Jeondeungsa: Korea’s Oldest Buddhist Temple
Happy Birthday Buddha! I know I’m a bit late for this post but I wanted to share some of these great photos of Jeondeungsa.
The temple is said to date back to 381, which would make it the oldest temple in Korea. It’s a beautiful place, especially with all the Buddha’s Birthday festivities.
The Korea Tourism site mention to check out the corners of the main hall Daeungbojeon—you’ll see little carved figures of what kinda looks like a naked women holding up the roof.
“According to legend, the engineer building the temple fell in love with a barmaid in town. Unfortunately for him, she absconded with all his money. In revenge, the engineer worked her image into the temple, where, at least figuratively, she would have to hold up the temple roof for all eternity.”
Wow Korea is so good at revenge.
There are several national treasure here too, such as: Yaksajeon (Treasure No. 179), Beomjong Bell (Treasure No. 393, constructed in China in the 11th century), and Yangheonsu Victory Monument (Tangible Cultural Treasure No. 26). There are also many ancient trees.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the day.
It was a dainty adventure!
Mama Letty’s Korean Adventure: Day 3
Day 3: Happy Chuseok!! Today lots of things were closed due to the holiday but one place that wasn’t close was EVERLAND!! So we took the subway to Gangnam Station on line 2 then we took bus number 5002 to Everland. On the way there the bus was standing room only. At the bus stop we took a free shuttle to EVERLAND. At first Everland pissed us off because the ticket booth lady was an idiot and when Chad tried to buy tickets she was just not getting it. He even said it in Korean. So Chad and I got super discounts, Kyle and Jamie got the foreigner discount and mom had to pay full price, because I guess she looks Korean…. Yeah ticket booth lady=stupid.
Once inside the place was great! Really crowded with all the other Asians in Korea besides Koreans. It was the Halloween Festival so everything was themed Halloween, which was amazing!! Then we went to this area that had birds you can feed, I’m terrified of birds but I tried it out.
Then was so much to do and see. In Everland, you have rides, a zoo and shows. Here are some highlights.
Happy Birthday Buddha!
Bronze Buddha Statue at Seoraksan National Park
Buddha’s Birthday is a national holiday here in Korea. So we have to go to work on Monday but we get Tuesday off, go figure….
Buddha’s birthday is the birthday of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who founded Buddhism and is considered Buddha because “Buddha” meaning “awakened one” or “the enlightened one” found enlightenment. It’s held on the 8th day of the 4th month in the Chinese lunar calendar.
This year makes it May 10th.
“It’s Springtime for Hitler and Jamie!”
I love that musical. The Producers is probably one of my top 5 favorite musicals. But that’s a post for another time.
Anyway spring is here and so are the flowers. So here’s a picture of my best buddy Jamie at Ilsan Lake Park. This park has the largest man made lake in Korea. I know all about man made lakes because that’s all Oklahoma has and we have the largest number of them. I got my dates mix up and was hoping to see another flower festival in Ilsan but we show up a weekend too early. So some of the flowers haven’t even bloomed yet.
I love messing with Photoshop so I hope you enjoy this creation! Not one of my best photoshopping pictures, a bit sloppy in places but oh well I’m too lazy right now to go into perfection mode.
Hangang Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival
Under the Cherry Blossoms
We went to the cherry blossom festival here in Seoul and it was pretty fun. There are several festivals around Korea and even Seoul itself, but the Yeouido Festival is the biggest in Seoul. The weather was a let down because all week long it was sunny and warm and of course the first time in a couple of months we get an extra day off, overcast and windy. But we went with our co-teacher friends and the streets were filled with beautiful pink/white blossoms. The streets were also filled with performers and vendors. The big excitement was Saturday but we wanted to go on our day off and beat the big crowd so we went on Friday. The street behind the National Assembly was filled with people a couple of stages for Saturday’s events and several flower displays. There were also a row of artist that would draw your portrait. Probably not as much festivities but enough to be enjoyable. One of my co-teacher friends Moriah got pulled into a clowning act and Chad made a friend with a musical comedian. We got to see the National Assembly too. So over all it was a fun-flower-filled day!
Oh PS I got my hair cut. I hope you like it. 🙂
It’s my Birthday!
Had a great birthday at Daddy J’s. Thanks to everyone who came out. Everyone made me feel real special and loved. Thanks Korea for being so cool!!
Seoul Lantern Festival 2010
Lanterns on the Cheonggyecheon Stream
In time for the first G20 Summit in Korea, the the second annual lantern festival, themed “Seoul, a forest of hope and light,” beautifully lit up the Cheonggyecheon Stream from the Cheonggye Plaza to the Samilgyo Bridge. This 1km stretch of the stream was decorated with about 15,000 lanterns of 213 variations and from 25 countries according to the Korea Tourism website.
It was amazing walking down the stream and looking at all the lanterns. It was also really cool to see all the G20 stuff and see the lanterns that represented America.
Here’s hoping that the G20 will help to take a big leap to helping the global economy!
A Photo A Day When You're Far Away 