BFB

Today I went to visit the BFB, big f-ing Buddha. It is, in fact, quite large. It would be spiritual, if it weren't for the fact it was surrounded by a cesspool of tourism.


Whoever got the world all excited about Disneyland coming to Hong Kong didn't get a chance to check out Po Lin monastery. Aside from the fact Lantau Island (where Disney land was built) already had an amusement park (Ocean Park), it also has what can only be decribed as Buddha World trademark Buddha World Inc.In roughly the center of the island is the world's largest bronze outdoor seated Buddha called the Tian Tian Buddha is accompanied by Po Lin monastery, which is responsible for its creation and up keep. The Buddha is actually quite remarkable, its over 80 feet tall on its own and sits on a pedestal which sits on a mountain top, so you have to climb a huge flight of stairs to get to it. I came on a weird weather day, half the sky was bright and sunny and the other half was gray and clouded, which meant I got alot of fog and frustrating lighting conditions, but some interesting photos. I took the ferry to the island and then a 30 minute bus ride to Ngong Ping, the village next to the monestery. It was pretty awesome, hair pin turns on cliff sides and actual farm land in Hong Kong (I got to see cows!). There's also a lot of camping, for the nature enthusiasts.

So getting there was awesome, being there was, bleh. Maybe I'm just not used to the more relaxed rules of eastern spirituality, but they could have done a little crowd control on thinning out the dumbstruck looking tourists from the actual worshiping Buddhists. Although I guess this is hard when the Buddhists are the tourists. I saw one guy filming people pray three feet away from them. Piss off! these people are more than the mildless culture whores checking off another point on their itinerery. (Says the girl who was there because it was on her list o' things to check out, but at least I try to have some tact). Anyway, the whole complex (which has a weird fixation on getting you to eat at the vegetarian restaurant) was a tight jumble of buildings that was surprising hard to get around. Also, I went looking for the "old temple" thinking, oh, something of cultural importance, and found a construction site with a small tent in the middle of it and an incense burner. Apparently old temple wasn't up to the monk's expectations.

I took the Sky Rail back, which I knew was going to be cheezy, but I hadn't realized the village I'd have to walk through was, in fact, a Buddha-themed mall, complete with starbucks and "Buddha! The Ride." No, I'm not joking:


I was so displeased with the whole thing I left and forgot to check out this fort from the 1830's, dammit. Its just that I had been looking forward to visiting Lantau for days now, and finding out it was a huge tourist trap was just...disappointing. At least I got some pretty shots of the garden. Its also, for all its commercial trappings, a site with a lot of examples, virtually every doorway had lions in front of them, so that was cool. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd go back. I still might, just not on a Friday...we'll see. At least I got some nifty photos.

one big buddha

Me, looking not too cheesy/awful. Weird side story, I had to do this with a couple different people because the first person who took my photo JUST took a picture of me, no Buddha. I had to specifically ask the people who took this to get the buddha in, they were suprised but ok with my request. What kind of vacation photos do these people take? "Here we are at the great wall. You can't see it, but we were there."

BFB, round II

And lastly, behold! the light of Buddha.