Michele's Travel Blog: Lantau Island- The Big Buddha & Po Lin Monastery

May 7th - Today I head over to Lantau Island. This is home to the Hong Kong international airport built in 1998, as well as Disneyland and Asia World Expo. I am skipping Disneyland and Asia World to visit the Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha. The Buddha is a large bronze statue that was completed in 1993. It is located near the Po Lin Monastery and symbolizes the harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and religion.
The concierge tells me to do the following to get to the Buddha. Central Station to Hong Kong Station, take Tung Chung line to Cable car. I hope I get it right as it all sounds Greek to me or should I say Chinese. Whew I did it.

There are two ways to get to the Buddha. Both are by train to Tung Chung. From there you can opt to take the bus or cable car to the village where the Buddha sits. The cable car is suppose to be scenic and worth the wait. This again is a bit of a tourist trap. The cable car was like waiting for a ride at Disneyland. It was a grueling 45 minute wait and tested my patience both coming and going. Once on the cable car, it is a 25 minute ride. The view from the car was awesome and I foreget about the wait. I visit the area and attempt to capture the Buddha and Monastery. Along the way there is a performance. If only my body was as limber as these performers.

Buddha Factoids
The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as "The Offering of the Six Devas" and is posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana. Unlike most of the other larger-sized Buddhas in China, which face the south, this one faces the northeast, towards Beijing. This was done to recognize China as the home country, because Hong Kong was still under British rule when the Buddha was constructed

The Buddha is 112 ft tall, weighs 250 metric tons, and has 268 steps in order to reach the Buddha.

The Monastery was initially a small temple constructed by three Buddhists in 1924. Over the years more structures have been built including the big temple.