The Rev Sik Kwok-kwong, who chairs the board of directors of Tsz Shan Monastery Ltd, said there will be no niches for the dead in the temple and that no individual is involved in the project.
But Sik, who is also chairman of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association and one of eight venerables who proposed the world's largest Buddhist forum in 2004, said yesterday that an allegation in a Chinese newspaper about the use of the monastery for one of the donors, Li Ka-shing, has ulterior motives.
The accusation "has seriously damaged the reputation of Tsz Shan Monastery and Li Ka-shing," he said, adding that the monastery reserves the right to sue Apple Daily, which made the allegation.
According to the report, Li, who is chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings), and his eldest son, Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, launched a company and secretly ordered the construction of a private monastery for the 82-year-old tycoon.
It was alleged that the monastery would later serve as a final resting place for Li as the Lands Department did not require the site to be open to the public.
Li, the richest man in Hong Kong, members of his family as well as three managers of Cheung Kong sit on the board of Tsz Shan Monastery Ltd, which was set up in 2009.
Construction plans were submitted in 2003 after a HK$1 billion donation from Li and his charity fund.
The bronze statue of the goddess Guanyin - the tallest of its kind - in the 50,000 square-foot monastery near Ting Kok Road is expected to become a tourist landmark along with Lantau's Big Buddha when it is unveiled in 2013.
The Goddess of Mercy will be 76 meters tall - more than double the height of the Big Buddha.
The monastery, with its front facing Plover Cove and with the Pat Sin Leng mountain range as a backdrop, spells good luck to the people there, according to fung shui masters
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