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Published: November 30th 2008
Sorry to everybody that I haven’t been blogging recently. No excuses. Just haven’t been feeling the flow lately. I started to write this entry a couple of months ago. After copious pressure from my little sis, I finally finished it. I’ll try to keep it more up to date, but no promises. Here it is.
Every once in a while when travelling, I get hit with a feeling: “wow, there isn’t anywhere in the world I’d rather be than right here, right now.” The story I’m about to tell was not one of those times. It was an experience I will never forget, nonetheless.
I was invited to have lunch one Saturday with one of the students from the adult classes I was teaching; Channy. At lunch, she invited me to come with her and her daughter to visit a temple in another city. It would be my first excursion outside of Jeonju, and I jumped at the chance. “Great” she said, “do you have a suit?” I told her yes, already thinking “what have I just agreed to?”
We met at 6:30 the next morning and went to catch the bus. I was told the men had to sit in the back of the bus, so I was left with a group of men; none of whom I knew, and none of whom spoke a word of English. They were all very friendly, though, offering food and drinks. Two hours into the three hour bus ride, a woman stood up with a microphone, and proceeded to talk for the next hour. Naturally I had no idea what she was saying, but I know a sermon when I hear it - no matter what the language. By now I had figured it out; I wasn’t going to a temple, I was going to temple. Big difference.
When we arrived at our destination, we were herded into a hall filled with people. Again men and women were separated, so I was sent with one of the men from the bus to take some food. Before we went in, I was warned that it was forbidden to leave any food on the plate. In Canada, that would be no problem for me. Here, I don’t even know what I’m spooning up. Luckily, everything went down easily.
After the “brunch,” Channy took me to see the temple. I could tell she was nervous; telling me the etiquette for inside the sacred areas: hands folded in front when walking; bow when bowed to; etc. As we walked there, she told me that the temple was closed to foreigners until last year, and that she thought I was the first Canadian ever to enter the sacred areas. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but judging from the stares I got, I’d say westerners are at least a rarity there. I would find out later that this was just a trial run. She showed me the huge bell (apparently the largest in Korea) which rang every day at 1:00 to signal time for prayer. Then she took me into the sacred area of the temple. She showed me an intricate bow which was to be performed every time you enter those areas. I was shown around the courtyard inside. Told about the statue which would strike down those who were not pure of heart and tried to enter sacred places (I’m still here, so you can be the judge of whether it works or not); about the pagoda with carvings of the creatures of the Chinese calendar (same thing you see on the placemats at Chinese restaurants); and shown paintings of the journey the people in this faith are trying to take (they are chasing a metaphorical white cow, which will bring happiness and long life).
This is where I started to get an idea of the religion. It seems like a mix of several oriental religions. They do worship Buddha, but there aren’t the statues of Buddha which you would expect to see at a Buddhist temple. There seems to be a solid base of Taoism mixed in, emphasizing the balance between Yin and Yang. There was also some animism -- most of the images were of animals; some mythical, some real. Channy told me that there were about one million adherents to this religion in Korea, but I haven’t been able to find any information about it on the internet. She did tell me the name of the religion, but it was a Korean word that I can’t remember, and couldn’t spell even if I did.
After visiting the sacred area, we stood at the bell, which rings every day at 1 PM. We went for lunch (cold noodles, kimchi, and a cold baked potatoe). We then went to the library to get a cool drink. The weather was stinking hot and humid, and I was wearing my black suit. All of a sudden, Channy looked at her watch, jumped up and we ran to join the masses of worshipers. We arrived at the back of the line, where the women were. Everything in this religion is separated between men and women. There are no restrictions on either sex that I could see, just that they did things separately. I had to run to the front of the line where the men were, and find my male babysitter - one of the men from the bus. We followed the line back into the sacred area with the pagoda (after performing the bow again). By this time I was already sweating heavily. We gathered in a large courtyard beyond the area I had seen, and stood … and stood … and stood. We stood in that baking courtyard, heads bowed, wearing suits, for over an hour. Then I saw people beginning to move into a building - the women. It was another half hour before the men started to enter the building. I was near the end of the line.
Outside the library women's quarters.
By the time I got inside, I had been standing in that courtyard for almost two hours. We slowly made our way into the temple area, heads always bowed. We stood inside that temple for another 15 minutes, and then followed a chant. We had to go from standing to bowing our heads to the floor about 10 times or so. I’m sure I did it wrong, but I was just trying to follow the others in the group. After bowing, we were allowed to raise our heads and look around - for about 2 minutes. We were then herded right back outside. It seems that the most important lesson of this religion is the necessity of sacrifice in order to gain small rewards. I get that - but I won’t be lining up for that experience any time soon. As soon as I got out of the sacred areas, I took off my suit jacket to find my shirt soaked through with sweat. I got even more stares from the Koreans, but it was worth it to feel that cooling air (at that point even 35 degrees and 95%!h(MISSING)umidity was cooling).
After that experience, we went back to find the air conditioned library again, and cool off. Then it was a 3 hour bus ride back to Jeonju. I was ready to just sit back, turn on my ipod, and close my eyes. Unfortunately, I know better than to listen to music while someone is giving a sermon. This one was about an hour and a half long.
It may sound like this blog is just a gripe session. In reality, though, I am really glad I got the experience. It may have been mostly a mild form of torture, but it was a really humbling experience. I am grateful to Channy that she saw something in me that she thought she could share something that was so obviously personal, and somewhat of a risky move on her part. If I had done something wrong, I’m sure she would have gotten the blame from people there. It wasn’t even an attempt at conversion, which I am more than used to. It was just an attempt to share something of her life with me. Not that I’ll be going back anytime soon - and to her credit, she hasn’t asked. She knows as well as I do that this was an experience I’ll always remember, but never be keen to repeat.
Artificial nature area outside the sacred areas
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A Korean
non-member comment
Won Buddhism?
I was a bit mystified by your descriptions of the 'temple' and 'religion' so I did some research. Could be Won Buddhism, which is a kind of 'established' religion around here (esp. in Jeolla region) as opposed to many...well, 'new' and smaller religions. I wonder if I'm correct? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Won_Buddhism