Haeinsa - a temple in the mountains

[Note: Because of the sheer number of photographs, I decided to use flickr to host this entry’s images. The pictures are smaller than my photos usually are; however, if you want to see a particular image in a larger size, simply click on it! Or, if you want to view the entire set of photos in flickr, click here.]

Today I decided to leave the city on my own and go off on a bit of an adventure. I meant to get up at the crack of dawn, but you know how good I am at waking up at the crack of dawn. I left my house around noon, took the subway to the Seongdangmot station, and made my way to the Seobu Bus Terminal, where I caught a bus to Haeinsa. Haeinsa (wikipedia entry) is one of the three biggest Buddhist temples in South Korea, and it was originally founded in 802. The temple is most well known for being the home of the Tripitaka Koreana (wikipedia entry), a collection of over 80,000 wooden printing blocks dating from the 1300s, which contain all of the Buddhist Scriptures.

I’d been inside the Seobu Bus Station before back in 2001, when Melissa and I went to Gyeong Ju a couple of times – and that time she and I accidentally got on the wrong bus to tiny village of Choggye. I saw the sign for tickets to Choggye, and made very sure I didn’t go to the wrong place this time… I asked several different people, and made absolutely sure I got on the right bus! The trip cost little more than $4, and lasted a little over an hour. The route started on the freeway, and ended after winding its way up a narrow road to a spot high in the mountains. The scenery along the way was beautiful: bright green rice fields, rocky streams, and gorgeous forests which were beginning to change into fall colors here and there. The bus reached the end of the line and I disembarked. Unfortunately, at the place where the trip ended, the signage for the temple was a little sparse, and it took me a while to find the path to the place. (It turned out that the stop for the temple was actually one stop before the end of the line, so I had to backtrack a bit. Luckily, the weather and scenery were wonderful, so it wasn’t a problem.)

Once I found the right path, I had to hike approximately one kilometer uphill, alongside a pleasant river, in order to reach the temple of Haeinsa. The temple was beautiful. Sadly, I know very, very little about Buddhism, so there I was, roaming about taking tons of pictures of all sorts of things which mean little or nothing to me. I definitely want to learn more about Buddhism and its Korean variant. I’ve even added a few books on this topic to my Amazon wish list, and perhaps I’ll get around to reading them some day.

Left: I've seen many variations of the turtle-with-monument-on-its-back around many temples, but this was the first I'd ever seen that was a turtle-shelled dragon. It was also enormous! I found this (along with many turtle-monuments) on the way to the temple. Can someone tell me what they are?
Right: The path to the temple criscrossed this stream numerous times.

The entrance to the temple. Note the mountaintops in the background.

Inside the temple.

Below are some of the things I wish I knew more about:

The fish-dragon is hollow and can be used as a drum, or it can be swung to ring a gong.

The dragon above adorns the side of a drum, located near the fish-dragon.

An interesting shot taken on Haeinsa grounds.

If you view this shot large, you can see holy water dripping from the wooden pipe. It is collected in a cistern, from whence it can be drunk and/or collected.

The images below are all from the inside of the Haeinsa Temple. Most aren't labeled, as I have no information with which to label them - sorry!

Looking out the temple gate

Detail of a temple carving

Temple Pagoda

The temple had many small shrines and several large ones. I took some pictures of the insides of the various shrines, although they aren’t all that great as I did my best to take my pictures surreptitiously, so as not to disturb the worshippers.

At the topmost level of the temple sits the buildings which house the Tripitaka Koreana. Like I mentioned above, it’s a collection of over 80,000 wooden blocks covered with Buddhist Scripture, to be used for printing purposes. The building was designed in such a way to regulate its internal temperature and humidity, and to thus preserve the wooden blocks. They’ve survived undamaged for over 600 years! Apparently the Korean government had planned to construct a state of the art storage facility for the blocks, but nothing they came up with worked as well as the building designed for that purpose at Haeinsa. Quite an impressive display of ancient architectural technology! I was able to view this building from the outside. While visitors are not allowed inside, the blocks of wood can be seen through the windows.

