Kek Lok Si Temple

This guide to Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang Island follows a Fujian businessman named Beow Lean, who traded his trade for a monk's robe in 1885 and sailed to Penang meaning to collect donations and return home. Instead he became chief monk of George Town's Kuan Yin Teng temple and started climbing the hills above Ayer Itam, scouting a hilltop he came to call Crane Mountain. You'll hear how five local businessmen, including the trader Cheong Fatt Tze, bankrolled the halls that followed, and how word of the project eventually reached the imperial court in Beijing. Listen for how a single fundraising trip turned into decades of building that never really stopped.