side of it - why? Seems weird, but it ends quickly and the long steps up to the monastery begin. WOW! 500 life sized Arhans line each side of the steps, each one unique in expression, robe, accessories, hair, and all

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Impromptu shrines

are painted gold with accents of brilliant color for hair or lips. Arhans are devotees of Buddha, holy men, and are depicted in lifelike, realistic poses and actions.

The monastery provides a separate wheel chair access ramp - if you have a person willing to push you up, or have a super charged motor on your unit, you can make it all the way up, but what a ride down!

The experience is sublime, quite meditative as we stroll through the courtyard on the first level. Incense burning everywhere, with gifts of flowers & fruit to Buddha left on tables outside the temples and pagoda. Further up to the second level there are more statues. Colorful Arhans and female figures as well. Can’t find any reference as to who the females are - but they are splendid!

The second level has several more temples, an abandoned house, and some buildings under renovation. We take the back way down, through the “streets” of a Sha Tin neighborhood. Pass by a temple where Buddhists are chanting, about 100 or so, all sitting in rows at long tables, reading the chants from books. A maze of stairs and concrete walkways

Ten Thousand Buddhas

More and more Arhans!

lead us back to the bottom of the hill.

On the way down, we notice other buildings on the side of the hill that appear to be part of the monastery and go in search of an entry point. Earlier, I saw an entrance that I thought might be for the monastery so we head toward it, on Pai Tau street continuing west from the mall. At the end of the street is a decorative Chinese archway, through it and up some steps is a courtyard with koi and turtle ponds, and a small temple. Then up more steps, to a large temple with many people inside chanting and busying themselves with paper. Inside are lots of large paper models of cars, boats & everyday & extravagant objects - I surmise they are involved in making them. There are many shops in our neighborhood that sell paper models, I’m told they are “gifts” to appease the spirit of the departed which are then burned at the gravesite.

See a sign, “concrete steps for walking down, use escalator to go up”. Head toward escalator. Out of service. Choices are a tiny, slow elevator/funicular that holds 4 people at a

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Getting near the top

time, and the line is about 30 deep, or trudge up hundreds of steps. Steps we go. This is after the 400 or so up to the monastery.

At the top, it takes me a while to figure out that we are actually in a Chinese cemetery, Po Fook Ancestral Hall, consisting of several levels, with each level having two or more vaults containing hundreds of niches. Families are busy placing flowers and burning incense. Each level has an area with many shelves full of colorful vases. I guess that these are all for public use & that you can pick any one you want for your flowers. Must be that the caretakers remove them when the flowers wilt. Am I right?

Can’t stay long, the smoke from the incense is getting heavy, so we make our way back down to Pai Tau street & head for the KCR station passing, almost, the IKEA store.

Should we stop? Yes. No. Yes. No. OK, it will only take 10 minutes. Mind you it is not MY idea to go in. This is part of the foam hunt previously mentioned to replace the concrete slab covered in cloth made to

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Which one is the Arhan?

look like a mattress where I can feel every bone in by body when I lay on it.

I know why IKEA is making money: Design your stores with a grand entrance, lead the slowly strolling throngs with shopping carts and their screaming, running around kids through a maze of A to Z home furnishings without providing an exit till they literally walk past every single display of every single item you sell. And yes, they have a mattress that will do, but only in twin. Exit nowhere in sight, the interminable march goes on. At least 1/2 hour to get in, find the mattress section, look at mattress for 60 seconds, and find the exit. Oh yes, the carts of the strolling throngs are full at the checkout lanes.

It’s getting late. Any other person, not being Tony, would say let’s get to the second destination another day. Nope, back on the train, our next stop is Tai Wai. The directions in LP are not clear, simple, but not clear. Out of the station, is a crisscross of divided 4 lane streets and an enormous X walkway above to lead you over the streets, but no street signs.

Ten Thousand Buddhas

This temple is amazing! Ten thousand plus buddhas.

So we follow our instincts and head south on what we think must be Mei Tin road, because it looks south and there are big signs indicating that’s the way to Kowloon, and afterall Kowloon is south… A few side trips later we finally see the rock we wish to reach, and the path to it. Of course, across a busy 4 lane street.

All right already. We arrive. Our destination is Amah Rock in Lion Rock Country Park. A direct route would have been to walk straight down Mei Tin road and STAY on it, on the right side of it. The entrance to the park is immediately past the Lion Rock Tunnel Road underpass - easy to spot once you are there....

It’s really getting late. Up steps to the official park entrance where there is a detailed, engraved map of the park, then past some barbeque areas with families barbequing. Did I mention that I have not eaten all day?

The path is clearly marked, so clearly that I laugh to myself (whatever laughter is left in me by this time) because each step has a big white paint splotch on it, as do the

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Each statue is unique, of course I can't verify that since I didn't look at every one

rocks next to the path, with arrows pointing the way. Still, we manage to miss a critical turn, and go the wrong way for about 10 minutes. Since we aren’t going up, and the rock is certainly up, we decide we must be going the wrong way. Backtrack to the turnoff point - we see that 5 yards the other direction is the path we should have taken. Grumble. Curse.

OK, now it’s really really getting late. On we go - we have choices, 1. easy path 2. difficult path. Which path do you think we take?

So far so good. Very jungle-like, quiet. It’s a paved path like every one we’ve hiked thus far, and not so difficult, well, not till we get to the steep part. Steps, and switchbacks, up and up. Tony is out of sight, it’s getting darker, there is rustling in the underbrush and a rather large animal burrow next to the path. I'm not interested in meeting the resident. It’s very still, not a trickle of a breeze, hot, humid, muggy. Wiping sweat that won’t wipe off. Huffing and limping I finally reach the top where Tony calmly says, “oh, there you

Ten Thousand Buddhas

A shrine to the founder, Rev. Yuet Kai - his body is entombed in this glass case for all to view

are, I was wondering…”. Whatever.

If it weren’t for the clouds, we’d know whether the sun is down or not. So what, there is almost no light left. Tony spends some time clambering around the rocks. There is a guy way out on a point with his dogs that he wants to talk to? The man & his dogs pass by me - 4 big labs that have gone on a run with him up to this rock! I take pics of the rock and yell that I’m heading back down. Tony appears & we start down the steps. Getting darker now. There is a remarkable sounding bird singing a melody like no other - wish I had a tape recorder. It’s singing to/with other birds that are quite far away, a very complex song, back and forth. Can’t stay to listen. I’m no longer laughing at those white splotches on the steps - it would have been difficult to get back, not impossible, but hard, if not for them.

Down, down and finally past the barbequers. Still haven’t eaten today.

Now it’s officially dark.

Thank goodness for Hong Kong’s excellent public transportation -

Ten Thousand Buddhas

Closeup of the Rev. Yuet Kai's gilded corpse

a conveniently placed bus stop is right across the street from the entrance to the park. Catch a bus going to the MTR/KCR stations, then from the MTR get off at Kowloon - Tony wants me to see the laser light show from the promenade by the ferry boat docks. By this time, I’m out of enthusiasm for anything but food. His suggestion of going to a restaurant in the smelly messed up condition I’m in is met with negativity. We go home, clean up, take a taxi to a perfectly good Indian restaurant, decide not to go there, walk several blocks to another Indian restaurant, get sweaty, eat excellent food at Bombay Dreams on Hollywood Road, spend more than we want to. Yippie, it's only 10pm and I get to eat! Tony: chicken vindaloo. Me: tandoor chicken. Both dishes are super, service is great, though they were stingy with the flat bread.

Go home and sleep like a rock on our rock.

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