The largest Buddhist temple in South-East Asia, construction on Kek Lok Si began in 1890 and continues to this day, with new statues, buildings and wings being constantly added. At Chinese New Year, the temple is decorated with thousands of sparkling lights and illuminated paper lanterns for thirty nights, illuminating Georgetown Penang's verdant hills.

Tourists and worshippers intermingle in the temple's decorated walkways and prayer halls. The Ten Thousand Buddhas pagoda is the complex's most recognizable feature, and combines Chinese, Thai and Burmese architecture in an acknowledgment of the temple's acceptance of devotees from multiple schools of Buddhism.

The recently completed 30 meter statue of the bodhisattva Guan Yin is perhaps the most major addition to the temple since the Thousand Buddhas pagoda was completed in 1930, and has already brought much renewed interest in the Kek Lok Si temple both within and without of Malaysia.