po lin monastery

my father's side of the family has a history here. though not practicing, he comes from a devout buddhist family. when younger, my grandmother would travel through the mountains to reach the monastery and pray. one of her sisters was a resident monk in po lin monastery for 40 years as well.

my great aunt is now ill and lives in a nursing home run and owned by the monastery. almost all patients there have no families and were once active monks. while protested by the monks of po lin, the hong kong government insisted on developing the surrounding areas of the monastery to increase tourism.

i was heart broken to see the landscape change towards commercialism. the new cablecar terminal is right in front of where my grandmother's ashes are. i asked my parents whether my grandmother would be happy about the new change. they said that she probably would be. she loved to be around people, and lots of people at that.