New and Improved: Beomeosa!
Jambo,
If you’ve gone through my blog archives, or have been reading my blogs all along, you’ve seen my previous embarrassing photos of Beomeosa Temple. My excuses: 1) it was winter, and there was no foliage, 2) my old camera sucked, and 3) I just wasn’t as good at taking pictures! Well, now I feel that I can scrap the old film photographs and feel okay about it. How the hell did the pre-digital man live? How did he cope? How did he take good photos, get free music, keep in touch with friends from around the world, watch live NHL games in Asia (that’s right; we watched the Habs/leafs match-up Sunday morning), investigate weird, obscure cults or keep track of the New World Order and climate change?
Nicole and I couldn’t have visited the temple site on a better, crisper fall day. The sky is so blue here in autumn, just outside of the city. The weather has been perfect this month. I think it’s been plus 20 or higher every day, and Sunday was no exception. The leaves in Korea aren’t expected to be as vibrant as in past years, due to the unusually warm weather, and they are changing later. There were enough splashes of color on the mountains to please, however.
Here are my new and improved photos of one of Busan’s most visited tourist sites: Beomeosa.
If you recall, in my last Beomeosa weblog, I refused to point my camera at the Buddha. This time, a desire to share the temple interiors with others silenced both superstition and cultural tact. Besides, the Koreans were all doing it!
Sadly, all of the Korean tigers are gone.
They were all chanting to the beat of the drumming monk. I take back what I said on an earlier post about Chinese worshippers being more reverent than Korean ones. I just hadn’t seen actual Korean Buddhists in action much before. An English speaking gentleman told us that the quantity of worshippers visiting the temples goes way up right before students take highschool admittance exams, as good grades mean good schools, and matter so much to the futures of these kids. Their parents come in droves to pray for them.
Above: This is where the monks actually live.
I have to stick one of myself in here and there, just so you all remember the face behind the blog.
We went directly from this (above) to this (below)! What contrast! Thank God most of the Busanites still prefer shopping to visiting temples and hiking, or our day wouldn’t have been as mellow and refreshing as it was.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Stay tuned for more colorful images of Korea, as we plan to revisit Bulguksa soon to catch the fall fireworks there at their climax.
G’bye,
suteebun
