Muryangsa Buddhist Temple - Activities On Oahu Honolulu, Hawaii

The MuRyangSa Buddhist Temple is a pretty impressive temple to see in person. The name, Mu-Ryang-Sa, means "Broken Ridge Temple".

I did notice that the ridge of the roof of the temple is broken but, as it turns out, the roof really isn't broken. When they built the temple, in 1980, the roofline of the main building exceeded city height limits. So they had to lower it to the height you see today and thus it looks like it's missing part of the roof. Even major construction issues don't seem to bother Buddhists.

The details on the hand painted buildings, both inside and out, are pretty incredible. The various statues are impressive as well but the Garden of Ji Jang Bosal is the most interesting part in my opinion. This "garden" contains 1080 miniature figures of disciples sitting on steps. It's pretty neat to see.

The entire place is very peaceful and almost unnaturally quiet. The temple is surrounded by a residential area so houses are all around which is also pretty odd, but talk about a great neighbor to have! This isn't a place to come if you're looking for stuff to do, it's an actual temple. If you like that sort of thing or are interested in architecture you'll probably enjoy spending half an hour here.

It's not a place that kids would enjoy. Well, actually, they'd probably love it but only because there are plenty of places to run around and climb on. Considering what this place is, it's not a place I would suggest you bring kids.

The cost is $3 to get in ($2 for seniors, $1 for kids under 12) which is done on the honor system by you dropping the money into one of the donation boxes on the property.