Kek Lok Si Temple is located in Malaysia, in the center of Penang Island, in the city of Air Itam, 7.5 kilometers from the city of Georgetown. Kek Lok Si is one of the largest and most beautiful Buddhist temple complexes in Southeast Asia. Its history is connected with the name of the Buddhist monk Piaw Ling, who arrived in Penang in China from China in 1855 to collect donations. It was he who owned the idea of building a Buddhist temple on a high hill, located in the center of the island. In 1891, the first temple was built - the Bodhisattva Hall, over the next 20 years, the Kek Lok Si Temple was constantly being built and expanded. Today the complex consists of several monasteries, prayer halls, temples, pagodas and landscape gardens located on an area of 12 hectares. The architecture of the temple combines Chinese, Thai and Burmese styles - the octagonal base of the temple’s “visiting card” - the Million Buddha Pagoda resembles a Chinese pagoda, the middle part is made in the tradition of Thai architecture, the upper part, with a spiral dome, is built in the likeness of the Burmese sanctuary. There is a prayer square in front of the Kek Lok Si Temple, and prayer halls and pagodas with many Buddha sculptures, statues of the Heavenly Kings and Bodhisattvas are located on the sides. At the entrance to the temple is the Liberation Pond, where hundreds of turtles live, visitors can feed sacred animals, thereby, according to Chinese belief, adding a few years of life. In addition to the Bodhisattva Hall, the temple has the Dev Hall, the Mahavira Hall, the Buddha Hall of the five regions, the Main Prayer Temple, the 7-story Million Buddha Buddhist pagoda or the Rama VI pagoda. Their exterior and interior are richly decorated with carvings, sculptures and frescoes. In 2002, on the top of the hill, a 30-meter bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy and motherhood, was installed (you can use the funicular to climb the statue). On the upper level of Kek Lok Si, there are a fish pond, a lush garden and statues of 12 animals symbolizing the signs of the Chinese zodiac. The Kek Lok Si Temple contains Buddhist relics and shrines - 7,000 volumes of imperial editions of Buddhist sutras donated to the temple by the Chinese emperor Kuang Xi, calligraphy and handwritten scripts by Emperor Kuang Xi and Empress Cixi of the Qing Dynasty. The temple is the center of the festivals of the Chinese community of Penang Island. Particularly impressive is the celebration of the Chinese New Year - for 33 days the temple is open until late at night, with the onset of darkness, thousands of lanterns are lit in it, literally "filling" with lights the entire hill on which Kek Lok Si stands.