This is the building which stores the Tripitaka Koreana.
The blocks of wood can be seen through the window-slats.

After exploring the temple thoroughly, and taking numerous pictures, I stopped in at the temple’s information center. There I met a very nice woman who worked there, and who (for roughly $5) allowed me to print a segment from a replica of one of the pieces of the Tripitaka Koreana entitled The Heart of the Prajna Paramita Sutra on a piece of parchment. The pictures were taken by a French tourist.

Me, smearing the ink on the printing block

Tapping the parchment onto the ink-block

Removing the parchment...

Behold! The final product! I am such a tourist.

I have no idea what the parchment means, even though I was given a nice English translation of what I printed on the parchment. Here’s what it says:

The Heart of the Prajna Paramita Sutra

The free seeing Bodhisattva of compassions, while in profound contemplation of Prajna Paramita, beheld five skandhas as empty in their being and thus crossed over all sufferings. O-oh Sariputra, what is seen does not differ from what is empty, nor does what is empty differ from what is seen; what is seen is empty, what is empty is seen. It is the same for sense perception, imagination, mental function and judgment. O-Oh Sariputra, all the empty forms of these dharmas neither come to be nor pass away and are not created or annihilated, neither impure or pure, and cannot be increased or decreased. Since in emptiness nothing can be seen, there is no perception, imagination, mental function or judgment. There is no eye, ear nose, tongue, body or consciousness. Nor are there sights, sounds odors, tastes, objects or dharmas. There is no visual world, world or consciousness or other world. There is no ignorance or extinction of ignorance and so forth down to no ageing and death and also extinction of ageing and death. There is neither suffering, causation, annihilation nor path. There is no knowing or unknowing. Since nothing can be known, Bodhisattvas rely upon Prajna Paramita and so their minds are unhindered. Because there is no hindrance, no fear exists and they are far from inverted and illusory thought and thereby attain nirvana. All the Buddhas in the three periods of time fully accomplished the an-nut-ta-ra-sam-yak sambod-hi by relying upon Prajna Paramita. Therefore, Prajna Paramita is known as the most divine mantra, the incomparable mantra, destroyer of all suffering! Since what is true is not in vain, listen to the mantra of the Pranja Paramita – it goes like this:

GATE GATE PA-RA GATE PARASAM GATE BOD-HI SVA-HA!

Bruce the No (Heart, Skull) Good Pirate

Remember this sticker? Well, one of my students selected it today as his reward for making a 100% on his monthly test. The student who selected it is a wacky boy named Bruce. Bruce seems to be undergoing a series of eye surgeries, and frequently has a patch over one eye or the other. I think this would make a lot of kids feel down and become reclusive. It was bad enough when I got glasses at his age - I don't think I would've been able to handle a patch - but it doesn't slow this guy down one bit. Anyhow, not only did he choose the strangest sticker of the bunch, but then he stuck it directly onto the center of his eye patch!

Click here to see it large.

I bought a gun.

Well okay... so it's fake.

In the States, toy makers are restricted from making toy guns which actually *look* like real guns. I haven't seen a toy gun that looks reasonably real since I was very, very young. Here in Korea, where ownership of real firearms is illegal, you can buy very decent fake guns which shoot little plastic bullets. These toy guns are sold *everywhere* (I bought mine in the grocery store) and the kids are always bringing them to school. The first time I saw a kid with a toy gun, I jumped, it looked that real (at least from a distance). One kid even had a very realistic toy gun (with a clip, even) that made a fast click,click,click sound when the trigger was pulled. Where have I heard that before? Oh, right. That night I called 911. I decided to buy one for myself, partly in the hope that I could re-create the click,click,click sound I heard that night. And partly because it looks cool and it's fun to play with... but it can't kill or injure anyone. (I also have a vague notion of allowing my neighbors back in Waycross to think I'm armed. Although getting it back to the States could be a customs nightmare; it's definitely have to go by post.) There were so many varieties of toy guns to choose from (and now I'm wishing I'd bought a black one instead of a silver one - although considering how cheap they are, I may get a black one too) but I ended up settling for a silver SigSauer replica. (Doesn't Kinsey Millhone use a SigSauer?) It is fairly heavy, and feels quite similar in wight to a real gun. It has a clip into which I can load one little plastic "bullet" at a time... and it came with a little package of them. It even has a pretty good sight. Sadly, it doesn't make any click,click,clicks. I've been sitting on my couch working on my target practice with the box of frosted flakes sitting by the front door. Seriously, am I really 28?

