This past Sunday morning, my host family and I took a trip to Andong. We used to take day trips regularly but lately everyone has been a little busy. However, this would be our first overnight trip together. Sometimes I can hear my host dad and host brothers snoring from their respective rooms so I wasn't so enthralled with the overnight part but for the temple stay were were about to embark on, it was necessary.
First stop on our trip was Andong. We piled into the car at 8 am and I promptly fell asleep. Voila, we were magically in Andong. Andong is supposed to be a historically important site in Korea (along with every other small town). I was told that one goes to Seoul to see culture, Gyeongju to see history and Andong to see the Yangban (Korea's upper class). We walked through a traditional village but there were people still living there so we couldn't actually enter the homes. In the center of that village was a 300 year old tree. Around the tree was a rope to which visitors tied little strips of paper with wishes written on them. I'm not a particularly superstitious person but it never hurts to cover all your bases so I tied a wish to the tree.
We also visited a museum dedicated to Queen Elizabeth's visit to Andong in 1999. Based off the pictures, she didn't look like she understood anything that was going on around her, but the Koreans were definitely excited by her presence. She was the first English head of state to visit Korea.
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| Apparently the Queen knows Korean |
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| A funky looking statue with the Yangban headwear |
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| My host brother looking at the wishing tree |
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| One of those traditional houses I mentioned |
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| There were people taking boats across this river to view the river from the top of the cliff |
From Andong it was a little over an hour to Chunglyang Temple. After parking at the bottom of the mountain, it was a 30 min hike up a steep but well paved road to the temple. We checked in, much like you would at a bed and breakfast and put our bags down in our ondol type room. We donned out temple stay outfits and from there, we explored the temple grounds and decided to hike up the mountain further to a point called "The Sky Bridge". My host parents had been there before and told me it was magnificent. My host mom and Sang-mook struggled up the mountain but when we all made it to the top, it really was amazing. The name really tells the whole story, and what impressed me most was how they built the damn thing up there. I had trouble getting my own slightly out-of-shape body to that point.
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| My host parents coming up the mountain to the temple |
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| Sang-mook leading the pack |
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| Just before the entrance to the temple |
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| The Sky Bridge |
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| Sky Bridge |
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| Sky Bridge - I was told I look good in gray |
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| View from the Sky Bridge |
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| More from the Sky Bridge |
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| In front of the pavilion where people pray |
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| The temple is behind me |
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| Sang-mook wanted to see over the wall |
Prior to going on this temple stay, my host mom said it would be like a resort and that we would just relax. However, when we arrived she unilaterally decided that I would enjoy the real experience much more, albeit only for one day. She decided to pack as much as possible into our visit, and I greatly appreciated this because this trip was one of the highlights of my almost-complete grant year in South Korea!
This leads me to the following: my host mom wanted me to experience the way that Buddhist monks eat so she booked a meal with one of the monks when we would eat just like they do. This involved receiving a set of 4 bowls, each with a certain purpose. We would prepare our table setting in a very specific way, laying out the four bowls, filling one with water, one with vegetables, one with soup and one with rice. Everything was very specific as to its purpose. Now, Buddhist monks don't eat meat but they also don't waste a single grain of rice. They don't even waste a single red pepper flake. Seems impossible to pull off right? Eh, wrong. They've got the methodology down.
When the meal has concluded you use the last piece of yellow pickled radish to clean out your bowl. Eat the radish. Then fill your bowl with water. Wipe it down with your fingers. Stir the contents until they settle. Pour the majority of the water back into a communal pot. Be careful not to get any of the food particles in the pot because if even one is found in there through the monk's inspection, everyone shares that pot of water! Yipee! The monk told us that most people drink a lot of the water rather than risk getting a food particle in the pot during their first temple stay. My host family and I definitely became part of that statistic.
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| I'm trying to follow my host mom, until I realized she was doing it all wrong |
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| The monk asked me to dole out the soup |
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| With the monk |
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| Pre-meal pray |
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| Post temple |
Later on that night, we had tea with the monk. The tea was made with flowers that the monk picked himself from the mountain where 청량사 is located. He continued the conversation from dinner about focusing on the task at hand, becoming one with mind and body and other philosophical strands of thought. My host mom would explain some things to me but I had trouble following this extremely high level conversation. I would like to think that my listening skills aren't too shabby, but my host brothers said even they couldn't follow everything the monk was saying because of how high level it all was. Oh well, I guess I didn't really have a chance.
That night it was my host dad, two host brothers and me in one room while my host mom slept in a different room with one other temple stay-er. I drew the short end of that stick because everyone snored extremely loudly that night.
At 5 AM we woke up to eat breakfast, followed by a morning stretch and hike to the top of the mountain where we would pick lettuce for our lunch. Except that once at the top of the mountain everyone started picking lettuce but no one told me why so I followed suit but all the while wondered what I was doing.
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| A completely peaceful existence |
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| Tae-mook, Sang-mook |
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| My host mom practicing the stretching we learned this morning |
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| The temple grounds from above |
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| Lunch |
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| A tea house we stopped at on our way down the mountain |
Back down at the temple, we sat outside in the shade, concentrating on our thoughts and then went inside the dining hall for a snack before lunch. Ddeokbokki and dduk cakes. Not exactly my favorite but I was hungry. This was followed by a lunch of the vegetarian variety.
Soon after lunch we started back towards Daegu. My overall impression of the temple stay was a very positive one. One thing that I want to point out is that the monk we spent the majority of our day with was unlike anyone I've met before. I saw true happiness and contentment with this man. He said he had no worldly desires and I believe him. He was right where he wanted to be and that deserves an applause.::claps::
