Haeinsa (해인사)

Just to let you all know, my updates are probably going to get a bit sketchy. There is about 4 weeks left of school and I have A LOT of papers to write and traveling to do, so writing blog entries is going to be a bit low on my list.

So, let's see what's going on so far...Ok my head just exploded a bit, so I'm going to have to just write what the pictures are showing me.

The other day I went walking downtown Daegu looking for the electronics street, I realized this is actually what I've dubbed "Man Street." There was so many camping, military, electronics and hardware stores in one little area, it was a bit stunning.

This was just a side street next to what I've dubbed as "Teenager Street." Yeah, I was a bit surprised to see Paris Hilton promoting Fila, but then again, no I'm not.

So on to more interesting (at least for me) subject, Korean History!! My awesome English Conversation group accompanied me and Matt to Haeinsa. The ending -sa, actually means temple. So it would be redundant to say Haeinsa Temple, but I digress.

This time around Matt, joined us and we headed to the bus station with Amy and Rachel. Bruce and James were going to join us at the bus station. We grabbed some strong coffee (Amy & Rachel had partied the night before and had only 2 hours of sleep) and then bought our tickets to Haeinsa. Pretty easy bus schedule don't you think?

So on the bus, everyone snoozed a bit but spent a good amount of time watching Amy and Rachel sleep. I'm still not sure how they didn't wake each other up when they were banging heads with each other. ;o) hahaha

I gotta tell you, Korean buses, really, don't watch the bus drive drive. Just close your eyes and sleep. You *really* have to learn to trust that you'll get there alive.

So when we got off the bus, the first thing we did was find a place to eat. We had Bi-bim-bap that was really highly priced (for Korea anyway) at 6,000 Won, normally it's 2,000 Won. But hey, tourist area, what can you really expect? Then we made our way to Haeinsa. On our way there was a rather tattered building with a lot of stores inside. I thought the tree growing from the roof was rather interesting.

We then had a rather "easy" walk (shoot anything is EASY compared to Gatbawi!) to the Entrance of Haeinsa.

Isn't Amy a nut?! Talk about good timing. On our way to the 2nd gate, there was a special old tree that somehow Matt managed to climb inside.

So then we made it to the 2nd gate and I took a lot of pictures of all the freezes that I could see. I was told they are picture stories of Buddhist teachings. I'm hoping that I'll one day be able to read up on them.

Past the third gate was a Zen maze, that you walk as a meditation. So we were game and proceeded to walk around the maze. I found that putting your hand in prayer position made me feel a lot more centered and focused, especially with the little kids racing around the maze. See, Korean children are just like American children! As I was leading the way, I managed to get a couple of shots of everyone, except for Rachel, she seemed to be really good at avoiding my camera! Here's Bruce and Matt.

Then we went into the tourist information center, where we could take a really close look at two of the actual blocks of the Tripitaka Koreana (팔만 대장경).

Tripitaka means Buddhist scriptures, so think of them as pages of the Buddhist Bible. There are 81,340 wooden printing blocks craved for the 2nd time (the first set burned during the Mongolian invasion) in 1251. It took over 16 years for them to carve and preserve. They are carved by hand, BACKWARDS, in Classical Chinese. They were carved by Buddhist monks to invoke Buddha's protection, which was needed for the Mongol invasion (where it got burned) and the 2nd time for the Japanese Invasions.

Since there is no need to reinvent the wheel, here is some information from Wikipedia that was also told to me by my Korean History professor, Dr. Michael Finch.

Each block is made of birch wood from the southern islands of Korea and was treated to prevent the decay of the wood. They were soaked in sea water for three years, then cut, then boiled in salt water. Then, the blocks were placed in shade and exposed to the wind for three years at which point they would finally be ready to be carved. After each block was carved, it was covered in a poisonous lacquer to keep insects away and was framed with metal to prevent warping.

So I guess you better not lick it!

Here is another Tripitaka, the detail is amazing isn't it?!

So this is considered a world heritage artifact and due to it's importance, I just assumed that these blocks would be stored in something similar to Fort Knox. Imagine my surprise when I the storage buildings for them.

So after looking around for a bit and buying a couple of things. We made our way back to the bus station. I rather like this shot...

And took some pictures of some awesome coloring on the leaves.

And stopped to take a picture of a really BIG turtle monument.

 

Seriously, it is REALLY big. See...

 

We caught the next bus back to Daegu, where we pretty much slept the entire way back. Since we didn't have dinner, Matt and I figured everyone else would want to eat, but only James was interested in eating. Everyone else left. So the three of us found a little place to sit and eat and then promptly headed back to the dorm for a nice sleep.

On Monday, I went to Gyeonju after Korean Language class and went to Ji-Eun's Graduation Art Show. Here is Ji-Eun with her friend, Da-Hye, in front of Ji-Eun's two paintings.

Here are Da-Hye's paintings.

So afterward, we went out to lunch and then headed off to Busan. I got to watch a really good Korean movie with Ji-Eun and then headed back to Daegu in the morning. Unfortunately, I missed both of my classes on Tuesday, but it was worth it to see Ji-Eun's art show. :o)

More pictures are located here!