Chuseok vacation day 1 part 1: Beopjusa Temple
As one would expect for a major national holiday, we had some time off for Chuseok. I had a five day weekend but Alanna only had three days, so I had a day at the beginning and a day at the end by myself. On the first day I went to Songnisan National Park near Daejeon.
At the entrance of the park is a statue garden with a few interesting pieces. A little way up the path is Beopjusa temple, probably most famous for its enormous (33 meter tall, 160 tonne) bronze Buddha. What I found amazing is that there is a temple directly under all that weight. Sadly, pictures were not permitted inside.
My favorite part of the temple was actually the five story wood pagoda building. There are not separate floors to the building, so it is fun to look up at the layers of rafters from the inside. Also inside was one of very few reclining Buddhas in Korean art.
The temple grounds also had large naturally smooth stone walls etched with large Chinese characters, Korea's largest and oldest cauldron forged in 720 C.E., relief carvings on the cliffs, a giant iron flagpole (apparently all temples used to have them), and some paintings that were really fucking violent. The paintings depict tortures of Hell. They show demons using spears to stab people who were in a pot of boiling water, roasting them over fires, putting them on racks, pressing them under giant stones, etc. One of the more paintings was one where a man's tongue had been stretched out to be about 5 feet across and thirty feet long and then sliced and cut by demons. Good times.
The first 36 pictures in this set go with this post (and are labeled as such).
At the entrance of the park is a statue garden with a few interesting pieces. A little way up the path is Beopjusa temple, probably most famous for its enormous (33 meter tall, 160 tonne) bronze Buddha. What I found amazing is that there is a temple directly under all that weight. Sadly, pictures were not permitted inside.
My favorite part of the temple was actually the five story wood pagoda building. There are not separate floors to the building, so it is fun to look up at the layers of rafters from the inside. Also inside was one of very few reclining Buddhas in Korean art.
The temple grounds also had large naturally smooth stone walls etched with large Chinese characters, Korea's largest and oldest cauldron forged in 720 C.E., relief carvings on the cliffs, a giant iron flagpole (apparently all temples used to have them), and some paintings that were really fucking violent. The paintings depict tortures of Hell. They show demons using spears to stab people who were in a pot of boiling water, roasting them over fires, putting them on racks, pressing them under giant stones, etc. One of the more paintings was one where a man's tongue had been stretched out to be about 5 feet across and thirty feet long and then sliced and cut by demons. Good times.
The first 36 pictures in this set go with this post (and are labeled as such).
0 comments:
Post a Comment