Kek Lok Si Temple

Kek Lok Si spreads up a hillside above Air Itam in tiers of shrine halls, gardens, turtle ponds and prayer pavilions, and it is the largest Buddhist temple complex in the country, begun at the end of the nineteenth century by a Chinese abbot and grown steadily ever since. Its centrepiece is the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas, seven storeys that deliberately blend three traditions in one structure, a Chinese octagonal base, a Thai middle section and a Burmese crown, filled with thousands of Buddha images. Higher up, reached by an inclined lift, a bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy, stands some thirty metres tall under a vast pillared canopy, looking out over the island. The best time to come is the fortnight around Chinese New Year, when the entire complex is strung with thousands of lanterns and lit every evening.

History

Beow Lean, chief monk of the Goddess of Mercy Temple on Pitt Street, who had earlier served at the Kushan Abbey in Fujian, chose this hillside facing the sea and named it Crane Mountain. Building began in 1890, as a branch of the Drum Mountain monastery in Fuzhou with Beow Lean as first abbot, and the temple was completed in 1905; five leading Hakka businessmen of Penang, among them Cheong Fatt Tze, paid for the buildings. In 1904 the Guangxu Emperor invited Beow Lean to Beijing, gave him a large gift of Buddhist scriptures and issued edicts naming the temple the head of all Chinese temples in Penang. The seven-storey Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas, whose foundation was laid by King Rama VI of Thailand, was completed in 1930, and in 2002 a 30.2-metre bronze Guanyin replaced an earlier plaster statue damaged by fire, with its pavilion finished in 2009 (Wikipedia, Kek Lok Si).

What's there

• The Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas - the seven-storey tower blending three architectural traditions.
• The Kuan Yin statue - the towering bronze goddess under her pillared canopy.
• The lantern illumination - the complex lit with thousands of lanterns around Chinese New Year.
• The turtle pond and gardens - the terraces climbing the hillside between the halls.

When to go

Year-round, but the fortnight around Chinese New Year, roughly late January to February, is when the whole hillside is lit with lanterns after dark and is genuinely spectacular. Mornings are cooler for the climb. It is an active temple, so festival days bring worshippers as well as visitors.

Before you go

The route up passes through a long gauntlet of souvenir stalls that some find wearing, and the complex is a mixture of the beautiful and the frankly kitsch, with concrete statuary alongside fine older halls. It is a steep site with many steps, though a paid inclined lift covers the upper section. As a working temple, modest dress and quiet behaviour are expected in the prayer halls.

Nearby

Penang Hill's funicular is close by; George Town's heritage streets are twenty minutes away.

Key facts