It's a long way from Lunan Bay...: Haeinsa, Tripitaka Koreana and Romance

This weekend I decided to treat Garry to a weekend away, just the two of us, to a place we had wanted to go to since orientation called Haeinsa (meaning Temple of Reflection on a Smooth Sea). It is a village in central South Korea, in the Gaya Mountains in South Gyeongsang, which has a very famous Buddhist temple and stores the Tripitaka Koreana - the world’s most comprehensive and oldest intact version of the Buddhist canon in Chinese script. The script is carved onto 81,340 wooden blocks and they were made in the 13th century. There are no known errors on the 52, 382960 characters.

Haeinsa Temple was first built in 802. Legend says that two Korean monks returned from China, Suneung and Ijeong, and healed King Aejang’s wife of her illness. In gratitude for the Buddha’s mercy, the King ordered the construction of the temple. Haeinsa was burned down by fire in 1817 and rebuilt in 1818.

The Temple of Haeinsa and Janggyeong Panjeon (the buildings that hold the Tripitaka Koreana) were listed as UNESCO World Herittage Sites in 1995.

So, we set of early Saturday morning and caught a bus first to Daegu (90 mins) where we had to transfer bus stations and then get another bus for Haeinsa (120 mins). We arrived at Haeinsa about 1pm and were greeted by an agjuma (old lady) who tried to get us to book into her hotel. We followed her and had a look but the level of flowers was beyond comprehension and the bathrooms left something to be desired. We walked up the hill a little and found a traditional looking Korean motel - it had a lovely open hallway and balcony that ran all along the front. We viewed a room, agreed a price and dropped off our stuff.

Our traditional Korean hotel which looked out over the mountains and Mt Gaya.

We set off up the hill (with a few beers from a local shop) and spent some time sitting in the warm sunshine drinking beers and chatting. After a 30 minute walk we reached Haeinsa Temple - it was definitely more beautiful than other temples we had seen and built in an amazing setting in the hills. We were slightly disappointed that the Tripitaka Koreana were behind wooden slats and the guard was very protective of these - you were not allowed to even tough the outside wood of the building (however, we later realised that even the building is National Treasure No. 52 and Koreans are very keen on their national treasures!).

This is a map of the many temples in the area.

Turtles.

There were a group of kids on an outing and this girl was very excited to speak English to a foreigner - she was even more excited when she realised we lived in Pohang as she was from Pohang. She ran after us twice to keep chatting! Bless.

Some traditional spices the old agjumas were selling.

Garry sitting by the river, drinking some beers.

Entrance up to Haeinsa Temple.

Very old tree trunk that I really can't remember the significance of - sorry.

Haeinsa's many buildings.

This was a long winding maze that you walked around and while you walked you prayed for forgiveness.

Buddhist painted drum.

I love these bells, they are so beautiful.

Peek-a-boo!

Ornate door handles.

Ornate wood carving.

These are one of my favourite things about Buddhist Temples - the floor tiles are beautiful and so intricate.

Janggyeong Panjeon where the Tripitaka Koreana are held. And this is as close as we got.

Lanterns in the Temple Square - preparing for Buddha's Birthday on 21st May.

Decorated elephant.

Leaving Haeinsa to head back for dinner.

We walked back down to the village, and with our tummies rumbling we chose a restaurant - this didn’t take long as there were only about 4 and they appeared to serve the same food. In true foreigner style, we just pointed at what someone else was having and asked for that. A million little side dishes arrived and we waited for the main but it never arrived. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. There were always crisps!

Back up the hill to the hotel, with a few more beers and the bottle of Champagne we had put in the hotel owners fridge before we went for a walk. We sat on two big wicker chairs on the balcony area and watched it get dark sipping on champagne out of plastic cups. It was pretty chilly but the room was not much to look at so we just wrapped up and sat chatting until the small hours.

When we awoke in the morning, it was a beautiful day and we packed quickly and headed down to the waterfalls we had seen signposted the previous day. Well, there was A waterfall, and it was quite pretty so we sat down and munched our breakfast of crackers and cheese slices. It was at this point that we made a wrong decision - we read in our South Korea book that there was a large gold Buddha statue half way up the mountain and we figured we had plenty of time to walk for a while and still get home in plenty of time.

Waterfall at Haeinsa.

Aw.

So we set off on our first proper hike in Korea. We were not at all put off by the millions of Koreans around us who were coming DOWN the hill, dressed head-to-toe in the best hiking gear ever and looking fresh as buttons (it was only midday after all) and tucking into their packed lunch by the side of the river. Up we went, up many many many steps and it got steeper and steeper. There were signs along the way telling us how far left to go and we kept thinking 2km wasn’t that bad. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was a LONG hike to the top - one of the ones where there are a million peaks an each time you think you are at the top, you are not. We were ill equipped with Converse baseball boots on and no sunscreen. At least we had some water! When we finally got to the top, after scrambling up some rather large rockfaces and saying “hello” a million times to all the Koreans going DOWN the mountain, the views were amazing and it was all worth it. And we were once again humbled by Korean generousity - a group of young Koreans gave us 2 rolls of gimbap (Korean sushi rolls with veggies inside) and two mini Twixs. We must have looked really unprepared! The walk back down was much quicker than on the way up and we treated ourselves to one final beer before starting the journey back to Pohang.