Buddha's Birthday

We had this Friday off to honor Buddha's Birthday, a national holiday. We decided to visit a Buddhist temple to honor the occasion. After doing some research, we found that one of the more famous temples in Seoul was only a few stops down on the subway. The temple is called Bongeunsa, and we had seen it in passing on the way to a field trip with our kindergarten classes a month ago. The temple was founded in 794 AD, and is quite impressive. More and more buildings and halls were added throughout the years, but in 1939 a fire destroyed nearly all of complex. It has since been rebuilt and renovated. It consists of several buildings and worship halls, and a giant statue of Buddha. During the holiday, the temple was incredibly crowded and adorned with lanterns. Our Korean friends explained to us that if you wrote your name and address on a lantern and hung it up, then Buddha would bring good fortune to your family. Unfortunately, the cheapest ones cost 20,000 won (about $20). Instead, we opted to wait in line and pay 1,000 won to use a ladle pour water over a golden baby Buddha. This practice is symbolic of washing away bad Karma. After that we went inside the main temple, where we had to remove our shoes before entering. Bong-Hee, one of my Korean friends, showed me how to use the prayer mat to bow before a statue of Buddha three times. After that we continued to walk around the temple complex, taking in the beauty of the various buildings and decor. Finally, we ended our visit in front of a giant statue of Buddha, the largest such statue in Korea. I was a little disappointed to read that it only dates back to 1996, but the statue is still impressive.