"The Big Hut"

The Po Lin Monastery was initially known as ¡°the Big Hut¡±. In 1906, Zen masters Da Yue, Dun Xiu and Yue Ming arrived at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island from the Jin Shan Monastery of Zhe Jiang. They found that stretch of flat land, which was nestled so snuggly among the mountain, an ideal site for building a monastery. So they toiled and moiled and started to construct a small stone house, then followed by a big hut and hence a sacred place was developed. Monks from the ten quarters heard of the news and flocked in to the sacred place. They grew vegetables there, procured the instruments for rituals and eked out a living; a primordial monastic discipline was thus established.