Today was a good day. After a stressful morning of running around and trying to get money out of my American bank account, I signed the lease on my flat for this year! It’s a lovely little two person apartment in the Prince Edward area of Kowloon, an island in Hong Kong. It’s very cozy, but so is everything in Hong Kong, so I’m happy with it. Prince Edward is a really nice part of the city, known for a gorgeous flower market. We don’t live near that, but it’s around somewhere! We do live across from a little florist though, so the view from my window will be gorgeous flowers, massive city buildings and a mountain. After paying the deposit (3.5 months rent/ $25,000 HKD), I’m officially poor until payday, but it’s worth it! We have to sort out furniture and amenities for the flat--most HK flats come completely empty--but that will happen in due time. I’m perfectly okay sleeping on an air mattress for a while!
I was supposed to join some friends at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum for an exhibit on Studio Ghibli, an animation company, and a concert by the Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band, but the timing’s didn’t work out for me. Instead, Hannah- my new housemate- and I went to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (Man Fat Tsz) in Sha Tin. There aren’t actually any resident monks on the grounds, so the name is a bit misleading, but there are actually ten thousand buddhas! Despite being a relatively new monastery (c. 1957) it’s astounding. The walk up to the ‘main attraction’ is pretty steep, you essentially climb a mountain, but it’s made easier by the life size golden Buddha's lining each side of the path. Each one is completely unique, with different expressions, features, and gestures, and they take you all the way to the top. It’s so surreal being in a buddhist temple, on top of a mountain, and looking down on a bustling city and a mountain. Hong Kong is a strange place of opposites. Hannah and I walked to the top of the pagoda, and couldn’t help but wax philosophical. None of these thoughts merit reprinting.
For me the most incredible part of the entire monastery was the temple with 10,000 miniature Buddha's lining the wall. It created such an overpowering atmosphere. The monastery is full of giant statues of Buddha, but none of them have the same effect as the 10,000 miniatures staring down at you. I’ve been trying to find the right word for it, but it eludes me. Overwhelming, calming, striking, peaceful, terrifying--they all spring to mind, oddly. I actually think the larger statues throughout the monastery take away from the power of the smaller ones. The gigantic statues have a tendency to slip from the grandiose and awe-inspiring into the comical and almost tacky, but ultimately they each contribute to the temple.
Yesterday I went to a completely different temple, the Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan with some other friends from the program, and it was a completely different experience. Firstly, it’s smack dab in the middle of the city. Literally nestled between high-rises. Secondly, it’s tiny- the entire temple is two rooms! But despite that, it maintains an air of tranquility and respect that I think was a little lost at Man Fat Tsz. Man Mo is thick with incense, large beehive shaped coils of them hang burning across the whole temple. Unlike M.F.T., it was bustling with worshippers. I really enjoyed watching them perform their rituals of worship. Hong Kong is currently in the middle of the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’, a time when family members lay out offerings to their departed who roam the earth searching for worldly pleasures, so the temple alters were piled high with fruits, candies, nuts and even cigarettes! It was definitely a more ‘real’ temple than MFT; one people actually worshipped at. MFT is more a spectacle people come to to observe, not a temple you they worship at.
gummygunk
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto