DongHwaSa

This weekend I visited some friends in Daegu, then did a little sightseeing. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked but I did get to see DongHwaSa.

The weather was really nice so it made for a wonderful day just to be outside.

On the bus to Dongwhasa, a really nice elderly gentleman asked if he could sit beside me so he could practice his English.  I was happy to have him there, since he also interpreted everything for me as we went along. Once we arrived at the temple, he told me to come with him to get some food since it was free there. They had a very simple kitchen/dining area where  they were serving bibimbap (rice with vegetables) and a bean soup.  Well-- I say they were serving, but in fact you served yourself and washed your own dishes when you were finished.  The food was really tasty.

I found it really funny that on the train home from Daegu, I read an article in the newspaper about how "temple food" is becoming very popular/trendy because it is so healthy and tastes so good.  Who would have thought Buddhist monks would be trendsetters?

The temple complex itself was nice but not as elaborate as some of the others I've seen so far.  Apparently, the large temple is only about 20 years old.  However, the main attraction there is not the temple but the 33 meter (108 ft) tall Buddha. 

Unfortunately, they were doing construction on the plaza around the statue so you couldn't get close to it.  But, the photo below should give an idea of its size/proportions.  Just compare it to the children sitting in front of the fence.

I got quite a few other really nice photos while I was there.  Here are just a few of them:

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Climbing the Mountain

We decided to go "hiking" aka. climbing a mountain in the snow to kick off the New Year.

You've gotta see it to believe it. Have fun watching these clips:











Along the way up the mountain, we did have a great time:







And we got to see some really interesting things as well. There were several Buddhist temples on the the mountain, so we stopped and looked around a bit. One specifically had a convent for Buddhist nuns there. I filmed a bit of their prayers at the several temples on their complex:










And obviously... we did survive-- even if only barely.... lol

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Bulguk-sa Temple, Gyeung-Ju

Well, it's taken me a week to get this posted but last weekend a few of us went to Gyeung-Ju to visit some of the historical sites there. Gyeung-ju was the capitol of the Silla dynasty for centuries and as a result the city is known as "a museum without walls". Everywhere you look, there's the royal tomb of one king or another. There are also several of the oldest Buddhist temples in Korea, including Bulguk-sa Temple, which contains 7 of the national treasures of Korea and Seoguram Grotto, the only cave temple in Korea. The carvings and paintings are beautiful.

Bulguk-sa Temple:









Seoguram Grotto:









The National Museum in Gyeung-ju is located at on a lake at the former site of the royal palace. Apparently, the lake was drained for some reason 30 or so years ago and it was discovered that it had been used for centuries as a "royal landfill". About 10,000 artifacts were recovered and many are now on display in the museum.













I only pasted a few of the picture thumbnails here, but there are about 300 pictures from the trip over on photobucket, so feel free to check them out there.

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