New Territories. Sha Tin | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

New Territories. Sha Tin

New Territories. Sha Tin
Authors: 

Temple of 10,000 Buddhas

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Wednesday, January 1, 1958
Connections: 

Comments

it's amazing how much of this stuff is still around, even after nearly 60 years.

Thanks Phil

When I went back to the Temple in the mid 2000s I didn't know that there had been a very damaging land slide and I wondered why there was so much renovation work taking place. I took a few photographs of a 'then and now' type and it was only when I carefully compared them with my 1958 ones, back home in the UK, that I realised that some of the 2000 figures were new, almost the same as the originals - but not quite.  So, how much did survive that land slide?

I hadn't heard of the landslide, but I do know that only very recently the original Kwan Yam/Guan Yin statue occupying centre stage of the terrace had been removed and replaced by a new one with a different pose. I wonder if this is when the monastery took the decision to install the multitude of golden arhat figures that now adorn the path up?

What is quite obvious to me now is that the place is being run as a business with the installation of a whole bunch of new buildings containing thousands of ash niches. It's a lucrative business in HK with every and anyone jumping on that bandwagon.

Phil.  When I took a group of 367 Association members up there in 2007, I was amazed to see all those arhat figures.  They certainly were not there in 1958.  I wonder what Rev. Yuet Kai would make of it all.

Andrew

I'm pretty sure he would be spinning in his glass case :-)

My brief meeting with him made me realise what a real gentleman he was.