Sunday, April 08, 2007
Bomunsa Temple
This weekend Sam and I joined our friends, David and Jerra, for a trip to Bomunsa Temple. The cool thing was that this temple was located on an island off of the north-west coast of South Korea, which means that we got to take a short ferry ride over to our destination.
Funny thing about Korea...it seems like everyone loves seagulls! Most people on our boat had bought a bag of shrimp chips with the sole purpose of feeding them to the "flying rats", as I so fondly refer to them. Our boat was surrounded by swirling and squawking in something that resembled a very scary scene from the movie "Birds". After about 2 minutes, I got used to the fact that the birds were there. That's when Mr. Man about 2 feet from where I was standing decided to snatch one of the birds out of the sky. Seriously, the bird came in for a shrimp chip and found himself clutched in the hands of a man who was far too interested in this feathery friend. The bird freaked out, pooped everywhere, bit the man (who didn't let go), and then proceeded to bite his own wing (I have no idea what that was about...a scheme to make Mr. Man release him?) Very bizarre. I remember growing up with warnings like, "don't touch the seagull, it's dirty...chase those birds away...don't feed them, they're scavengers", etc. Obviously, people do not feel the same way here!
Back to the temple: it was a neat place to visit. We took a bus from the ferry terminal to the temple site and then spent a couple hours exploring the grounds there. There was a Buddhist carving up on the mountain that we read was an important spiritual place for Buddhists. A monk and some women were chanting and doing their prayer beads in front of it. We also saw some cool buildings and a neat stone dragon, and got reprimanded by a monk for sitting on the ground (I guess it's not allowed...we had no idea and felt pretty bad...oops!). We managed to make it back to the ferry in time for one of the last runs back to the mainland, and then headed to Ilsan, where David and Jerra were gracious enough to put us up for the night so we didn't have to trek back to Osan. All in all, a great Saturday!
Mr. Man with his captured bird...crazy!
Here's Sam and I on the ferry ride...this doesn't give the best picture of how thick the birds were...seriously, mentally add 20 more birds to this picture and that's what it felt like.
Sam in front of the temple bell pavillion. This is actually a pretty popular pose here. We see lots of kids doing it...I think it makes Sam look dashing and distinguishe!
This is the Buddhist carving at the top of the mountain. Oh, and another popular pose :0)
These are our friends, David and Jerra. This is the rock path that led to the Buddhist image.
We hadn't seen a cool stone dragon like this one at any of the other temples so far. Pretty neat.
This rock was in front of one of the worship rooms. I think that people must bring small Buddha statues and leave them here as an offering. There was a rock ledge behind this circle rock that had tons more on it.
Funny thing about Korea...it seems like everyone loves seagulls! Most people on our boat had bought a bag of shrimp chips with the sole purpose of feeding them to the "flying rats", as I so fondly refer to them. Our boat was surrounded by swirling and squawking in something that resembled a very scary scene from the movie "Birds". After about 2 minutes, I got used to the fact that the birds were there. That's when Mr. Man about 2 feet from where I was standing decided to snatch one of the birds out of the sky. Seriously, the bird came in for a shrimp chip and found himself clutched in the hands of a man who was far too interested in this feathery friend. The bird freaked out, pooped everywhere, bit the man (who didn't let go), and then proceeded to bite his own wing (I have no idea what that was about...a scheme to make Mr. Man release him?) Very bizarre. I remember growing up with warnings like, "don't touch the seagull, it's dirty...chase those birds away...don't feed them, they're scavengers", etc. Obviously, people do not feel the same way here!
Back to the temple: it was a neat place to visit. We took a bus from the ferry terminal to the temple site and then spent a couple hours exploring the grounds there. There was a Buddhist carving up on the mountain that we read was an important spiritual place for Buddhists. A monk and some women were chanting and doing their prayer beads in front of it. We also saw some cool buildings and a neat stone dragon, and got reprimanded by a monk for sitting on the ground (I guess it's not allowed...we had no idea and felt pretty bad...oops!). We managed to make it back to the ferry in time for one of the last runs back to the mainland, and then headed to Ilsan, where David and Jerra were gracious enough to put us up for the night so we didn't have to trek back to Osan. All in all, a great Saturday!
Mr. Man with his captured bird...crazy!
Here's Sam and I on the ferry ride...this doesn't give the best picture of how thick the birds were...seriously, mentally add 20 more birds to this picture and that's what it felt like.
Sam in front of the temple bell pavillion. This is actually a pretty popular pose here. We see lots of kids doing it...I think it makes Sam look dashing and distinguishe!
This is the Buddhist carving at the top of the mountain. Oh, and another popular pose :0)
These are our friends, David and Jerra. This is the rock path that led to the Buddhist image.
We hadn't seen a cool stone dragon like this one at any of the other temples so far. Pretty neat.
This rock was in front of one of the worship rooms. I think that people must bring small Buddha statues and leave them here as an offering. There was a rock ledge behind this circle rock that had tons more on it.# posted by Becky @ 11:08 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
loved the pics. you look fabulous in all of them....so distinguished! both of ya! you should have stolen one of the buddha offerings....as a memento..if andrea was there she would have done it for you!! haha.
love you guys!
love you guys!
Well, the seagull story scared me....had me flashback to a time when we were in a boat, being attacked by a "pyscho gone crazy" seagull at the Hoekstra's in Huntsville!!!
What was that man thinking? Do they eat seagull as a delicacy?
Loved the story and the pics. You look beautiful as ever, Bec. Love you so much, Auntie Sheila xoxoxo
Post a Comment
What was that man thinking? Do they eat seagull as a delicacy?
Loved the story and the pics. You look beautiful as ever, Bec. Love you so much, Auntie Sheila xoxoxo
<< Home
