Temple of the Nine Caves

# The model

This set was first inspired by the Chinese Hanging Monastery. While building the large supporting mountain, I realised I could make better use of the hollow rocks, and that's where the idea of many caves came from.

The model is not meant to be culturally, historically, or religiously accurate: it's freely inspired by architectural elements of different eastern cultures, with a bit of silly modern touch.

The whole model sits on a custom 72x40 studs base and its' about 50 studs high, for a total of 65x37x40 cm3 (25.5x14.5x16").

# The 9 caves

Monkeys onsen cave: with a natural hot bath, where monkeys keep warm. The bath can't be shared with customers. But walk through the cave to reach...
Onsen and tea-room cave: another hot bath available to the temple visitors, with on top a quiet tea-room.
Lovers cave: a heart-shaped cave. You can enter this cave for a romantic trip, but it won't end well as the other end of the cave is...
Mourning Giant cave: a face-shaped rock, looking like a crying giant face. A ghost lives in this cave ...or that it's they want you to believe to hide a precious treasure!
Fish cave: a long, windy cave, used to dry fish and fishing nets. With a lot of space available on top, which naturally was converted into...
The fisherman hide-out: a cosy apartment where the fisherman lives, while watching his nets drying on the bottom.
Cram cave: a cave inhabited by crams protecting the derelict of an old pirate ship.
Star cave: a mysterious hole in the mountain, enclosing a shining stone, probably a meteorite. Does it have special powers? Certainly, the monks of the temple revere it with great respect.
Ninja cave: a tiny gap in the rock, hardly visible to the sailors passing through. The perfect hide-out.

# The temple

The temple respectfully integrates with the mountain preserving its natural shape. Besides the Onsen and the tea-room in the lower cave, the temple has two main rooms: a gathering room with an Irori (traditional floor fire pit), and a resting room with futons.

The temple is painted red, with golden decorations and black roof.

# What's going on in this scene

Two monks are taking care of the temple and opening its tranquility to visitors.
Their little assistant is enjoying flying a huge dragon lantern. It certainly looks like a real one!
Two noisy visitors just arrived by boat. The skipper is happy to drop them off finally, but the monks just realised the mistake they made!
A quieter visitor is still enjoying the silence in the Onsen cave. He doesn't know what's coming.
The monk master in the meantime is paying his respects to the "star rock".
A fisherman is busy fishing, wisely ignoring all the commotion.
And a ninja (more or less) sneaks in and out of the tearoom to collect the treasure hidden behind its walls.
Under the "mourning giant" cave, a strange figure appears. Is it a ghost?! Or is it all a ruse to keep people away and protect the treasure chest?!

# Minifigures (11)

male monk
female monk
monk master
kid monk (and dragon)
fisherman
female tourist
male tourist
skipper
Onsen customer (and monkey)
ghost or...
ninja ...more or less

# Stickers (7 designs, 9 in total)

monkey Onsen painting
2x Irori room wallpaper
tea-room banner 1
tea-room banner 2
2x fish paintings
exterior banner 1
exterior banner 2

Note: some stickers are edited from images retrieved from the web and/or AI-generated. All stickers are only meant to show the concept, and will be professionally redesigned by LEGO, as per guidelines.