Gwallyongsa Temple

Last week I enjoyed a challenging and amazing Korea adventure. I rode about 45 minutes to the small rural village Changyeoung with our Relief Society President, Christina, to visit Lauren, a member of our Branch. She teaches English to Korean school children at an English camp. I have toured the camp before. It's quite impressive. Students spend a week or two here learning English by immersion. The school system buses them in daily. The school has stations that are set up to mimic typical daily experiences. There is a mock restaurant, a theater, an airport and more. It is an inviting environment and a common Korean setting for English study.


Our friend Lauren had a brilliant idea for our visit. We would go to the Gwallyongsa Temple and hike up to the stone Buddha. I have to admit I was a tad nervous. I had heard how difficult these hikes can be. I am not what anyone would call "fit". Add the fact that my co-hikers are 20 and 30 years younger than me, and you may understand my slight apprehension. But I wanted to be a good sport. I wanted to see the temple. I wanted to believe I am not all that old!!! So I committed to join them. I warned them that I may end up stopping and taking photos while they finished the hike, but I was going to give it a try.

It turned out to be one of the best trips of my Korea adventure. I took 65... SIXTY FIVE  pictures. I worked very hard to reduce that number to 33. I had to resist the urge to include all 33 in this blog. So I chose a few select pictures to walk you through our experience.



First we drove for about 15 minutes from Changyeoung through the beautiful green country side. I love that, it does my soul good!! Once we reached the parking area the real adventure began. These are the steps to the temple grounds. These lanterns seem to be everywhere this time of year. Probably because May is when they celebrate Buddha's birthday. There are also many lantern festivals this time of year, many of which are on the water. You can see large "lanterns" in the forms of animals, people, mythical creatures and also scenes portraying well known stories or legends.


At the top of the steps is a covered gate with four painted guardians. Two to your left and two to your right. They are the guardians of the temple. Koreans entering stopped to bow to them. They are often fierce warriors representing north, south, east and west- placed at the gate to protect the temple.




An English speaking monk offered to give us a five minute explanation of the temple (that's why he is pointing to his watch). He told us there were five national treasures located here, protected by the government. I don't remember all five, but I remember it included the wooden Buddha within the temple, their medicine building and the large stone Buddha atop the mountain. He was most anxious to know how we felt about.... his English!!! He served in the Korean army and was in the United states in 1977. He was proud to have retained quite a bit of English. At the end he asked us to rate his English from 1 to 100. Really! He asked us to grade the teacher. I'm sure glad he didn't give us a test. I don't think 3 out of 5 is passing!



I learned even more from signs like this, that are written in Hangul (Korean alphabet) and English. This picture is quite clear in my file but it doesn't look like you will be able to read it on the blog.  To me the most impressive information I read related to the dates. Dates like "the Silla period 1st Century BC to AD 935". Or the hall that was built in 1401 and burned during the Japanese invasion of Korea between 1592-1598. Absolutely amazing!!!

The path was beautiful and not as challenging as I had anticipated. Although it was pretty steep in places and seldom level, I did pretty well. Better going up than down. My co-hikers kept assuring me I wasn't slowing them down and they weren't just waiting for me. Even really good people tell little white lies now and then!. The point is that I did make it. Up and down with no injuries and only two close calls. One time my foot slipped on a small stick. I quickly, but not so gracefully regained control and avoided an embarrassing tumble. The second incident was when I tried to avoid a very steep decline by side stepping and basically placed myself in a position where I couldn't go forward, or backward or sideways for that matter. A quick blackmail picture and a helping hand then all was well.


This is looking down on a group of Korean climbers. They go all out for their hikes. They were dressed in classy hiking gear and carrying walking sticks. They came in a tour bus and there were lots of them, some seemed to be my age or maybe older. The fact that they were also huffing and breathless, even the youngsters, really helped my bruised pride. It was fun to share greetings in Korean, and a few in English.



The historic stone Buddha at the top of the mountain. To us this was  a very
interesting cultural and historical monument, but I was reminded that to the Buddhists we were on sacred ground. That created a feeling of reverence and appreciation for me.  The structures so beautifully Korean, colorful and unique. I felt privileged to share this amazing place. My embarrassment and awkwardness aside, I just felt blessed for this wonderful adventure with two kind young friends in beautiful South Korea..."the land of the morning calm".