---
node: dest_tian_tan_buddha
type: destination
slug: tian_tan_buddha
title: "Tian Tan Buddha"
lead: "The Tian Tan Buddha is the 34-metre bronze seated Buddha on Lantau Island, completed in 1993 beside Po Lin Monastery. Two hundred and sixty-eight steps lead up to it."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: dest_tian_tan_buddha.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tian_Tan_Buddha_by_Beria.jpg"
image_author: "Béria Lima de Rodríguez"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

The statue faces north toward mainland China, unusually for a Buddha image, and its name comes from its base, modelled on the Temple of Heaven's altar in Beijing. Po Lin Monastery below it was founded in 1906 and is the working half of the site. The Ngong Ping plateau around them sits at 500 metres, so the weather here differs from the city's.

## Highlights

Take the Ngong Ping 360 cable car from Tung Chung — 25 minutes over the mountains and the airport, and the arrival is the point of the trip. The monastery's vegetarian restaurant is the meal to have here. The Wisdom Path, a short walk of wooden pillars carved with the Heart Sutra, is quiet even when the plateau is busy.