Monkey Assault at 10,000 Buddhas Monastary

Yay for days off! They prove Megan's theory of M=EA, mishap equals excellent adventure. We had Tuesday off this week for Sports Day, so we decided to make a day trip to Sha Tin to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastry up in the hills. Well, everything here is up in the hills, so I guess its a little redundent telling people that places are up in the hills. Its about an hour trip from school via bus, MTR, and the East Rail. Once we got off the East Rail, its about a 10 minute walk to the first part of the complex, Po Fook Hill. At the foot of this hill, there is a little pond filled with koi fish and turtles. There is also a little Thai-Buddhist alter with a statue. There were scarfs tied around the railing, and when I asked Terrence about it, she said that its for making wishes- If anyone has a wish, I can go back for you. There is also another wishing tree that I want to visit soon too. Po Fook Hill is mainly where the Buddhist graves are and one large statue of Buddha. Unfortunatly we didn't know this, so we would up walking all the way to the top. I didn't take any pictures of the gravesites, or anything like that because Terrence had warned me not to. She said that if you take a picture of the dead person's grave, they will follow you around. I just don't want to offend anyone. I did get some nice shots of the view from the top, and looking down at the complex. They had some beautiful waterfalls, so I got some great shots of those. The camera Wende got me takes excellent water pictures-its wonderful. When we got to the top, Megan and I stood around like idiots for a while, wondering where the 10,000 Buddhas were. An older woman, who seemed to pop out of no where told us in very broken English, "No, go down, other side" and tried to shoo us off as best as she could. I guess that she didn't want us up there, or something. So it was back down the hill for us, and then around a government building until we found the very faded sign for the monastary. The path to the entrance looked like a prison. I wondered what kind of monastry we were headed for! It turns out that there is a large amount of preservation work being done to both the sites. The real entrance is much more of what I expected, a small path that winds up the mountain side. The amazing thing about this path is that the whole way up there are these golden statues of what I presume are Chinese gods on both sides. And this was like a half hour walk too. None of the figures were repeated either. It seems that there is a god for everything here. The construction quickly gave way to a beautiful bamboo forests. There were more monkeys here too, jumping around. One of the bamboo shoots crossed above the path, and just as Megan was ducking under it, a monkey crossed over her. It could have sat on her head if it had wanted to. There were also some other monkeys on the path eating a giant fruit that they had taken from a tree. We've been around monkeys before, so I had all my food away and was practicing proper monkey ettiqute when a smaller one starts walking towards me. I thought that he was going to pass me by, so I turned a little to take a picture of one of the statues. Then I felt a tug, and looked down at my leg. The monkey had taken a hold of my pant leg and was tugging at it and squeeking. Now last week one of the exchange girls had gotten bit by a monkey because she refused to give up her sandwhich, and then hit it, (Rather stupid of her, I think), so I was scared. Megan was further up the hill, so I turned my face away and looked in her direction and said, "Megan?" Megan started laughing and pulled out her camera. Just before she could get a picture, the monkey lost interest and walked away. My heart was beating so fast, but I was very happy that I didn't get bitten!

So, once my heart started beating again, we kept going up the hill. I got some great pictures, be sure to check them out. The statues were so cool, and I wish that I knew what their purpose is, or what each one stands for. The temple at the top was a lot smaller than I expected. It consisted of one large building, and a long courtyard with a pogoda at the other end. Along the sides were more figures of Gods under awnings. Inside the main temple is where the 10,000 Buddhas are. The 10,000 Buddhas are various sizes all with a lamp infront of them covering the walls and pillars of the inner temple. It its an amazing site to see. All of them are the same exact pose but with different prayers infront of them. Once I get all the pictures uploaded, you can see for yourself. One of the monks is assigned to count them every night, to make sure that none were stolen. The room is just filled with the golden light from all the lamps, and of course there is the main alter with the three gold Buddhas enclosed. Curiously enough, infront of the center Buddha, there is an enshrined and embalmed body of a priest. I'm not sure why, because the dead are usually cremated in the Buddhist tradition, and never displayed like this. I didn't see any monks though, which disappointed me a little. My favorite thing there, besides the Buddhas was another diety at the end of the courtyard. I'm not sure who it is, but I really liked it because the throne, (I guess that what it is), is all arms and hands reaching out. I like to think that its suppose to represent taking care of everyone and everything in the whole world. I also climbed up inside the pogoda at the end of the courtyard and went all the way to the top. When I came back down, the same monkey that grabbed my pants was sitting on one of the awnings eating something and staring me down. I got a picture of him, and then he threw some of his fruit at me. I guess thats what I get for not giving him food.

Then we walked up to the new upper part of the monastry, which is another walk up a mountain path with more gods on either side of the path. This time, the gods where is full color and more animated then the golden figures. Eventually it all became bodhisvattas statues, which are just beautiful. These were the followers of Buddha and were present at his death. They are believed to be androgenous, and refused to enter Nirvana and instead remained on earth to help/watchover mankind. They look like very comforting people. There were only two other buildings at the upper level, and they both looked like temples going under renovation. I was standing outside one of them, and a worker came up to me gesturing that I take a picture and speaking to me in Chinese. From the gestures I think that it was quitting time and they wanted me to get a picture of the Buddha inside the temple. I did, and then Megan and I headed back down the mountain, since it was almost 6pm. On the walk back down, the monkeys were in the bamboo watching us, but there were no further incidents. Crazy monkeys.

When we stopped for dinner in Mongkok, I had the most wonderful tea, Green Apple Honey. I haven't been able to find it yet, but that is something I am defiantly bringing back with me. The rain started up just as we got back on the bus, so we lucked out. Later that night I also grabbed a late dinner with Shirley and her group at a hot pot place. I tried some really good mushroom-thingys, and took pictures of all the food we had. I spent a good deal of time poking the oysters because I thought that they were more that a little gross-looking. Then we headed back out into the rain. I thought that I was just going to head back home to my hostel but they took my to play mahjohng, and I played until 2:30am. I only one once. For now its back to class and work. I do have some bad news though, it turns out that Jason won't be able to come visit me after all. I'm a little down about it, but I'll see him in May at the very latest. Hopefully new pictures will be up soon!