Asia’s richest man funds $193M monastery!!
Hong Kong’s newest monastery is located in the lush hills on the outskirts of the city and was funded entirely by tycoon Li Ka-shing. The $193 million monastery will be open to the public next month, and here are 6 reasons why you might like to visit.
It features the world’s second tallest Guanyin statue — the Goddess of Mercy. At 76 meters, it looks over the site and out to the harbor. People usually pray to the goddess for peace and blessings.
A highly sacred place, the monastery is somewhere you can expect to get away from the city bustle.
The monastery will have several educational programs to promote the culture of Buddhism in the city.
Tired of fighting your way through crowded tour groups? They won’t be allowed in the monastery in order to preserve the tranquil atmosphere. It can accommodate up to 500 visitors per day, and you have to book or register online beforehand.
Visitors aren’t allowed to bring joss sticks, meat, alcohol or other food offerings in order to be environmentally friendly. Instead the monastery will provide water.
Buddhist or not, the monastery gives you a chance to enjoy Hong Kong’s outdoors with a breathtaking view of a harbor and other outlying islands.
By Naomi Ng, for CNN
Updated 1026 GMT (1726 HKT) March 31, 2015
Hong Kong (CNN)Nestled in a tranquil hillside, Hong Kong’s newest Buddhist monastery features bulletproof VIP rooms and the world’s second tallest statue of the Goddess of Mercy — a Buddhist deity.
The monastery is funded entirely by Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, who contributed $193 million from his personal foundation to the building project.
The premises, styled on Tang dynasty buildings, sprawl across a lush, green area of 500,000 square feet – around nine football fields.
It can accommodate up to 400 to 500 visitors daily, but will not be open to tour groups in order to preserve the sacred atmosphere.
Li initiated the project in 2003 to promote Buddhism in the city and construction took five years to complete.
Stunning sights, statues and bulletproof windows
At a height of 76 meters (250 feet), the Goddess of Mercy statue overlooks the site and a breathtaking view of Hong Kong’s harbor and several islands.
The monastery also features several grand halls, including one which houses three ornate 24-karat gold plated Buddhist statues, where people can meditate, and learn about Buddhism.
But perhaps the most intriguing feature is the bulletproof dormitory rooms.
One of the three dormitories that provide housing for visiting monks from all over world has built-in bulletproof windows to protect “important guests.”
“We installed the bulletproof glass windows because we hoped there could be a place to protect our important guests such as the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand and other top monks,” Walter Ngai Kai-shu, secretary general of the monastery told local media.
The rooms are still empty, and Ngai added that they were not designed for Li or any specific individual, reported the South China Morning Post.
Visitors are not allowed to bring joss sticks, meat, alcohol, or other food offerings in order to be environmentally friendly — instead the monastery will provide water.
“There are many other ways to offer the Buddha apart from joss sticks,” Ngai told local media.
Currently, a dozen monks, mainly from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia reside inside the monastery.
It will be open to the public on April 15, but registration and booking is now available online.
CNN’s Shen Lu contributed to this report.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/31/travel/hong-kong-monastery/index.html
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I think building a monastery with such a big statue is the wisest investment one can ever make. We cannot bring the wealth that we have accumulated in our current lifetime to the next one. When we die, we have to leave everything behind except our karma and the habituations we have developed.
The bigger the statue is, the more merits we can collect. A big statue can also pacify the natural disasters in the area, this is not unheard of. People or beings who see the statues will have Dharma seeds planted in their mind stream. If they cannot practise in this lifetime, they can practice in future life.
If we are not able to build a big Buddha statue, we can also help to plant a Dharma seed in people’s mindstream by wearing a Buddha pendant. When people see the pendant, they are blessed. In additional, the Buddha pendant can give us protection too.
Rejoice to Asia’s richest man, Mr. Li Ka-shing. His contribution to build this monastery and the second tallest Kuan Yin outdoor statue in the world had enriched Hong Kong and brought the blessings of the divine into the lives of many more! How wonderful! To visit the place, pre-registration via their online portal is necessary. Do plan ahead to avoid disappointment. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this lovely sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. It is so meritorious for Li Ka Shing to build such a big monastery and also an outdoor Goddess of Mercy statue. I like the idea that they do not allow tourist to bring their own offerings to the monastery and they have also set a fix amount of tourist that can visit per day in order preserve the peace and calmness of the monastery. I rejoice to Li Ka Shing for his good works.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Beautiful and amazing monastery funded by Asia “s richest man.A man from rag to become Asia riches man Mr Li Ka-shing knew he can’t take the money with him when he pass away.Hence using the money in good cause by funding the monastery to benefits many people and for Dharma to grow in this region . Thats great Mr Li initiated the project to promote Buddhism whereby people from all over the world can come together to learn and practice Dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article and photos of the beautiful monastery.
Oh wow, this is definitely an interesting article to read. People often think that people with the most money are the happiest people on earth and that they only need money and nothing else, I wonder what triggered Mr Lee to donate this huge amount of money to build this monastery?
Nevertheless, I really rejoice for him as this monastery is what going to connect people with the Buddha, whether if the visitors are Buddhist practitioners or not, the dharmic seeds are imprinted into their mind streams.
Wealth, money, fame etc don’t make a person happy, this article is the proof. No matter how successful we are, we’d always need a religion to get us back on track and go through life. I’m glad that Mr Lee has decided to use the money to build a monastery, because it will benefit a lot of people.
