An impres­sive and expan­sive hill­side tem­ple com­plex, reput­ed to be the largest Bud­dhist tem­ple in South-east Asia. Much of the tem­ple is free and you could eas­i­ly spend a few hours explor­ing the halls and shrines. With­in the tem­ple com­plex is the ”’Pago­da of Ten Thou­sand Bud­dhas”’, or ”Ban Po Thar”, which is part of a sep­a­rate paid area. The pago­da is styled with Khmer, Thai and Chi­nese influ­ence and is one of the main attrac­tions of the tem­ple. A mini funic­u­lar train can take vis­i­tors to the sum­mit of the com­plex where there is a giant, one hun­dred foot high, bronze stat­ue of ”’Kuan Yin”’, the God­dess of Mer­cy, unveiled in 2002. The world’s largest pavil­ion (two hun­dred foot high) was com­plet­ed in 2009 to shel­ter it from the sun. There is a Koi carp pond and well man­i­cured gar­dens, along with a few more tem­ples. Views from the sum­mit are impres­sive and are worth the trip up. One unfor­tu­nate side of the tem­ple is that it reeks of com­mer­cial­ism with stalls scat­tered through­out, includ­ing in prayer halls, sell­ing trin­kets and junk. The tem­ple is pop­u­lar with pil­grims dur­ing the week­end. Dur­ing the fif­teen days of ”’Chi­nese New Year”’ the tem­ple is colour­ful­ly lit with thou­sands of lanterns and remains open until late. If you are in Penang at this time the tem­ple is wor­thy of a night vis­it after 19:20.