Gun and clip

"bullets"

Pearls of Wisdom

Melissa sent me an email forward the other day, and I decided that it's similar enough in philosophy to the Hermit Manifesto to post it here. (I'm not sure where this originated, so I can't cite the author or anything.) Take it to heart, readers!

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The investment banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, "Only a little while."

The investment banker then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The fisherman said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs." The investment banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening and spend time with my family, I have a full and busy life."

The investment banker scoffed, "I have a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a big town and eventually to the the city where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" To which the investment banker replied, "15 to 20 years." "But what then?" asked the fisherman. The investment banker laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions." "Millions?...Then what?"

The investment banker said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings and spend time with your family."

This is why I do what I do.

[UPDATE: According to Caitlin, This story is adapted from a piece written by Heinrich Boell entitled, "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral." That is, "Anecdote concerning the declining work ethic." If you read German, you might want to click here.]

A wedding, a birthday, and a near-miss for the rabbit

On Sunday morning, Gwen, Samson and I went to a Korean wedding. It was the wedding of one of Gwen's friends, so we weren't just wedding-crashing for the hell of it. I didn't know the girl getting hitched, but I wanted to go to see what a Korean wedding is like - mainly because I'd heard stories. It was definitely interesting. It seemed as though the Koreans had seen a lot of American weddings on television, and tried to duplicate them... and the result was, well, interesting to say the least. The wedding was held in a Wedding Hall, which was hosting three other weddings at the same time. When we arrived, the bride was sequestered in a small room, fully decked out in a traditional Western-style white poofy dress, enthroned on a fancy couch, where she was able to receive guests and be photographed with them prior to the ceremony.

After Gwen said hello and got her picture taken, we went over to the Sapphire Hall (or maybe it was the ruby or emerald or some other gem-named-hall, but you get the point) and positioned ourselves in a good spot to see the procession and ceremony. According to Gwen, this particular wedding hall was not tacky at all, compared to many that she's seen. To me, well... don't worry pictures are below. Let me just list a few features for you: numerous giant chandeliers, a bubble machine, a dry ice machine, "attendants" dressed like marching band members bearing swords and fake horns, and multi-colored spotlights. Hmmmm... and this wasn't tacky? Makes me want to see what a tacky one is like! I think pictures (and a short video clip) speak louder than words.

To play, click the play button in the center of the image.
You may have to click twice.
Be sure to watch for the bubbles and the swords.
(My apologies for the lack of audio)

Love those chandeliers...

Ceremony close-up

The marching band-esque attendants wheeled out a fake cake which was billowing dry ice smoke. The couple then cut the fake cake with a sword, and then it was wheeled away.

The bride and groom with their parents.

The marching band-ish girls really freaked me out -
talk about a flash back to my high school days!

After the ceremony, most guests head off to the buffet table, which is what we did. Apparently, other guests will stay to be photographed with the couple. Then, the couple changes into traditional Korean clothes and they perform some sort of ceremony full of bowing with their families. But like I said, we (along with the bulk of the guests) went in search of chow. The buffet was kind of disappointing, as none of it really tasted fresh. I took a picture of Samson's plate though, because it looked pretty - even though most of what he ate didn't come anywhere near my plate!

Note the two varieties of raw fish and the pile of raw beef...

After the wedding, I returned home and spent the rest of my Sunday glued to the tv. OCN was having a 24 hour CSI marathon. Las Vegas, the original. Grissom, how I love thee. I also spent hours trying to figure out why the internet was being so jacked up. Thank goodness it's been working today. (Yes, I realize I have an addiction here.) Anyhow, today at work was fairly normal, although I did have a wonderful surprise waiting for me upon arrival: Melissa/Alex and Linda/Shaggy have impeccable timing with their packages :-) I had a whole pile of stuff awaiting me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Also, thank you to my mom who bought me some cool stuff for the Hermitage. You know, to go with the feral cat collection that's awaiting me.

