Where Is Santavana Forest Hermitage Located and When Is It Open?

Updated

Santavana Forest Hermitage (santavana.org) operates at two named locations in Sabah, Malaysia: the hermitage itself in Tuaran (斗亞蘭) and an Education Centre in Alamesra, Kota Kinabalu (亞庇). The site lists specific opening hours for its bookshop and流通 (distribution) points, and it posts schedule adjustments under its latest news section. If you are planning a visit, the two things to confirm are which site hosts the activity you want and whether the hours have been adjusted that week.

The Two Locations

Location Name as listed Typical use
Tuaran (斗亞蘭) 寂靜禪林 (Santavana Forest Hermitage) Hermitage grounds; one of the two distribution points for items such as the limited-edition coffee cups
Alamesra, Kota Kinabalu (亞庇) 寂靜禪林教育中心 (Santavana Education Centre) Courses, workshops, and medical charity clinics

The Education Centre is the venue named for recurring programs. For example, the Chinese medicine charity clinic held on 27 September 2026 took place at the Education Centre in Alamesra, and the two-day Buddhist counselling workshop on 19–20 September 2026 was also held there.

Opening Hours

  • 寂靜書軒 (the bookshop): open Saturdays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. The site notes this as an adjusted schedule ("開放時間調整"), so treat it as the current posted time rather than a permanent one.
  • Distribution points for the limited-edition coffee cups: Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., at both the Tuaran hermitage and the Alamesra Education Centre.

The site does not publish general daily opening hours for the hermitage grounds or the Education Centre outside these listed windows. If your visit is not tied to a scheduled event, the bookshop hours above are the only concrete visiting window given.

Activities and Where They Happen

Most listed programs run at the Education Centre and require registration rather than being drop-in:

  • Buddhist study classes — e.g. the "趣入福業道" class on 15 October and 5, 19 November (Thursdays); the online "出離心解脫行" class guided by 淨永老師 on 6, 13, 20, 27 November and 4, 11 December, 8–9:30 p.m. (UTC+8).
  • Meditation — 止觀共修 sessions on 18 October and 1, 15, 29 November (14 sessions total) at the centre; a three-day "慧命成長" retreat from 17 December (8 a.m.) to 20 December (8 a.m.); and an ānāpānasati seven-day retreat from 21 December (8 a.m.) to 28 December (9 a.m.).
  • Health and wellbeing — Chinese medicine charity clinics on 18 October and 15 November, open to the public; a yoga class on 1, 15, 22, 29 November, 9–10 a.m., at the centre.
  • Talks and gatherings — the 2026 year-end 雅集 on 20 December.

Because several of these are dated and marked "歡迎報名" (registration welcome), confirm the current schedule before travelling.

How to Check for Changes

The site's 最新訊息 (latest news) section is where schedule changes and event reports appear — for instance, the bookshop hour adjustment and the annual activity list, which was updated on 28 September. New posts are added regularly (recent entries are dated into October 2026), so this is the section to re-check close to your visit date rather than relying on a cached list.

Practical Notes

  • The site is primarily in Chinese; location names appear in both Chinese and, for Alamesra, in Latin script.
  • The hermitage and the Education Centre are in different places — Tuaran and Kota Kinabalu — so confirm which one your event names before setting out.
  • The site does not list a phone number, email address, or street address in the material available here. For contact details or directions, check the site directly, as that information is not reproduced above.