Temple Stay

My friend Ilani invited me to go do a temple stay with her this weekend. Her co-worker volunteers at the temple and told us about it. Some other friends of mine have been to a different one and loved it. Also, this was the last weekend that a special artifact would be on display for the next 100 years. So, we decided to do it.

We left Jinju around 1 on Saturday afternoon and took a bus up a very windy road. The total bus ride was about 2 hours and was through some odd places, including under a 1 way bridge tunnel. The bus dropped us off at the base of the temple and we had to walk up a decent way to get to the main temple. Because of the festival for the tripitaka (ancient artifacts which I will tell you about later), there were a bunch of tents set up selling random crap. We got to try a piece of dried pumpkin (really acorn squash) and it tastes much better than I thought it would.

On the bridge into the temple grounds

Pretty red leaves on the walk to the temple

On the way to the temple we passed a memorial area with a bunch of statues and a big stone in the middle of a grassy area. Apparently the big stone in the middle has the "stones" or jewels that a monk leaves behind after they're cremated inside it (well a famous monk's jewels). Neither Ilani nor I had ever heard of this but we later saw pictures of the jewels in another small temple.

Memorial site for high priest Sungcheol

Not sure who this memorial is for, but some important monk

Close up of the dragons on top of the memorial

We thought the registration was at 5pm, so we had an hour to kill and Ilani's co-worker Ellen took us to another temple on the same campus (for lack of better word). This was up a very steep hill, but was very pretty. The mountain there is called a Chinese phoenix because it is supposedly shaped that way (I didn't see it). The temples up here are for zen monks and are very secluded.

Growing cabbages for kimchi

View of the mountains. In about the center of this photo is the main temple where we stayed.

The tiny temple in the middle of this picture is for zen monks and is supposed to be very tranquil.

All around the campus are art projects from different countries. This is part of the festival for the tripitaka. Some of the projects were pretty cool looking, while others were lame. The one from the US/Czech republic was a wooden bird house that turned upside down and the windows opened and shut (lame). The one from Japan was interesting because it consisted of a huge rectangle on the ground filled with stones. Each stone was hand numbered from 1 to 80,000 to represent the tripitaka blocks.

The whole rectangle. You can't really see because it's covered in leaves, but there were lots of  rocks there.

Close up of some of the rocks

Korea's project. The dual nature of Buddha (or something like that)

Then we went back down to the main temple area. Apparently we were late and registration was actually around 4-4:30. So we were thrown into a closet and had temple outfits thrown at us. Koreans are tiny people and my butt is not Korean, so I had to trade pants and ended up with some pretty comfy "gear" pants. Luckily we weren't the only late ones and once we all got dressed the hustled us off to the next room where a monk was giving some instructions on the proper way to enter a room (right foot first, then bow), hold your hands for prayer, and to do a Buddha bow (more on that later).

Schedule for the temple stay

After the instruction ceremony we went to dinner at the cafeteria. That's when we saw Ellen again because she was handing out soup and silverware. Once you enter the cafeteria, you're not supposed to talk at all and you eat really fast. Dinner was: rice, kimchi bean sprouts (which I like), kimchi cucumber that looked like spaghetti (it was crazy spicy), potato salad with hard-ish peas in it, and soup with potato pieces (also crazy spicy). While looking around, we noticed that you were supposed to eat everything on the plate - so it was a difficult meal - eat spicy, try to cool it off with plain rice. Also, nothing to drink. After dinner, we eat got a cup of hot water to drink.

We were then shepherded to a main square where they had 2 drummers play on a huge drum. We watched for about 10 minutes or so, then got escorted to the main temple. While we were walking, they rang the huge bell (although not with the giant swing thing, just with a drum stick). Once inside the main temple, we got mats and sat down in front of 3 large Buddhas (we weren't allowed to take pictures of them). It was a really lovely room. Then we had to follow the monks for the evening ceremonial service. We did a few bows and the Koreans did chanting. It was actually kind of nice to listen to.

Then we went to put our stuff in our rooms. There was a handful of other foreigners, and we all got lumped together in a room downstairs. The room was actually pretty nice, with its own bathroom and decent bedding. It was just really, really hot. Then it was back upstairs to have tea with the monks. Because we were such a large group, they didn't have enough tea pots, so they put the foreigners and some of the younger Koreans in another room with a different monk. We got tangerines, crackers and aloe juice (it's actually pretty good but I don't like the pulp). The temple translator apparently quit like a week ago or something, so 2 of the Koreans in the group offered to translate for us.