I walked home from work, as usual, and as I was approaching the gate to my villa, I saw the neighbor's cat stalking something in the direction of my gate. I rounded a parked car just in time to see it pounce toward the open gate and Toto the rabbit who was sitting there! I screamed, "Cat! No!" and I swear in mid pounce its trajectory went from horizontal to vertical, as it realized there was a Strange Person nearby. I rounded up Toto and shut the gate. Mr. Yu stuck his head out the window (I guess to see what all the commotion was about) but when I told him a cat was tryng to eat his rabbit, his response was "Oh, hello Jane." (You know that scene in Team American where KJI says hello to Hans Blix? Well, whenever he says hello to me - which is pretty much all he ever says - I immediately picture that scene...) Apparently Mr. Yu had company - one of whom kept going outside to smoke and forgetting to close the gate. The gate was wide open when I left about 30 minutes later to have dinner with Gwen and Samson. Luckily at that point Toto was hanging out on the steps up by my apartment. (Also, given the strength with which this bunny beats on my door when he wants in, I kinda think he could've kicked that cat's ass... but one doesn't want to take a chance on such things.)

Gwen and Samson picked me up and took me out for galbi (Korean barbecued pork), which I love - and they brought a cake and a crazy eared hat thingy. It turned out that the people who were sitting at the table next to us spoke English, and they sang me happy birthday! Of course, we shared the cake with them, and with the restaurant staff (who in turn gave me a free coke). Such a nice evening... and such strange pictures. (Believe me, there are much stranger pics, but I've chosen not to post them!)

Do I look 28 to you?


What every birthday dinner needs - silkworm larvae!
(no, I didn't eat them)


Gwen and me


Gwen and me and the cake


I did eat the little person off the cake :-)

Oh thank goodness! (And happy birthday to me!)

I had some incredibly bizarre internet problems yesterday. The three sites upon which I waste most of my time (Yahoo!Mail, Flickr, and Blogger) simply refused to load... yet every single other site on the web worked just fine. I was able to trick Yahoo into letting me in (by logging in via yahoo.co.kr, which loaded with no problems), but Flickr and Blogger were completely off-limits. (Not only could I not log in, but I couldn't view any blogspot websites or any images on sites which display flickr-hosted images!) After chatting with Moosh, I learned that said sites were working fine in the States, leaving me to wonder if this was a Korea-based problem. Or worse, an ISP-based problem, or even a Jane's-computer-based problem. I got up this morning about an hour ago, and the sites still refused to load. Then, just a few minutes ago, I decided to try one more time... and whaddyaknow, here I am. So bizarre!

I went to a Korean wedding yesterday, and I will blog about it... although as I should probably get dressed and get ready for work, you'll have to wait a little while for that one. And wish me a happy birthday folks - I'm 28! (Of course, it's not yet September 25th in the time zone where I was born, so is it really my birthday? Or should I wait a few more hours?) Either way, I should get ready for work; more later!

Всегда готова купить зелёные вещи!!!

(My apologies for the title of this post. It's an inside joke, and those who are supposed to get it will. I'm such a good little lime green Pioneerka.) Today I made an utterly ridonculous purchase (ridonculous meaning too absurd to qualify as simply ridiculous) - but take a look. How could I not buy it?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's a lime green and pink
polyester track suit complete with British flags.

And guess what it says on the back!

I discovered the Korean Ghost Train-Cork connection.
(Yeah, another inside joke...)

I thought this juxtaposition was interesting.

The utter cleanliness of the Daegu subway system
never ceases to amaze me.
(They even have a nifty English language website.)

Sorry for not posting more. I was planning to take yet another Saturday afternoon stroll, but plans got derailed by a bit of a headache. I'll try and take some interesting pics for you all tomorrow!

You've gotta be shittin' me!

