Kek Lok Si — temple
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Kek Lok Si

  • 2 min read
  • 5.398° N 100.273° E

Interesting facts

  • The height of the bronze Guanyin was deliberately capped so that its shadow would not fall on the Penang State Mosque.
  • When it was completed in 2002, the 30-metre bronze Guanyin was counted as the second-tallest statue of the goddess in the world.
  • The name Kek Lok Si renders the Sanskrit Sukhāvatī, the Pure Land or Western Paradise of the Buddha Amitābha.
  • The Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas lives up to its name, housing some 10,000 Buddha images in alabaster and bronze.
  • Because the Thai king Rama VI laid its foundation, the great pagoda is also known as the Rama Pagoda, and a large Buddha inside was given by King Bhumibol.
  • The temple was founded as a branch of the great Yongquan monastery on Drum Mountain near Fuzhou, where its founding abbot had served.
  • When the imperial edict arrived from Beijing, it was carried up the hill in a rattan chair while the scriptures followed in pony-drawn carts.
  • Funds were raised by dedicating individual buildings and objects to named benefactors, and the temple grounds of about 12 hectares were themselves a donation.
  • The first shrine to Guanyin was designed as a miniature of Mount Putuo, the island sacred to the goddess off the coast of China.
  • At the Liberation Pond on the way up, devotees release turtles to earn merit, following an old Buddhist custom.

Why it is worth it

Kek Lok Si, the "Temple of Supreme Bliss", spills down a hillside at Ayer Itam above George Town in a cascade of halls, pavilions, gardens and ponds, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. It is dominated by two landmarks: a seven-storey pagoda that changes architectural style as it rises, and on the slope above it a bronze statue of Guanyin, goddess of mercy, roughly 30 metres tall, sheltered by a three-tiered pavilion on sixteen bronze columns.

The temple was the initiative of Beow Lean, a Chan Buddhist monk who had served at Kushan Abbey in Fujian and had become head of Penang's Goddess of Mercy Temple. Building began in 1890 on a hill site facing the sea known as Crane Mountain, and the funds came largely from five leading Hakka businessmen of Penang, among them Cheong Fatt Tze. When word of the temple reached the Qing court, the Guangxu Emperor received Beow Lean in Beijing in 1904, presented him with a large gift of Buddhist scriptures and named his temple head of the Chinese temples of Penang; the scriptures were carried up to Ayer Itam in a grand procession. The main complex was completed in 1905, and further structures were added over the following decades.

The Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas, finished in 1930, is about 30 metres high. King Rama VI of Thailand laid its foundation, and it combines an octagonal Chinese base, a middle section in Thai style and a Burmese spiral crown — a deliberate blend of Mahayana and Theravada traditions that runs through the whole temple. The present bronze Guanyin was completed in 2002, replacing an earlier plaster statue damaged by fire, and its pavilion was finished in 2009; a hundred smaller Guanyin figures stand around it. Inside the halls are gilded images of Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the Heavenly Kings, along with carved pillars, painted woodwork and countless lanterns. For a month after Chinese New Year the whole hillside is illuminated with thousands of lights.

Getting there

Kek Lok Si stands at Ayer Itam on Penang Island, Malaysia, less than 1 km from the centre of Ayer Itam, within the city of George Town. The nearest airport is Penang International Airport (PEN), about 11 km away. The Penang Hill Railway station is roughly 3 km from the temple.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Malaysia 8The Most Beautiful Temples 95The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

The Kek Lok Si Temple is a Buddhist temple in George Town in the Malaysian state of Penang. Located at Ayer Itam, it is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and an important pilgrimage centre for Buddhists from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. The entire complex of temples was built over a period from 1890 to 1930, an inspirational initiative of Beow Lean, the abbot. The main feature of the complex is the seven-story Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda commissioned by the late Thai king Rama VI, featuring 10,000 alabaster and bronze statues of Buddha and the 36.57-metre-tall (120 ft) bronze statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. The 10,000 Buddhas concept belongs to the Chinese Mahāyāna school of Buddhism while Rama VI was king over a Theravāda country and Buddhist tradition.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

5.39833, 100.27306per Wikidata