The monk was really cool and told us we could ask 5 questions. The first question was "why did you become a monk?" He said that he was lost in the real world and that he hated competition and got fired from his old job. He told us that he tried to commit suicide 3 different times and was really unhappy. Then his mother got sick and next to the hospital was a temple. Why she was at the hospital, he found contentment at the temple. Then he decided to go to a real temple and be a monk. The next question was "how does your family feel about your being a monk?" He said at first they were unhappy because it's not really a good thing for the family. I guess being a monk isn't really looked on as something to be proud of in Korean culture. But he said they can see how happy he is and that he is much healthier so they are ok with it now.

Me and the monk who talked with us. He was so funny because he wanted to take his glasses off for the picture! One girl's name was Fiona and he goes, "like in Shrek?"

The third question was "do monks eat meat?" He said that it's not in any writings or the Buddist cannon that monks shouldn't or can't eat meat, but it's become a symbol of their status and now it's sort of frowned upon. He said he eats beef and that other monks eat meat too, but it's usually done almost in secret. The fourth question (which I asked) was "if it had been a church and not a temple next to the hospital, do you think you'd be following a different religion?" He said, "There's more to the story" and then told us there was a church inside the hospital and that they went there and his mother cried. He said each person has a religion that fits that individual person and Buddhism fit him. He said that he believes there is one god but that he sends down different people to communicate with us. He held us a tea pot and said "from this side, you don't see the handle, but from this side you do". The fifth question was "what's your favorite part of the day?" And he said when he prays is the best part of the day for him.

After snack and question time, it was bed time. We went downstairs and got ready and an older lady joined our room because they ran out of room in the adjoining room. She turned off the light and it took most people around 30 minutes or so to fall asleep. I say most people because I didn't sleep at all. The room was really, really hot and I like it cold. It also had a huge exit sign above a door so it was too bright for me also. Lastly, every time I was close to falling asleep, someone would get up to pee, or cough or someone above would walk around or someone would fart (and let me tell you, these ladies, especially the grandma, could let fly). Plus, my current sleep schedule usually has me falling asleep around 4 anyway.

Me and Ilani in our monk gear in our room

So we get up at 3am and Ilani and I are the first ones ready and we decide to go upstairs and be on time. We are early and nobody is there, so we got to watch the guy play drums again and go to one of the temples. Nobody from our group was there, so we went back to the original meeting place, nobody was there either, but a lady saw us and pointed to the top, so we went back up to the main temple and saw some people from our group. We were late, so we didn't get a mat and did the morning ceremony which including 3-6 bows with no mat. Our knees were killing us. When the ceremony was almost over, one of the monks got our group and told us to go outside.

Ilani and I were the first out and went to stand in line. It was raining and I didn't have an umbrella so the monk made Ilani trade her small one for his big one. He was really nice and kept gesturing to us later in the day and watching to make sure we knew what was going on 9even though he couldn't speak English). Next we went back to the temple where we went at first and the foreigners and some of the Koreans from our group were there (they had skipped the ceremony). We set up mats and did 108 Buddha bows in a row to a chant. It took 30 minutes. A Buddha bow goes like this: you start standing up with your hands in prayer, you drop to your knees, place you forehead on the mat with you hands next to your head flat on the ground, then flip your hands palm side up and raise to your ears, hand back down, then get up to your feet while putting your hands back in prayer. You aren't supposed to use your hands to help you get up, or go to your knees. Well, I can do about 2-3 of those before I have to use either hands or knees and it turns out I can do about 10 before I have to use both. So while I didn't do them perfectly, I still did the 108 bows. After bows, we did some stretches then we did meditation. This hurt almost as much as the bows. I am not a bendy person and to do meditation you're supposed to sit in lotus position (crossed legged with your feet on your knees). I just sat Indian style. We did this for 5 minutes which was fine, but was apparently a preview because we then did it for 20 minutes and my hips were killing me! After that we did some more stretches and listened to some music.

Sneak picture of the temple where we did the Buddha bows

Then we ate breakfast. It was the same style as dinner - fast and silent. We had rice, kimchi cucumber (different than dinner), kimchi radish, tofu (super gross) and seaweed soup (actually better than I had anticipated). After breakfast we had a small break time. We went back to our rooms and cleaned up the bedding then Ilani and I talked while some other people cleaned up or took naps. Then we had a tour of the temple grounds.

