새해 복 많이 받으세요. Said something like [Saaaay-bong mani pah-deu-sehh-yo] as I heard from a Korean friend. It’s not just a new year though it’s a new decade, sort of….not technically, but close enough I’d say. (My weeks start on Monday.)
This New Years I hiked with friend Melodie. There was a temple somewhere on the mountain but we had a late start so we decided to skip the temple and simply go to the picturesque bridge in the Lonely Planet travel guide.
My second visit to Naejang Mountain. This was my first visit. This time, in the fall…on the weekend…with the rest of Korea. People really like the colors red, orange, and yellow… a lot. Visit a national or provincial park on a weekend during the months of November or October and you will find crazy loads of people.
An opening between the camera, me, and the tree!
No break in traffic here.
Orange balls.
Melodie, Dakshini, and Matthew were tired of the warm colors and posed for a picture next to the last green tree in the park.
With a long weekend, why not go the state right next door? That’s right, except this state was China, not Ohio. If I had to describe my four day visit to Beijing in a couple words I would say huge and colorful. The scale was unbelievable. Going too big clearly wasn’t a concern. The city is huge, the buildings are huge, there are huge numbers of people, and the aforementioned are all colorful. Vibrant, rich, active and whatever. -So much going on.
Here stand the guards during the morning flag raising ceremony. It was way too early. I believe is was 5:11AM.
The entire travel crew inside the Fordbidden City.
Salsa dancing in China? (Yeah, never thought I would do that)
Scorpion on a stick. They were actually squirming on the stick. For about five bucks the cooks fry these up for you to eat. And, of course, as tourists and boys, Evan, Herman, and I had to. I had one. Evan, the truely brave one, had three. I wonder if I knocked a couple years off my life for that experience. hmmmm…..
Jumping. It’s an addiction. I couldn’t help it, especially when tempted by the greatest wall of all.
We have a house in New Orleans! Built in the 1833 by Nicholas Girod, the first mayor of New Orleans. It was built for his son Francois. girodhousecondo.com , travel.yahoo.com
As the ol’ saying goes, “another day, another temple”. Geumsansa [Gum-sahn-sah], one of the larger and more known temples in the Jeollabukdo Province, is about 45 kilometers east of Buan (I know this means nothing to those not in Korea. One of these days I will add a map). In other words, it’s a doable biking distance.
This was a welcoming sign, 6km from the temple. I like the cruiser handlebars and the massive chain ring.
This was also a welcoming sign. At this point, I had cakes of salt all over my face.
The Triple decker Mireukjeon, originally built in 766 AD, held a large Buddha. It was destroyed in 1598, then later restored in 1635. I would have liked to have seen the three story Buddha.
Above is the ceiling of Nahanjeon hall. As Mallory stated in another post, building interiors are often vivid and intricate. It’s not what I think of peaceful monk meditation…drug induced meditation perhaps. Casino carpets and kaleidoscopes come to mind.
The Great Hall (Daejeokgwangjeon), once three separate halls, was later made into one after the destruction of the halls in 1597. It really was great.
Happy Lanterns!
This one was last painted in 1993. I see a T-shirt design here.
I thought this was a nice design touch on the drainage port.
The sun went down right after I left the Temple. Riding the bike home wasn’t really an option. Luckly, I saw a bus to Kimje (city next to my home town) at the temple entrance. I gestured to the bus driver that I wanted to bring on the bike. As you can see, he was cool with it.
The Temple Tour went into OT today. Gaeamsa [Gay-ahm-sa] was the one temple, located less than 20 kilometers southeast of Buan.
I removed the month of dust off the seat, pumped the tires to 35psi, and took off for Gaeamsa.
It wasn’t a beautiful day. It was overcast and the air was damp. (Yep, I could have been in Oregon today.) I almost reached the temple when freezing rain started to fall. But, I looked up at the sky and yelled a few words. It took about an hour, but the sky eventually heard, understood my English, and stopped it’s nastiness.
It was me and three other visitors upon arrival. Five minutes later they left and it was just me. (okay, there was a dog barking, but he tired out quickly.) Peaceful.
I’ve never really given a lot of attention to the painted patterns on the temples. Today, I did. Today, I was alone. Today I saw the motifs on the exterior walls and the patterns of greens, reds, and blues covering the underside of the eaves. Amazing.
I stopped at the gift shop. I left with a 20 dollar box of incense. I don’t know what happened, but 20 dollars of incense didn’t seem unreasonable. It smelled so good! In the shop, the cashier lady saw me looking at some bamboo salts. We tried to communicate. The only Korean I understood was “Here, eat this.” I tried some salt with her. The single crystal was potent. Sucking on it brought out a sulfur taste. I must of not shown any sort of disgust because she gave me a small packet of salt to take. “Service!”. OK!!
It’s the Lunar New Years, a big holiday for many in Korea. It’s a time when families get together, elders give advice and money to the younger gens, and guys go out drinking with their hometown friends. With our families a few thousand miles away, I and fellow Buanite teacher-friend, Linda visited some Buddhist temples instead. We decided on Naejangsan, about a twenty minute intercity bus ride south of Buan.
It was a byooteefull day. The sky dumped several inches of snow the night before. The temp was somewhere around freezing which is just where i like it for these hiking activities. The sunlight pierced through some high clouds while at the same time a few lower clouds were spitting out some flurries. It was cool.
We planned on doing a Triple Temple Tour but we only managed to pull off a Two Temple Tour. Which…was perfectly fine with me because, of course, ‘Two’ still begins with a ‘T’ ^^. Our detour happened just after hitting up Temple Two. We saw a sign pointing up a mountain side and the innate human desire to summit was too much to resist.
The switchbacks on this trail were rare. The trail went straight up the mountain side. There were many steps, stairs, and more steps, and an occasional knotted rope to make it humanly possible.
I’m discovering that its really not the temples I like so much, its what surrounds the temples. The temples are located in beautiful areas, at the confluence of valleys, perched under the protections of staggered stones, or resting along mountain sides. Nature surrounds. I don’t know anything about the Buddhist faith and maybe these statements I’m making are obvious, but these places are escapes and i imagine, real escapes a 1000 years ago.
