Have you ever visited a place that seemed detached from the real world? A place that seems so perfectly poised, so delicately hushed, that you almost hesitate to disturb the peace by stepping inside? For me this describes the pagoda at the Kek Lok Si temple in Malaysia. It's an experience I won't forget, but I almost missed it amidst the splendour of the rest of the complex.
Kek Lok Si Temple
The Kek Lok Si temple ('Temple of Supreme Bliss') is a Buddhist temple that sits on a hill outside George Town in Penang, Malaysia. It is one of the largest temple complexes in Asia. At first impression, the vibe, at least for me, was not particularly peaceful, the colours just a little too bright to inspire quiet reflection.
The temple is situated on multiple levels, with several different pagodas, each one filled with statues of Buddha. The decades of workmanship that go into creating something like this is impressive and in itself worthy of admiration.
Much of the complex is grand and quite gaudy. On almost every level there are shops selling trinkets and religious items. Add to that the amount of construction going on, and personally, although it’s certainly impressive, I didn’t find this part of the temple particularly spiritual.
Then again I'm not a Buddhist (although I’m interested in the practice) and I am sure for people who are practicing this place holds special meaning. This was evident in the large amount of people filing through the prayer halls, and the stacks of roof tiles, which are offerings made by devotees to the temple, each one painted with the person's name.
At the very top of the hill is a huge statue of the bodhisattva Guan Lin, also known as the Goddess of Mercy. In Chinese the name actually means '[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of The World'. This one of the largest such statues in Asia if not the world.
It was a hot afternoon, and climbing up all the steps to reach this giant statue left us sweaty and exhausted (the last few hundred steps you have an option to pay RM2 to take a lift which we did, more because we missed the turning that enabled you to avoid the lift, but anyway, it was welcome respite in that heat).
The huge statue is certainly impressive, towering above the landscape. But still, in the heat and desperate for some water (luckily there was another shop here at the base of the statue where I could buy some), I was not finding anything personally spiritual here.
The Pagoda
We almost gave up on visiting the pagoda, as we actually couldn’t figure out how to get there. The obvious way was closed off for construction, and at first we couldn’t find the alternative access, which was through yet another gift shop. We ended up circulating several times round the centre of the complex, looking for this elusive route, getting hotter and hotter.
I guess other people had had the same problem as us, because when we finally struck the right path, this side of the temple was deserted. We wandered through a quiet garden, and came across a huge bell.
You are supposed to sound the bell after making your prayers. We gave it a ‘bong’, somewhat apologetically, as it was so quiet here that it felt quite rude to disturb the peace.
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"
Now we approached the entrance to the pagoda. I stepped over the threshold, and it was as if the outside world just stopped existing. Gone was the dazzling sunlight, the heat, the brightness; here it was shady and hushed. The silence stunned my feet into stillness.
The colours were subtle, sometimes faded with time, much gentler than the garish brightness of the main complex. The walls were decorated with tiles, often painted delicately in soft shades.
A spiral staircase circled round the inside of the wall, climbing up to the top of the seven storey high structure. I was convinced that we were climbing higher than the pagoda appeared from the outside. But I didn’t want it to end. Each level brought something delicately stunning and exquisite.
The Buddha statues in here sat quietly. They were not massive, nor were they made of gold. They were small, often carved in white marble, seeming peaceful, at one with the world. It was like they had been sitting here patiently, undisturbed until we came along.
The elegance of the lines of these statues, the subtlety of the colours, the grace of their expressions, combined with the beautiful shadiness of the pagoda; all this made me feel like I was in a dream.
A few garlands of marigolds, a vase of fresh flowers a lotus blossom placed in one of the statue’s hands, these were the only signs that other people had been here.
The light inside the pagoda came from openings in the walls. These openings, together with the spiral staircase that twisted up out of sight, circulated a cooling and very welcome breeze throughout the entire structure.
The way this pagoda was designed meant that the Buddhas were often placed in shady interior rooms, with the passageway that connected to the stairs circling around the outside of these rooms. This added to the sense of discovery as you came up to each level, as you had to walk around the passageway a little way before the secret of what the new level held was revealed.
Sometimes you would get a little glimpse beforehand through circular windows in the passageway, that spilled light gently across the room and provided a glance into the intimate secret world of these statues, as they meditated silently, or reclined on the altar.
Circling around the pagoda, up and up and spiral stairs, we floated around the Buddhas, the light resculpting the statues at each turn. Or was it they that were moving, breathing, floating in this shady space? Dust hung suspended in the soft sunlight. The Buddhas gently glanced at us as we passed by, undisturbed by our presence. Some of them faced outwards over the surrounding landscape, gazing steadfastly and peacefully over the slopes.
This place had something magical about it. It was completely untouched by the frenzy in the rest of the temple to be the grandest or the largest or the best. Instead this felt like one of the most peaceful and dreamy places I have ever been to. It absolutely mesmerised me, and will stay with me for a long time.
On the way out we passed that huge bell again. This time we left it silent. It seemed better not to disturb the peacefulness of that beautiful place more than necessary.
Read the poem A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe here