Day 177: Mission Accomplished

Despite going to bed late I woke up early to check the status of my visa application for India. All the checks had been approved, so I got up to go drop off my passport at 9am so that I could get in completed today. I came back to the hostel and had a brief nap before getting up again. Since I was going to have to return to the Kowloon/New Territories region to get my passport in the afternoon anyway, I decided to finally hunt down the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and then hopefully pick up my passport on the way back afterwards.

The monastery isn't actually a monastery, since no monks live there, and apparently there are 13,000 buddhas, not 10,000. The place was created/funded by an old wealthy Buddhist who, after his death, was preserved in lacquer and gold leaf and enshrined as a statue in the main temple. The monastery itself was a bit challenging to find. I knew around where it was, but the path leading to it is behind some buildings and not advertised terribly well, so it's easy to miss. Once on the path, you immediately know you're in the right place though. Lifesize gold-painted statues line both sides of the path as it winds up the hillside. The quality of the statues wasn't all that great, but when you come to a place called the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery you're expecting quantity more than quality, and it delivers on quantity. While the majority of the thirteen thousand is made up of tiny figurines in the main temple, I estimate there are between 500 and 1000 of the full, life-size ones, each unique and individually interesting.

I know almost nothing about Buddhist folklore and stories, but I get the feeling it must be pretty elaborate. I don't know if all the statues are of specific characters, but a lot of them are just too random and unique to not have a story behind them. After exploring the temple, shrines and statue-lined paths I headed back down the mountain and continued on to go collect my passport.

Everything went smoothly, and I have my passport back with both visas I came to get. When I set time aside in Hong Kong I gave myself some extra days just in case, so I still have quite a bit of time here. I have a few small things I still want to check out, and a list of good hiking spots to visit, so I should be able to keep busy. It's just nice to finally have all the paperwork I need in order.