Kek Lok Si (Chinese: 極樂寺) is a Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam, Penang, Malaysia. Kek Lok Si was built in 1891 and completed in 1904, covering an area of 120,000 square meters, which makes it the largest Chinese Buddhist temple in Malaysia.
Guanyin Pavilion (觀音閣) was built in 2002. The bronze statue of Guanyin in the pavilion is 30.2 meters high, making it the largest outdoor audio-visual in the world.
The bronze statue was built to replace the previous white plaster Guanyin statue which was damaged due to a fire a few years earlier.
In Hokkien ,a southern Chinese language, Kek-lok literally means ‘supreme joy’, a translation from Sanskrit of Sukhāvatī (सुखावती), means paradise. Si means ‘temple’.
This newly built hall is very grand, and the interior decoration is also exquisite and beautiful. It is said that the wood carvings on the ceiling are all made by Fujian craftsmen, and then shipped from China to Malaysia for installation.
Ban Po Thar (萬佛塔), literally means ‘Pagoda of the Ten Thousand Buddhas’, is a seven-storey 30 meters high structure, which is the iconic symbol of the Kek Lok Si.
Ban Po Thar was completed in 1930. This pagoda combines a Chinese octagonal base with a middle tier of Thai design, and a Burmese crown; reflecting the temple's amalgam of both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism.
King Rama VI of Thailand laid the foundation for the pagoda, so Ban Po Thar is also named “Rama Pagoda’. From the top of Ban Po Thar, you can overlook GeorgeTown and the North Sea, and the scenery is excellent.
