Haeinsa

Another day, another temple!

This time we were on the hunt for a piece of history we had heard about in orientation. The Tripataka Koreana

Haeinsa is classed as one of the Three jewel temples of Korea (the other two being Tongdosa , in Yangsan and Songgwangsa in Suncheon-si. )

It was easy enough to get to. We took a bus from Seobu bus terminal that cost 7,000 won for a single (make sure you take cash with you to get home and buy things as cash points aren’t popular on top of this mountain, although the gift shop did let me use my card)

We traveled for about an hour and a half with our ears popping from the height of the mountain we were scaling. The small town that houses Haeinsa is beautiful and I wish we had had time to explore but the temple is so high it would mean getting on and off busses all day.

When we arrived at the temples base we were told it was only a 1km walk to its main entrance. It was a little steep at times but very manageable. I did it in flip flops (or Slip Slops to you South Africans out there)  The temple is a huge tourist destination so there were rest stops every few yards. You can even try some Red Pepper juice (?)

Once the boys had filled up on Slushies we started our scaling of the mountain. The streams surrounding the temple form lots of waterfalls and it makes for a really lovely walk. As well as this there are shires and statues dotted along the route and of course there was this to keep the boys entertained.

When we arrived at the temple we were greeted by these angry fellows.

 All Buddhist (and Hindu) temples have these before you enter. They are the guards of the temple and watch over it. They are called the Narayeongeumgang (in most other Asian countries they are called the Dvarapala.) Sometimes they are statues but in Haeinsa they are paintings. People leave money to them to ask for their safe passage through the temple. Some people believe that these four warriors traveled with Buddha to protect him when he was alive. They are normally portrayed as soldiers with demon features.

As well as the temple guarsds there is also an extremely old tree at the enterance to the building. It is said to have been planted 1200 years ago by King Aejang who built the temple. The temple was built to thank two Buddhist who prayed and cured his wife of an incurable illness. The tree was planted to remember their kindness.

The tree is dead now but it’s still impressive to look at and think about how long it’s been there.

We toured the temples and listened to the Buddhist chants as well as drank some water from the temple spring. This is starting to become a tradition for us as we have done it in all of the Buddhist temples. I might see how many spring we can drink from. The spring water is meant to have healing properties and give you ‘long life’ so surely we should drink bucket loads of the stuff.

Finally we got to the top and were ready to see what we had come for. The Tripataka Koreana. This was the piece of history we had learnt about in Orientation and for some reason it really held an appeal for Lee and myself.

It is the world first printing press or photo copier to be precise. The 81, 258 wooden blocks are housed in a building built specifically to look after them as it has done for many years successfully despite the crazy extreme weather conditions of Korea and a guerilla attack made in the Korean war by North Korea.

The blocks are the first time in history that words were carved so that a written text could be reproduced. The text on the Tripataka is the ancient Buddhist scriptures and contains 52,382,960 characters which are organized in over 1496 titles and 6568 volumes.

This is impressive enough but when you see the detail and effort that must have gone into carving these wooden blocks it is pretty impressive. Most impressively though is the fact that there is no mistakes. Out of more than 81 thousand blocks there is not one error or correction. I can only imagine how much work and effort must have gone into these blocks. It is definitely worthy of its world heritage status. It especially holds an appeal for someone who could survive without spell check.

Unfortunately for us , the building was closed.

The building is under renovation for the next 3 years so we couldn’t see the blocks, but we could see through the windows and the rest of the temple was worth the visit. There is a block on display for you to see as well as a stall where you can buy a print from the actual Tripataca for only 5,000 won. We have bought one which I’m proud to say is the only Korean tourist thing we’ve indulged in. I think it will be lovely framed in our house one day, when we finally stop being lazy bums and traveling the world that is.

I also popped into the gift shop or the ‘Monk Junk’ store as our friend Rob liked to call it. I bought a jade bracelet and a small charm to send home. I’m very aware that I will be taking a lot of random rubbish home but I’m trying very hard to only buy one or two important or meaningful items. It’s proving easier than I thought but this is mainly due to moving houses 8 times in 8 years. ‘Stuff’ really annoys me but I am happy to make an exception for a piece of ancient history (And a pretty bracelet).

With the day drawing to an end we had a seat and realized we were sat at an important location (we only knew this when a crowd formed in front of us)

The tree we were sat next to was said to be the spot that a famous scholar and writer use to sit and play music, unfortunately I stupidly didn’t take a picture of the sign with the information and can’t find it online to give you names. When he would play music cranes would land and listen. One day he put his cane into the ground and from that grew a great tree which only grows up and straight.

The tree was impressive and I love stories like that. It always adds an air of magic to a place. The boys on the other hand were just happy to have some shade from the scorching sun.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We got the bus home and ate far too much Korean BBQ. All in all the perfect Korean day. After all it’s not a Korean day without some frying meat and a temple in the sunshine.