Located in a small hamlet between Jeomchon and Mungyeong, Bekbongsa is an active Chogye (zen) Buddhist temple. When I first began taking the bus I would catch a sight of the temple as it whizzed by the bus window. The stupa broke the monotony of the countryside and it caught my interest. However, as time passed and the morning journey turned from a sightseeing tour into a time to rest before starting class I temporarily forgot about the temple. Early in May while taking the bus back to Jeomchon the brightly colored lanterns recently strung throughout the temple grounds caught my eye and I decided that I would visit the temple in the next month. With the 3 day weekend for the Buddha's birthday I decided it'd be the opportune time to visit the small town and explore the temple.

I arrived at the temple near lunch time and though it was mostly empty there were a few men who were working on one of the buildings and two little girls playing in the courtyard. As I began to mentally work through where I would start my visit I encountered a clean shaven older Korean man wearing loose gray clothing and a long brown clothe draped over his shoulder. I had seen this dress before in Seoul during the lantern festival and so I knew that he was a monk. He greeted me in Korean with his palms touching  and a slight bow and then disappeared out of sight. I continued to look around the temple, taking pictures of the stupa, the lanterns and the bell before another monk appeared and offered me a cup of hot sweet coffee. He disappeared and reappeared before encouraging me to enter the main temple building where a golden Buddha sat in the front of the room, bowls of fresh fruit neatly arranged before him as offerings. After sitting down to admire the temple I was joined by two young men who greeted me, then knelt before the Buddha prostrting themselves. They then sat off and conversed quietly, I could hear they were trying to figure out how to say things in English but weren't sure and eventually left.

As I left the hall I again was greeted by the second monk who invited me into a small office building. I discovered that he spoke English relatively well and was keen on sharing his knowledge of the temple. The office was abuzz with a few men and women working diligently as they prepared for the Buddha's birthday the following day. The two young men from the worship hall were also there and I quickly realized they also worked for the temple. The monk asked me to enter my information in a book in what I initially took for a guest registry until he handed me a form with my zodiac animal (based on the year of your birth) and told me to fill it out with a wish for the Buddha. He and the others then asked me for the names and birthdates of my immediate family members and brought forms for them too.

Click on the "Read More" link below to read the entirity of this post.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

Every Friday I take the bus from Jeomchon to the small town of Gaeun. On the 40 minute bus ride I watch the countryside fly by as the bus twists and turns through the valleys and mountains of northern Gyeongsangbuk-do. From my window looking out I've always noticed a tall stupa within the confines of a small Buddhist temple which stands out amongst the trees, rice paddies and tiled roofs.
Curious about the temple and the small town it sits in I decided to venture out on Sunday to explore this small part of the Korean countryside. It was a particularly warm day and the sun beat down on me as I departed the bus alongside the road. The town seems to consist of a small series of buildings, mostly houses, surrounded by the highway, rice paddies and the not so distant mountains. I decided to walk away from the temple, saving my visit there until later and instead headed along a quiet road that twisted and turned away from the highway. The area was relatively quiet, though occasionally I could hear people in their courtyards I rarely saw a person on the road.  An ajumma (older woman) surprised to see a waygookin in her town asked me a few questions in Korean which I didn't quite understand. I simply smiled, greeted her in Korean and continued on my way.

Eventually I came to the edge of town and found myself walking alongside the rice paddies which transitioned into orchards alongside a hill. After walking as far as the path would take me I turned back and wandered alongside the stone walls that enclosed the country homes. While Korea is very much a 1st world country in cities like Seoul and Daegu the countryside reminds you that less than 50 years ago it was a struggling nation recovering from the devastating effects of a civil war. These older homes, some run down and crumbling due to their years paint a drastically different picture from the sleek and shiny buildings and neon lights which permeate the urban landscape.

As I headed back to town I walked in the direction towards the Buddhist temple curious what I might find there. I ended up spending a few hours at the temple being escorted around by temple employees and so I'll save that mini-adventure for a different post.

Below are a few pictures from my walk.

With the onset of warm weather the farmers throughout the area have been incredibly busy flooding the paddies and planting rice. What were dry fields of dirt a week ago are now muddy paddies with a few inches of water and small lively green rice plants. Since rice is a staple food throughout Korea every conceivable inch of the countryside is covered with paddies and where rice

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

On a whim I invited my friend Youl to join me in Seoul where we met Kate so we all could see the annual Lotus Lantern Festival. This festival is an annual event that is around the time of the Buddha's birthday, a national holiday in Korea. We spent the day at two temples in Seoul starting out at Bongeunsa temple and then continuing on to Jogyesa temple where the festival activities culminated that evening. Below are a few pictures of the festival.

While in Seoul we ate at a restaurant run by a Buddhist nun and associated with the Jogyesa temple across the street. You can read about the delicious meal in the post below or for a more detailed description click here.

Last Saturday I visited Seoul for it's annual lantern festival which celebrates the birthday of the Buddha. During this visit we stopped in at 바루 (Baru) a restaurant which is associated with Jogyesa, the temple across the street.

The wonderful thing about temple restaurants is that they adhere strictly to vegan restrictions. I can eat safely at these restaurants without concern that the food might have fish and/or fish sauce in it which occasionally happens in vegetarian restaurants in Korea. This restaurant goes one step further and doesn't use garlic, onions and other food items which are not permitted in temple cuisine.

Though people frequently make jokes that vegetarian food is lacking in flavor and variety and is not filling the 12-course meal at Baru was an incredibly delicious and satisfying meal that highlighted the different fruits, vegetables and grains local to Korea. While it was much more expensive than the average dinner  in Korea with a price tag of 36,000 won (~$32) I felt the meal was very much worth the price (and have paid far more for meals of similar quality back in the US). I plan on returning in the future to try the cafeteria associated with the restaurant and also the larger 16 course meal at Baru.

Click here to read more about my meal at Baru and see pictures of each course.

My friend Melanie has a tradition on her blog where she posts a single photo every Friday with no words which illustrates a moment from the previous week. I felt inspired by the concept and decided to adopt it for my own blog. Each week I will post a single photo with no words from a moment in my life - either from the previous week or something or someone about which I've been thinking. A simple yet memorable image to share with everyone.

Last weekend a friend, knowing my interest in religious practices, invited me to accompany him to a temple outside of Daegu. We left Jeomchon early Saturday morning and boarded a train which meandered through the countryside of Gyeongsangbuk-do for over 2 hours before arriving at Dong Daegu Station. From Daegu we boarded another train and spent the short 40 minute ride chatting with an older Korean couple who were a bit curious to have encountered foreigners on the train. Upon arriving in Yeongcheon we took a taxi outside of city limits to the temple where we encountered a gold colored series of towers which shone brightly under the mid-May sun.  만불사 (Manbulsa) is a relatively new temple that claims to have 10,000 statues of the Buddha in various forms. It is a syncretic mix of Buddhism - the golden towers more reminiscent of south east Asian Buddhism while the main building is clearly a Korean style temple.

For a few hours we wandered around the temple grounds - admiring enormous statues of the Buddha, lounging on a concrete bed or sitting peacefully in a lotus flower while listening to the consistent chant of the monks being played over speakers throughout the area. Cemeteries scattered throughout the grounds have graves bearing family names  in hangeul (Korean characters) and hanja (Chinese characters) which are decorated with artificial flowers. As we walked along the paths marked on the map given to us by one of the temple employees we came upon a statue of Buddha standing 33 meters tall and looking out onto the valley below.

Below is a video of the monk chanting in the temple in addition to photos from the temple. Click on the photos below to see the larger image.