THE MOST FAMOUS HISTORICAL TEMPLE IN PENANG

Written by : Farah Saqina Bt. Fakhrul Arifin.

Kek Lok Si Temple was built in 1890 and completed in 1905. It was inspired by Beow Lean, the monk chairman of the Goddess Mercy Temple at Pitt Street in 1887; He has served earlier at the Kushan Monastery in Fujian in China. The structure chosen by Beow, a spiritual location on the hills of Ayer Itam, overlooking the sea, is called the "Crane Mountain". It was established as a branch of the Buddhist Vatican on Mount Drum in Foochow in the Hokkien region. Beow Lean is the first Abbot of the temple. The temple complex building is sponsored by five leading business people in Penang known as "hakka". They are: Cheong Fatt Tze, cousin Chang Yu Nan, Chee Choon Seng, Tye Kee Yoon, and Chung Keng Kooi. There are many temples dedicated to Guanyin in the Chinese Sea. The people compared this temple to the Western Paradise of the Amitabha Buddha and began to call it "Kek Lok Si" ("Jilei Si"). There are also many hall halls, which have magnificent statues, all the gold, the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, the sacred Lohans, the guardians of the spirits, and the Heavenly (or Diamond) of the Land of the Writings of the Buddha. The Chinese consular representative in Penang reported the splendor of the temple to the Qing Kingdom. Following that, Emperor Guangxu invited Beow Lean to Beijing in 1904 and was awarded him, 70,000 volumes (7,000 also referred to in some references) of "psalms and sacred works of Buddhism" and also presented him anointing him as "dignity of the Head Penang priest "and also declared" the Chinese temple in Air Itam as the head of all Chinese temples in Penang ".

Guanyin Statue, inaugurated in 2002 before the pavilion was built. In 2002, the 30.2 meter bronze statue of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, was completed and opened to the public. It replaced the white statue of Kuan Yin earlier that was damaged by fire a few years earlier. The bronze statue located on the hillside above the pagoda is the tallest Guanyin statue in the world. One hundred statue of Kuan Yin's goddess, each 2 meters (6 feet 7 inches) high, is located around the main statue of the goddess. However, Kek Lok Si temple is known not only for the beauty of its historic buildings, which attract thousands of tourist every year, but also for being a center for Chinese culture and Buddhist teaching.