Waujeongsa Temple

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, I apologize. Everything is going well. My students have been on their 5 week summer vacation for the past 3 weeks. This week and next I’m teaching English summer camps. I’ve had to design the curriculum for 3 separate classes, needless to say this was very time consuming.
I’m gonna back up here to share an experience I enjoyed my first week here. Since my school is about 20km outside of the city I live in I have a 25 minute scenic drive everyday to get to work. I believe on the second day I notice out of the corner of my eye a gigantic gold Buddhist temple tucked away in a small yet heavily vegetated canyon. Since at this time I didn’t know anyone, any of the language, or any of the busses I thought this was the perfect thing to go explore my first weekend here. So that Saturday I took a taxi to the temple.
As I get out of the taxi I immediately eyed the massive structure in front of me which stood in the background of a basketball court sized reflection pool.
Not knowing anything about the Buddhist religion or the meaning of the temples I was really rather clueless as to what I was looking at (all descriptions were written in Hangeul), so I pulled this off the internet to explain it better.
”Built in 1970, the temple holds the world’s largest wooden statue of a Buddha in a lying down position. Made out of a single juniper tree, the statue stands 3m tall and 12m long. The figure of the Buddha head, the largest of its kind in the world, is another of the temple’s attractions. The temple is also famous for the Brass Buddha that was made over a 10-year period, the 12-ton Unification Bell, the Ascetic Buddha made of white precious stone, and the Unification Stone-Tower which was built by piling up stones collected from Buddhist sacred grounds across the world.”
http://eng.gg.go.kr
I have since visited several more temples throughout the country since being here, but I must say this is hands down my favorite of them all, and it’s only a 10 minute taxi or bus ride from my doorstep.

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Comments

[paul]

badass
i'm glad you're taking advantage of the cultural sites like this and not just hanging out in pubs all night. been wondering what was going on with you.

[Anna]

Beautiful photos of Temple and Buddhas. Loved the closeups. The stone pagodas are wonderful. I like the building with the mushroom cap roof too. Your blog stirred my interest in the teaching of Buddha again. Thanks.