竹林禅院 And 四面仏 In 荃灣

It took me a while to write this blog post as this visit was months ago in July 2019.

Readers of this blog know that I love to visit Hong Kong and also love to be praying at the various temples in Hong Kong. My all time favourite is of course, Tze Shan Monastery 慈山寺 but there are others such as 元朗大樹下天后古廟 Yuen Lang Tin Hau Temple Wishing Tree and Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree 林村許願樹. I also must visit the Wong Tai Sin Temple every trip if I can. In the last trip in Feb, I even did a 拜太岁 ceremony in Wong Tai Sin temple. Which was a wonderful unique experience.

Back in July 2019, I visited Hong Kong for only one night stay (and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn) because I was my way to Shenzhen and I wanted to take Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong instead of another airline to Shenzhen. And also I wanted to take the chance to visit 竹林禪院 Chuk Lam Sim Yuen at Tseun Wan 荃灣芙蓉山路.

Again, just like most of the places in Hong Kong, I first know of this place from a yearly TVB favourite program of mine. 天天開運王 is a Chinese metaphysics related variety show serial that is broadcast every year just before Chinese New Year. The one that I saw 竹林禪院 was the 2019 version. The 2020 version was pretty meh. Ha.

In that episode, they introduced the Four Faced Buddha 四面佛 located in this temple 四面仏 at 竹林禅院.

And in true Feng Shui fashion, the temple is sitting in a North-South orientation and when I was there, I did checked and it was true 🙂

How to get to Chuk Lam Sim Yuen 竹林禪院

You can take the MTR to 荃灣 Tsuen Wan station and then the easiest and fastest way is just to take a taxi there from the MTR station.

It is very near to the MTR (if you are taking a cab). You can try walking there through a specific exit from the MTR (circled in Green in this diagram) but this time, I am not going to show that. Just take a cab from the MTR station 🙂

You can also try to take bus 85 as can be seen from this guide at the MTR station.

The Four Face Buddha (四面仏) is just next to the Chuk Lam Sim Yuen (竹林禅院) so you are visiting two temples at one time.

竹林禅院 Chuk Lam Sim Yuen

The main temple in this area, 竹林禅院 is very peaceful and offers the chance for you to spend some quiet moments to pray and mediate.

A spectacular view (North South facing !) when you are at the top most temple at this monastery.

You can also see the Four Face Buddha 四面仏 that we will visit later.

I was very lucky (right date, right time.. the art of date selection) to be able to join in a prayer session. To just listen to the chanting of the monks, and to pray for the good life and well being. It was an experience I will never forget. Of course, I cried… as usual 🙂

竹林禅院四面仏

Just down the main entrance of 竹林禅院 is the 四面仏. Over here you can pray to the 四面佛 with the help of the ladies there who would (for a fee) provide you with the correct praying materials such as fruits and flowers.

How to Pray to 四面佛 Four Face Buddha

According to the TVB programme, you are supposed to walk clockwise (in my video, I walked anti-clockwise as I was filming. Don’t follow. HA HA). Why clockwise. Because clockwise is 顺时针 in Chinese. 顺 = Smooth. You want to be smooth in your future and endeavours.