Daewonsa - this is long, but OOOH! Pictures!

After a spectacularly lousy week (made better by being able to see family at home and friends here) I went with a group of friends to a Tibetan temple in Korea. It was a lot of time on the bus, but was such a beautiful day and so exactly what I needed (both the place and the company) that it was more than worth it.

At 8:40 on Saturday morning, I grabbed a bus to Suncheon. This is of note because I have finally learned where the bus stop in Gwangyeong moved to, and when I'm going all the way to Suncheon or even to Gwangyang-Eup, this is a million times easier and less than half the cost of taking a taxi to the nearest other terminal. Anyway.

From Suncheon, I met up with Chris, Melissa, Virgina, Karen, and Arsalan, and we grabbed a bus to Boseong, which is mostly known for the green tea fields. In Boseong, we got a bus to Daewonsa, where the temple was actually located. A quick note that as I went from bus to bus, the accommodations gradually became less luxurious. I don't think gears are supposed to grind like the ones on the bus to Daewonsa did, but what do I know, right?

A picture from the bus:


And another. This kid was fascinated by us, and just kept looking from one of us to the next. His cheeks were so chubby that from the side you couldn't see his lips. Adorable.


The day was beautiful and when we got to the temple, we wandered around outside the museum for a while before going into the museum and then wandering the temple grounds. The museum talked about how Buddhist had been able to save many items from Tibet by smuggling them through China and got them out to Korea. There are more pictures on the flickr site, but here are a few.

Chris in one of the smaller temples outside the museum:


A statue outside the museum:


Details of the sand mandala. It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing through the glass, but this shows some of the details, and you should go to Virginia's blog to see the video of it that she uploaded.:


A monkey. My mother said she wanted to see monkeys on the blog. (see what a good daughter I am?! Even if I have issues making it to the post office?)


I love this statue. It may be one of the things that connected with me the most. This is what I want to achieve - a state of peaceful contentedness.


Looking out over the area.


We were all starving at this point, but right before we left to get a late lunch, four of us:


In spring and summer, the grounds are covered in lotus blossoms. Right now, this was the last one we were able to find:



I would love to go back in the spring and summer. This may sound bad, but so often, a temple is a temple is a temple here. This one was different. And it wasn't about going in and looking at alters or any of that. It was incredibly peaceful, and more about being outside and really being able to feel the peace of this place.

...

Which was followed by the anthesis of peace at a party at a friend's place in Jungma. But that was good and necessary in it's own way. I really like having friends that are close to where I live.