Pictures from Haeinsa Temple Stay

Me in front on Haeinsa Temple entrance Me trying to throw coins into a turtle for luck. Considering my athletic ability I won't be getting lucky any time soon... Our sleeping Quarters DJ and I riding a Dragon Dragons Temple Love Monks on drums The Tripitaka Koreana Group shot of newly enlightened English Teachers

Hey Buddha
This weekend, several teachers and i travelled far and great distances to experience a buddist temple stay at the Haeinsa Temple near Daegu. This is one of those things that foreigners do in Korea, much like visiting the DMZ, that contributes to the greater cultural experience and understanding, dispite it not being fun (fun being defined as 'behaviour or activity that is intended purely for amusement and should not be interpreted as having serious purposes'... quite similar to this blog).

Here's a sample of our temple stay schedule:
(Saturday evening - Sunday afternoon)
Saturday
pm. 5:30 - Dinner
Dinner consisted of plain white rice, kim chi (spicy fermented cabbage as referred to in previous bloggings), and some tofu and veg in a colourless broth. As we found out a bit to too late, there is not supposed to be any talking during the meal, and when we were finished eating, we had to rinse out our bowls with cold water, and then drink it to avoid any wast. Just joking... but only about the drinking our dish water.
6:30 - Evening Ritual Ceremony
This was basically 3 hours of chanting and bowing. I stayed for about 45 minutes... and didn't partake in the chanting or bowing. The thing that was interesting about this was that, I hadn't realized how ritualistic and worship based a religion Buddhism was. Unfortunately, even though we were there to learn and expereince a bit about Buddhism, no one actually explained to us what all the fuss was about.
9:00 - Bed time and lights out
Here's a picture of my bed.
Basically, surpassing the lap of luxury. If luxury is a bare concrete floor.
We also shared this room with approximately 25 lola's (grandmother's). They were all very kind to us though and helped us settle in... and they gave us candy.

Sunday
am. 3:00 - rising
3:00 - morning ritual ceremony (another 2.5 hours of chanting and bowing)
I opted out of both of these activities... resonably guilt free.
6:10 - Breakfast
White rice and seeweed... quite nice actually.
After Breakfast we did a short hike to another temple. Incline walking before 7am is something i've decided i can live quite happily without.
9:00 - 11:00 - morning nap (this was my own addition to the schedule)
10:00 - Ritual ceremony
Unfortunately I missed this due to the aforementioned alteration to the original schedule.
11:20 - Lunch (you should know what to expect by now)

After lunch we took a gander around the temple grounds. Haeinsa is actually one of the more famouse temples in Korea. It is an official UNESCO site and home to the Tripitaka Koreana. All in all it was not a bad weekend. I was a failure on several fronts, as far as ritual ceremony attendence was concerned, but it was definately worth seeing and doing in the end. Plus, some of those Buddist Monks were surprisingly handsome.

Happy White Day!
These Koreans LOVE their comercial holidays! Today, March 14th is celebrated as ‘White Day’ Nation wide. To get to the bottom of this we need to start in 1960’s Japan, where a supposed marshmellow company decided that chocolate was dominating the valentines sweets market, in turn creating ‘White Day’. However, the mass marshmellow consumption that the day was originally created to promote doesn’t seem to have carried over as well as the day itself.

In order for these ‘love’ holidays to not appear too redundant to the masses (since they do follow each other in consecutive months), in this part of the world Valentine’s day is a time for men to be showered with tokens of love by their ladies. oh la la. Seeing as men carry the monopoly on February 14th, women are alloted ‘White Day’ for their own. Intrigued, i dug a little deeper. Here’s a quote from an internet site i found discussing the topic.

“There is another special day like Valentine's Day in Korea. We call that day 'White Day." White Day is on March 14. It is just the contrary of Valentine's Day. Many boys and young men give chocolates to their girl friends. Some confess their love to their girlfriends on that day, so many young women look forward to it.”
Excuse me, i just vomited in my mouth.

So what about us singles? As if having one day dedicated to candlelight (vomit), and roses (vomit), and cheesy stuffed animals spouting off love ballads in battery operated voices, wasn’t enough to make us want to gag. Well come one come all to Korea. You’ll all be gald to know that on April 14th, one month from today is a day dedicated to singles and singles alone! how exciting. The name of this day is... dun dun dun... BLACK DAY. On this day singles gather together, eat noodles in black sauce, and contimplate their lonely black hole existance. Thanks for the recognition!