I am intrigued by what makes one of the richest man on Earth would donate 193M to built a monastery, what was the ‘sales’ pitch that sold him?
Hi Wai Meng,
This may be on of the reason,
“In an afterword to the book Building Tsz Shan, Li says he was deeply enlightened by the teachings in the Diamond Sutra that “all things are but a dream and an illusion”. This inspired him to embark on the project with the aim of serving the community with Buddhist teachings.”
Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1750457/hk15b-monastery-financed-li-ka-shing-has-five-bulletproof-guest-rooms
Mr. Li knows that despite his billions, he can’t take it when he leaves his body.
For him to donate and build a such huge monastery with such huge costs with his own money only shows his faith in the Buddha, Dharma & Sangha and a practitioner of the path.
For one to be born poor and rise up to become Asia’s richest men, only can come from his past and present merits of good virtuous deeds.
Mr. Li now age 86+, understands that his next investment will not be in real estate anymore, but would be in the after life.
So he may reap his next merits of investments for many future lives to come.
What a brilliant and strategic investment! 🙂
It is such an honour to be able to financially support a Dharma cause. Material donation is seen as one of the lower forms of giving to Dharma but being able to single handedly fund this monastery to provide for monks and teaching space for the Dharma to grow is a much higher form of giving.
Genuine generosity creates the causes for one to receive in the future so donating money towards a Dharma cause and thereby benefiting others, will result in receiving money at a later time, whether it is this lifetime or future lifetimes. This sets us up to grow our offering each time as we have more to give and that will consequently result in offerings such as this monastery where the patron has clearly giving much in his previous lives to create the cause for him to be able to do this. He has continued his generosity through this monastery and in the future he will be able to offer something even bigger.
Asia richest tycoon, Li Ka-Shin is pictured out as the sole philantrophist providing the entire funding of the $193 million Monastry project from his personal foundation funds. With a 76 meters (250feet) high, Goddess of Mercy statue overlooking the site and the breathtaking view of Hongkong harbour and several islands, it is said to be the World 2nd tallest statue. Buddhism is therefore said to be unique, the noblest of all unifying influences and believed to be the lever that can uplift the World. Coincidentally, as revealed by our President of Kechara House, we are also embarking on the second phase of our Kechara Forest Retreat in Malaysia, for a Dharma Learning and Healing Centre of Asia to be established, duly equipped with qualified sanghas to teach buddhist-philosophy, rituals, pujas and special rites as guided by our spiritual-Guru Rinpoche. It would indeed be a great blessing and ideal if our Kechara’s project can be karmically be funded by this great philantropic and Asia richest tycoon similar to the Honkong’s Monastry’s project, spiritually speaking it would be “GOD-SEND”, Om Mani Padme Hung. (Let’s all pray hard for it for the benefit of all sentient beings.)
It is wonderful to hear that Asia’s richest businessman has so kindly funded the building a monastery of such a huge scale that will benefit all who will visit this monastery and partake in it’s blessings.
Mr Li has outdone himself and has done a wonderful job to have put so much effort in to building this monastery.
I really love how the Goddess of Mercy looks over Hong Kong and how She is watching over Hong Kong and making sure that no harm comes upon it’s shores.
This sets an example for other rich businessmen to jump the bandwagon and do the same for their own country.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this!
Thank you Mr Lee for building this magnificent monastery . It will benefit all sentient beings in that area and create the cause for Dharma to grow even more in that region .
Thank you, Mr. Li Ka Shing for sponsoring such a beautiful monastery to assist in the spread of the BuddhaDharma.
I sincerely hope that a “Li Ka Shing” will arise in Malaysia as we, Kechara, embark on the second phase of our Kechara Forest Retreat that will be one of the Dharma Learning centres in Asia. And we do need this sponsorship.
我要说，李嘉诚是有智慧的人。
建造医院和学校肯定利益众人，建造寺院庙宇也同样利益一切有情。前者带来的是这一世的利益，能利益的是获得治疗和教育的人的今生。寺院和佛教教育能利益一个人的今生及来世，不仅能解决一个人在身体上的痛苦，更重要的是心灵的枷锁和困扰，找到真正和永恒的快乐。
感恩所有出钱出力建造克切拉禅修林的功德主，让马来西亚有这么一个让身心灵歇息，每个人找到内在宁静的禅修地。我们欢迎大家前来这片禅修地禅修、让身心接近大自然，让自己的心找到一个歇脚处。
有兴趣的朋友可以点此连接了解更多关于克切拉禅修林的资料：retreat.kechara.com （英文）或 retreat.kechara.com（中文）。
Li Ka-Shing being one of the most successful and richest man in Asia must be someone very smart and intelligent. It must be that he understands the values of building a Buddhist monastery and erecting huge Buddha statue. Otherwise why would he spent million to build it?
People always questions about giving money to build a temple, they say won’t it be better if the money is spent on medical research, feed the hungry, save the animals? Well, it is not that donating money for all these causes are bad, but building a temple is to leave behind an institution where people can find peace within by learning how mind works. Many problems are caused by our own mind, if we are more aware of our mind, we will be able to solve the problems we face in our lives.
Kechara is also a place to heal people’s mind, to instil the right attitudes and values to our younger generation. Do drop by to visit us or support us by making donation or volunteer with us, we need your help to realise this dream.
Asia’s richest man giving back to the community and the world by building this stunning monastery. People will be able to collect merits and cultivate to gain attainments. He has provided a place where Buddhadharma can spread to the masses.
I would love to visit the monastery and pay homage to Kuan Yin one day.