The weekend of November 24 and 25 Carrie and I went on a temple stay, which is were you go to a Buddhist temple for one night and do as the monks do. We went to a temple in the port city (smelled like home) called, Yeosu. The name of the temple was Hyangiam. This temple is a very popular tourist spot because it is on an island and is facing East, so most people wake up really early and hike up to this temple to see the sunrise for a family day trip (Pictures later).
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| This was a model of the chain weapon |
Let me rewind and tell you about the fun activities prior to arriving at the temple. We first visited the port of Yeosu, this city is not only know for its port but is know for the fortress of a famous general who lived in the 1500s. He is famous for using a large thick chain to break enemy boats as they trailed his ships during a sea battle with the Japanese.
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| Bradley trying to be artistic |
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| The view from Yeosu. There are lots of little islands off the coast |
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| More views |
The recreation of part of the old fortress
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| The valley is the only entrance to the town below. For this reason it was a great city to live in because of the protection from enemies |
After seeing the fortress site we moved on to downtown. Downtown was very similar to Gwangju's downtown so we just shopped with some of our friends who work at the GIC. After downtown we headed to the Temple.
When we got there, there was, as there always is in Korea, a hike to get to the temple. During the hike you had to climb though boulders that were leaning against each other with just enough room for a person so walk through.
We arrived just before dusk and were led to our accommodations for the evening.
There was only 6 men on this trip, so our accommodations were better than the women's. The men had a small room with multiple blankets yet no beds, which is customary in temples. The women had a similar space but they only had a closet with a toilet, while the men had a full bathroom with an awesome shower (thankfully it was for only one night).
The evening meal was a traditional Korean meal, only difference was that is was all vegetarian, as Buddhist monks and nuns do not eat meat (don't worry I made it without eating meat for the two days). After dinner it was time to pray.
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| The view from the temple |
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| The temple |
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| Artwork at the temple |
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| Another view from the temple |
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| The beautiful temple |
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| These turtles were all over the temple and people would put coins on them as offerings and for good luck |
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| More turtles |
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| The turtles were watching the moon rise |
We met with a Buddhist clergy member, who is a woman so she is called a nun, pictured below, started the service by ringing the large bell. Then we went into the temple and she did a couple prayers, then she explained what was going on in Korean and our tour guide/translator told us what she said.
After the service we went back to the dinning hall and had tea and fruit or dessert while we had a discussion with the nun.
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| This is the nun |
We discussed many things with her, mostly we discussed why she became a nun and about the Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife. She was originally Christian but she always felt out of place when she went to church and so she searched and found Buddhism and decided to become a nun. When she told her family everybody didn't like her decision but they respected it, except one of her uncles. He told her that she was going to become a demon. Much later in her life she saw her uncle again and had no hard feelings toward him but he said that he was sorry and realized that he was mistaken about her becoming a demon and that she looks healthy and great.
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 am to go to another prayer service, where the nuns bow 108 times. The 108 bows is symbolic of the Buddhist belief that one have multiple lives. The nun told us during our discussion that she did these bows every morning for six years straight without missing a day. After the service we had breakfast and then came the sunrise.
After the sunrise it was time to go home to Gwangju.
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| The beautiful sunrise |
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| More of the sunrise |
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| The tug boat at work |
We had an amazing time and are considering going to more temple stays in different areas (don't worry we will write about them if we do go).
