10,000 and Counting

After a wonderful night with some new friends it was off to more monasteries. Our new friends were only in Hong Kong for the weekend to run in the annual HK marathon but not without a bit of additional fun. We spent the nights partying and the days sight seeing. These blokes hailed from Great Britain but were spending their semester abroad in Singapore. These royal servants seemed to be stand up guys and after just a few minutes with them I knew I would be getting along well with them. 10,000 Buddhas is a monastery in HK where they have literally scattered thousands of Buddha statues and replicas across the mountain side. The hike to the top is lined with gold plaster Buddhas all with different facial expressions and positions. As we continued up, hundreds of questions began pouring into my head, but a monastery, usually a place of peace and serenity, is not likely to have a tourists desk, although they readily encourage visitors. I wanted to know why so many? Is it significant or a process to become more spiritual? I wonder if they pray to all of them and if so together or individually? If they are praying why plaster, it looked so cheap and fake. You would think they would want to use real gold or at least a precious metal? And then why all different positions and faces and do they have meanings? Are the replicas of deceased monks? The list goes on. Anywho, It was interesting and I must say the shrine at the top where most of the 10,000 Buddhas are housed was quite nice. The large open air building had 3 walls covered in thousands of miniature Buddhas' no bigger than 3 inches. All through out the room there were pillars again covered in miniature Buddha's. This building was clearly a place of worship and was filled with what looked like offerings of many kinds. There were ceremonial bell ringings, oranges, stools for knelling on and more statues. As the trip came to a conclusion, I was confused and fascinated by the monetary but have no fear, I enjoyed it with some nice, new friends.