The village of Ngong Ping on Lantau boasts the world's largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha, the Tian Tan Buddha, or simply the Big Buddha. Not only that, but one of your options for getting there is a suspended cable car that traverses Tung Chung bay on the north side of the island. When you're on the platform the cars don't actually stop - they just slow down enough that you can hop in while they're moving. I imagine this being difficult for some elderly folks.
And we're off!
Crossing Tung Chung Bay we could see people both in little fishing boats and wading in the water with their fishing equipment. We were too high up for me to take any good pictures of them though.
We had a fun ride with five loud elderly Chinese people that laughed and talked all the way.
On the other side of the bay I could see a trail with people on it. Looking at the steepness of the slope I could tell that it would be no easy hike.
Here's one such daring person. I also saw another guy whose shirt was completely soaked through with sweat... and today is a cool day.
After just a few minutes we could see Buddha on the horizon. He's the little speck just to the upper left of the oncoming cable car.
Here's a better look.
I couldn't concentrate on becoming enlightened with this handsome guy sitting across from me in the cable car.
Getting closer (and using zoom).
We're there!
Ngong Ping village looks lovely from here, but I was quickly disappointed to find that it was nothing more than a stylized strip mall.
We stopped in the village for a pee. What can I say, I have a thing for neat bathroom signs. Plus, it made me feel important to enter into a bathroom with a lion door handle.
We made our way to the Buddha.
At last we could see more than his profile.
Here is Charlie indicating the difference in altitude.
In order to reach Buddha, one must climb 268 steps. It wasn't actually as bad as it looks.
Not only is the statue enormous (110 ft high) but it is also gorgeous. "Gosh, we're all really impressed down here, I can tell You."
People were praying, waving incense and genuflecting all the way up the path to the statue. Seeing so many people so moved by it, I myself was moved and started to get a little choked up.
On both sides of the Buddha there were three statues praising and making offerings. We saw a man tossing coins into their hands, despite a sign telling people not to.
Even though it was smoggy, the view of Lantau's hills was still nice.
We could also see the Po Lin monastery, our next stop on the excursion.
The entrance to the monastery is preceded by this impressive archway and a small wooded park area (the trees behind it).
We strolled through the park, inhaling the fragrant incense being waved by an elderly couple walking a little ahead of us. I enjoyed this sign that was posted, especially the last forbidden item.
Here you can see the entrance to the Po Lin monastery, founded in 1906, through a haze of incense smoke pouring out of three giant incense pots at left.
Passing through the Welto Temple in the previous picture, which contained nine large statues, we entered into a courtyard facing the Hall of the Great Hero.
The exterior of the hall was lined with these dramatic carved pillars.
Unlike the nunnery we visited a few days ago, there were no signs posted asking people to refrain from photographing the altars (at least not in any language I could read). Still, with so many people around who considered it a sacred place, I was reluctant to just whip out my camera. So I quickly, quietly and discreetly made this video of the interior of the hall, after which Charlie and I deposited several dollars into the donation box.
Behind the hall was this modest dormitory building for the monks, one of which we saw lighting three giant incense sticks (like 1.5 inches in diameter) to place in the burning pot just before the hall.
Then it was lunch time. The monastery had a vegetarian restaurant attached to it that served multi-course set meals, as do many restaurants here. We had the choice of the General or the Deluxe and decided on the General two-person meal that only cost $120 HKD, or $15 USD. While we waited for our food (which came almost instantaneously) I contemplated the messages on the table.
I couldn't photograph the message on the toothpick holder in its entirety, but it reads, "Work with your heart, is better than donating thousands of gold."
We're glad we only ordered the General, because we got all this food (plus a huge bowl of soup) and couldn't finish all of it.
This meal seemed more Buddhist to me than the one we had at the nunnery because it was more modest and simple. It was still delicious, though.
Here's the soup. It doesn't look like much, but it had some kind of spongy, potato-ish flavored vegetable in it.
These fried rolls contained julienned potatoes and carrots and were extremely yummy, as you can tell by the fact that there are already two missing from two photos ago.
This was a mixture of mostly corn with soft tofu, peas, mushrooms, carrots and onion. It sort of tasted like pot pie filling, minus the meat, of course.
Dish number three contained a stir-fried mixture of firm tofu, japanese cucumber, celery, red and yellow peppers, and onions. Mmmmmmmmm....
This last dish was our favorite: Baby bok choy and some kind of amazing mushroom that we have yet to identify.
Just enjoying the moment:
Sternly proving that I CAN use chopsticks:
After lunch we wandered around and happened upon this concrete enclosing that had fencing over the top of it and a large sculpture of stacked rocks in the center with several porcelain figurines perched on it. Around the sculpture there was a moat and several turtles. The majority of them were curiously stretching their heads toward the sculpture and remaining completely still as if in a trance.
I wondered if they were actually paying attention to the sculpture...
... or if they were listening to the chanting that had started playing over the speakers. It was coming from a hall beneath the Hall of the Great Hero and was part of a prayer ceremony. The general public was not permitted to enter nor take pictures from the doorway, but from outside I captured the sound of the chanting on film:
As we made our way out, as rude as it seemed, I couldn't resist snapping a photo of these four monks looking into a trinket shop. I don't think these monks pertained to this particular monastery, but rather, were tourists like us.
The last notable thing we saw on our way out was this little hut full of stuff on fire, mostly paper. We found out that it is a place where you burn paper representations of things your ancestors will need in the afterlife, such as hats, fake money, and laptop computers.
That was the end of our Buddha/monastery visit, but on the way back we scoped out the trail running along the cable car route. We have firm plans of hiking the thing on Monday (well, half of it anyway... the downhill portion).
Amen.
P.S. If you don't already know where the silly quotes are from, check this out:
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