In case you're not the sort to read through what other people have written in the comments section, I thought there were a couple of comments on yesterday's post that were interesting enough to be posted out here in the limelight.

From Gwen:

Well on the pronunciation side of things, the "dd" in "ddong" is an explosive consonant, a term that makes me chuckle, especially in relation to this word. My old director at ECC explained to me that the best way to master explosive consonant pronuncation is to start the sound with your tongue pushed firmly against the back of your front teeth. After you listen a while, you'll notice that explosive consonants give words a very harsh feel. Ddong is one of my least favorite Korean words, not because of its meaning, but because it is really grating to my ears. A lot of people really put on an elaborate production when uttering it, which realy just annoys the hell out of me.

I asked a high school student last year what she liked to do in her free time, and she responded "poop." She used the word "eung-ga" instead of "ddong," which is less offensive to my ears. Everyone else in the class seemed to think it was a cute answer. She said she likes to poop because it is refreshing.

I guess this is one of the issues we'll just have to write off as a cultural difference.

(She also told me that the whole poking-others-up-the-ass thing is a sign of friendship. I'm sorry, but that's a dealbreaker for me folks. Just in case for some reason you were unaware, if any of you decide to ram your fingers up my unsuspecting rear while my back is turned, the friendship is over.)

From Bob:

In the not-too-distant past, when Korea was largely an agriculture- based subsistence economy, most Koreans saved their poop and used it to fertalize the family rice fields and garden. Small children saw poop as valuable AND as a source of entertainment that they could have fun with while being taught to work it into the soil with their hands. My guess is that the cute little kids playing with poop image became intwined in the Korean culture and is now a firmly established meme. Whatever. It doesn't mean poop to me.

We had horses when I was a kid, and we used horse manure as compost/fertilizer in our garden... granted, it wasn't subsistance farming or anything, but I don't have any fond memories of the stuff.

Also, as far as I know, the whole human-excrement-as-fertilizer thing no longer happens (or at least if it does, it's on a VERY small scale) although if anyone knows differently, feel free to share.

What's the deal with ddong?

Whenever a person travels to a foreign country, there will be aspects of the foreign culture which s/he will inevitably find incomprehensible. This is my third trip to Korea, and as such I find life here substantially less bewildering than I did my first time around. However, there's one aspect of Korean culture that continues to confuse and amaze me: ddong.

What is ddong? Shit. Poop. Crap. Feces. Dung. Turds. I'm not entirely sure of the correct translation, but you get the point; ddong is the stuff that comes out of your ass. In my opinion, feces are not cute, I don't associate them with my favorite cartoons, I don't want a t-shirt with poop on it, and I don't want stickers with little graphics of smiling turds. I do kind of want to go to Seoul and find the street lined with giant mosaic piles of ddong. What?! Yes, you heard me right. Take a look:

This picture was taken by dry the rain and I found it here.

Koreans (or at least enough of them to count as a marketing base and to warrant ddong-based street art) seem somewhat obsessed with ddong. That list of things I don't associate with feces? Well, you can find all of those things here. Ddong always looks "cute" (or at least as cute as shit can be), and it frequently has a smiley face. Often it is located next to a cute cartoon character. Often, it is being orbited by flies. I bought a thing of stickers the other day, and it had a whole row of smiling crap-heaps. They were the first to go when I offered them to my students! Luckily for you, I took a picture:

Can anyone enlighten me on why this is?

It's also somewhat frustrating to note that ddong and dong are completely different words! For the life of me, I cannot tell the difference in their pronunciation, although Koreans can. A dong is a city district. I live in Seo-ho Dong. This means that if I go to another part of town and decide to take a taxi home, I have to use the word dong when I talk to the driver. I'm always worried I'm going to say ddong by mistake!

My office space

Why do you say there is a paper jam when
THERE IS NO FUCKING PAPER JAM?

We've been having some trouble with our copier the past few days. I may have shouted that very phrase at it the other day in Samir's voice... although I guess it wasn't quite accurate as there actually was a paper jam. Additionally, the insides were suspiciously hot, thus the open side panel and the fan.