Day 9: Bongeunsa

I left the undergrounds of the COEX Mall and headed up to street level.  Outside of the mall, a group of people were handing out what looked liked dwarf evergreen plants to passers by.  Some people were walking away with a couple of bags of free plants and I wanted to pick a couple up for my aunt but they were large and the idea of carrying a large plant or two while sightseeing wasn’t exactly appealing.  They were giving away free plants to mark an initiative to plant trees in the deserts of China where many of the dust storms that hit Korea originate from.

Just north of the COEX Mall is the temple of Bongeunsa which was where I was headed.  It’s actually just across the street.  Right away on approach, I could tell that this temple was going to be quite different than Jogyesa, the temple I had visited last week.  Jogyesa felt very urban where as Bongeunsa felt like it was doing it’s best to distance itself from the city to create a more quiet and serene environment.  It had a lot more land to work with also to make it happen.

The doors to the entrance of the temple grounds were fortified by sword wielding guards but they let me pass without a fight because I was nice.

Throughout the entrance all the way leading to the main buildings, the walkways were decorated with beautiful floral arrangements, mainly 국화 (Chrysanthemum).  I’ve been told that tea made from Chrysanthemum helps you to go to sleep. 

There were 5 coloured ribbons overhead that extended the length of the walkway.  I figured the colours weren’t random and probably held meaning within Buddhism so I looked them up and here is what I found in general terms:

• Green: balance, harmony, vigor, youth, action
• White: learning, knowledge, purity longevity
• Red: life force, preservation, the sacred, blood, fire
• Yellow: rootedness, reunification, earth
• Blue: coolness, infinity, ascension, purity, healing

Here is a beautiful floral arrangement just before one of the main buildings. 

Though the parking lot adjacent to the main entrance was pretty full with cars, I didn’t see a lot of people walking around and the grounds were relatively quiet (aside from a distant hammering noise from construction going on in one of the buildings).  The lowest point of the temple is the entrance so it’s a gradual ascension as you walk further in and with the backdrop of the forest, it felt like the temple was built on the side of a mountain.

There were several buildings on the grounds that were filled with people bowing and praying.  Inside one the buildings, I found hundreds (possibly thousands based on the numbers) of small lanterns hanging from the ceiling, each with a numbered slip which I assumed designated the owner of that particular lantern and prayer.

Further along I came across a building that sheltered a ceremonial drum and bell.

This building, on stilts, was on the west side of the grounds.  The entire underside of the building was painted using colourful floral patterns and arrangements that made me think of the sand art/mandalas done by monks.

As I walked beneath the building to the other side and up the stairs, there was a clearing with an erected Buddhist statue of gigantic proportions as the centerpiece.  As soon as I got to the top of the stairs, I stood there for a while and marveled at it.  There were only two people worshipping in front of the statue and by seeing how small they look in comparison, you can get a sense of how tall the statue was.

I kind of felt eyes on my back while I was standing there and when I turned around, I saw the building that I had just come out from underneath of had all it’s windows facing the statue opened and that it was full of people bowing and praying towards it.  As I realized I had been in their way the whole time I was standing there, I quickly shuffled off to the side.

There was also a small pond with another statue erected on a small island that was accessible by bridge. 

If you can only visit one temple in Seoul, I would certainly recommend checking out Bongeunsa.  They maximized a lot of the surrounding nature and supplemented it with their own landscaping to make it feel less urban and more peaceful than some of the other shrines in Seoul.  Here are some video clips I took while I was there.