Kek Lok Si Temple
Malaysia's largest Buddhist temple, with a seven-storey pagoda and a hundred-foot Guanyin.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs 30 min
Best time
Chinese New Year, in the evening
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Kek Lok Si was founded in 1891 and is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. Its Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas combines three styles over seven storeys: a Chinese base, Thai middle levels, a Burmese crown — a deliberate synthesis of the region's three Buddhist traditions.
Above it, a statue of Guanyin, goddess of mercy, stands thirty metres tall under a columned pavilion completed in 2009. During Chinese New Year the temple is lit for a month by tens of thousands of lamps, and that is when to see it.
Getting there
At Air Itam, eight kilometres west of George Town. Bus 201, 203 or 204, or twenty minutes by taxi. A funicular climbs to the statue level.
What the price covers
temple entry is free; the pagoda and the funicular to the statue are charged
What to bring
- Headlamp
Rules on site
Access to the temple is free but the pagoda and the funicular are charged separately. You climb through a long arcade of shops: it is the only way in, and it is designed that way.