Thursday, February 6, 2014

Buddha's Birthday at Bongamsa Temple

In 2011, Buddha's Birthday (as celebrated in Korea) fell on May 10th, a Tuesday. Our singular day off was enough time to visit Bongamsa Temple, which is only open to the public one day a year for the occasion.

Barbara, Sam, and I took an exceedingly early morning bus out Mungyeon in central South Korea. The surrounding mountains were completely shrouded in mist at dawn.


It turns out that there isn't really a path to the temple so much as a road that one walks along. After a considerable distance, a Korean man, Kyungrae, offered us a ride, which we gratefully accepted. Even better, he guided us around the temple, sharing his knowledge of the iconography. His English is excellent, and when he asked who my favorite philosophers were he had actually read David Hume! He used to run a travel company and encouraged young Koreans to travel in the backpacking style and to try the local foods, which is far from the norms of Korean travel and is awesome. 

The path to the temple passed over some pleasantly vine-covered bridges spanning a small river.




The mist remained on the mountain when we arrived. The temple was rather typical of Buddhist temple architecture and layout in Korea, though it was well decorated for the event. 





The stairs to the higher levels of the temple complex in the back were surrounded by terraced flower gardens. 


I always appreciate the strange elements of temple paintings, such as the extremely long arm seen here. 



The guardian lions at this temple had some goofy expressions. 



Kyungrae pointed out that the greatest enemy to wooden temples was fire, and that the water dragons atop the buildings symbolized protection against such disasters. 



We saw a beautifully carved monk's grave, though one side had been damaged over the years. 



I never got tired of the turtle-dragon memorial tablets seen all over Korea. 


The painted winter scene was one of the most beautiful paintings I had seen at a temple, though some of the stranger ones were more memorable. 


I had never noticed before that the wooden dragon frequently present in the eves of temples pokes through the wall to be half on each side. 


Other rafters also looked like dragons. 


There was also a surprising number of elephants depicted in the temple. 



Though it was still early in the spring, the plant life was blooming. 


The mist was oddly persistent, though I have no complaints as it added to the mystic feel of the secluded temple. 



The monks served tasty free lunch. Kyungrae translated for us as we talked with one of the more senior monks, and one of the main reasons that they open the temple at all is so that they can be of service to the world, with a free meal being part of it. 




After a thorough tour of the complex, we headed down to some pools along the river. 


A large Buddhist image was carved on the side of a good sized boulder. 


The visitors were prepared to keep praying even when it rained. 


Balanced stones were all over the area. 


The meditative practice is seen around Buddhist holy places in Korea.


Many larger stones had Chinese characters carved into them. Kyungrae translated a few for us. They were largely prayers or dedications to family members.





We left back through the temple, once more appreciating the lanterns hung for the occasion. 


Kyungrae gave us a ride back, during which he and Sam bonded over their love of ABBA. 

Several months later, Barbara and I met up with Kyungrae again in his home in Daegu, and the three of us visited Haeinsa Temple, which was just as impressive as the first time I visited

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Seoul Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday

My previous year in Korea, I had missed the lantern festival because I thought it was the weekend after Buddha's Birthday, when in fact it is the weekend before it. I did not make the same mistake twice, and made sure I was in Seoul for the event. On the subway ride into the city, I started rereading Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, which certainly seemed appropriate. I had read it in high school, but my freshman year English teacher saw so many metaphors of her own invention in the texts that we barely discussed the ideas that were actually there, which soured me on the books we read. I found myself quite liking Siddhartha the second time around.

The Lantern Festival is nearly as elaborate and impressive as the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. The floats clearly take a great deal of work and effort to build.





Some lanterns had animatronic elements. 



Between the large shaped lanterns were scores of people - usually in traditional dress -carrying handheld lanterns of various shapes and colors. 


It wouldn't be Korea without a depiction of Admiral Yi Sun Sin's Turtle Ships. 


I was watching the parade from an intersection that had low power lines, so I saw many lanterns that had to change shape or otherwise lower themselves to avoid the obstacles overhead. 












Some floats were more Buddhist themed than others. 


I instantly recognized the Vajra, the symbolic weapon for removing temptation. The symbol had been all over the Guinsa temple complex, and I have noticed it in Buddhist art ever since then.






A convenient way to remember the usage of swastikas is that the top arm of the Buddist one faces left, while the Nazi swastika faces right (which maps nicely onto our terms for the political spectrum). I suppose this lantern had the arms facing the correct way for Buddhism from the perspective of the other side of the street...



After the parade, I wandered the artificial stream than runs through Seoul, and which had been decorated for the occasion. 


The projections on the wall looked surprisingly three dimensional. 



I have no idea what Donald Rumsfeld was doing in the long chain of various images. 


Some of the decorations reminded me of Renn Fayre at Reet. 


I liked some of the more permanent artworks along the stream as well as the festival decorations.


The pumped in waterfall that begins the stream has a pool beneath it, and several lanterns were placed there. 







Not far away, I noticed shadows projected onto buildings, and caught the end of a very modern theatre production. 



The actors were roped into harnesses, and there was a great moment where one 'fell' in slow motion. 



On the subway home, I finished reading Siddhartha. I can't believe how much I dismissed the wisdom of the book the first time I read it, bad teacher or no. I was so excited and full of life and the joy of existence that instead of going to sleep right away, I wandered the stream near my apartment, enjoying the sounds of the stream or of two rocks clinking together. 

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