First we went to the front of the temple. We started at the first gate (seems logical). Apparently it is famous for being "a model of excellence" because of its simple beauty. Then we walked up some stairs to the second gate. On the way, we stopped at a huge pile of rocks. He told us that the rocks were from the mountain opposite us and that there used to be lots of fires on that mountain. But when they moved the rock to the temple grounds, the fires stopped.

Monk guide at Iljumoon (first gate)

Monk showing us the pile of fire rocks

After the rock pile, we went to the second gate, or phoenix gate. Four gods (North, East, South, West) are inside this gate and protect people everywhere. So we bowed to them. Last we went through the third and final gate, the nirvana gate. "All the world is one" when you walk though this gate.

Second gate

Then we went to the bell tower and he talked to us about it. He said that when the bell is rung, it gives people in hell a rest, so people in hell like to hear the bell because they get peace. The drum is played to save people on earth, the bell is for people in hell, the carp (the long thing next to the bell) is for things in the sea and the metal gong (supposedly shaped like a cloud) is for things living in the air. I only remember the bell and the drum being played.

Carp is on the left, bell is in the center, drum to the right. Don't know where the gong is.

Next we went through the middle ground and up to the main temple (Daejeokgwangjeon). He told us some things about it but I had zoned out at that point because it was all in Korean and we weren't near someone who could/would translate for us. So I just stared at the wall for awhile. A building was originally built there is 802 and was rebuilt in 1818. He also told us about the building next to us (Daebiro Hall) which is one of the oldest wooden temples left and has a wooden Buddha inside it with a system that pulls the Buddha into the basement in case of fire.

Outside wall of the main temple. This was 1 panel of 4 I think

Daebiro Hall - it's symmetrical or something

Next we went up to the storage hall for the tripitaka koreana. These 4 buildings were built around 1488 and house the tripitaka. The tripitaka koreana are wooden blocks with the entire Buddhist scripture and other writings. In total there are 81,350 blocks with over 52 million characters carved into them. There are no mistakes in the blocks because if a monk made a mistake, they had to re-carve the entire block. It took 16 years to complete. Multiple monks worked on the project, but all used the same script style so you can't tell who did which block. The buildings were also scientifically built with opposite side windows (on the front top the windows are small and the front bottom windows are large and on the back side the window sizes are opposite) to create air circulation. The floor was also made using special stuff to control humidity and bug control. This building has preserved the blocks for hundreds of years. The blocks themselves were finished in 1011 and this weekend was the millennium anniversary. They are also sealing the blocks away for 100 years to help continue to preserve them, so this was the last weekend to see them.

They wouldn't let anyone take pictures of the blocks or the buildings close up, but I got one from above after we left the main area. It was pretty incredible. It looked like a library with rows and rows of books. After the tour we were basically done, got changed and cleaned the room and then went upstairs for a final goodbye where they gave us presents of post cards and beads for the 108 bows (you make a necklace sort of like a rosary for doing more bows in the future).

Front of the first storage buildings. There are 4 buildings in total that make up a rectangle with a quad in the middle. Also, those steps you can see, they're steep as crap.

There was also a maze type thing where you walk around praying. The shape of the pathway is the Buddhist symbol for "man" which turned into a symbol for "temple" which looks like a reversed swastika. I think there is a similar thing in Catholicism but I can't remember the name - sort of like walking the rosary.

People walking the haeindo

It was raining during the entire tour and hadn't stopped when we left, so we decided to skip hiking down to the museum, although the area was really pretty. Ilani and I want to go back at some point and take pictures on a nice day. On our way down the temple, we stopped off and got an ear of boiled corn each. It was pretty good, although they don't use salt or butter. We rode a shuttle bus to the tripitaka museum and walked through some history buildings and then saw a model of how the blocks were made.

Outside of the festival grounds

Buddha replicas in the museum

Main exhibit hall

In short (sort of) a monk wrote on a paper scroll what would go on the block. Then they knocked down some trees and formed rough planks. The wood was then soaked in salt water for 3 years before it was carved into a nice block of wood. The characters were then transferred from paper onto the wood and lastly really carved into the wood. Then they could use a type of ink to put on the wood block and make copies of the books.

Monk writing on the paper scroll

Replica of a block from the tripitaka. They wouldn't let you take pictures of the real blocks.

After the museum we were really tired, but had to walk 15 minutes down a hill to the bus station. Although it was really a crap general store on the side of the road with an old couch. Without Ellen there would have been no way we would have found it. We rode the bus home and I promptly fell asleep for 15 hours. It was a really good experience because I have never done anything like that before. I am not sure if I would do it again, but I am very glad I did it at least once.