Buddha's Birthday

Today was Buddha's Birthday. It's a national holiday here in Korea and so we got the day off school. It's quite a cultural event. I went with my friend Tanja, who I met at Korean classes and whose name is pronounced 'Tanya', down to Bonguensa Temple to see what was going on. It's a very pretty complex that is like an oasis in the middle of the big city. It's been there since AD 794. The oldest building is only 150 years old though. It also has a huge stone statue of Buddha. It was pouring all day long, but we still enjoyed it.





This past weekend was the Lotus Lantern Festival, which is the festival that anticipates Buddha's Birthday. Thousands upon thousands of lanterns are made and hung up around the temples and the city with prayer cards attached. Tanja and I went to Jogyesa Temple on Sunday, which is where they were holding the Festival. I have to say, it was more impressive than Bonguensa just because the shear number of hanging lanterns makes a ceiling around the building. It's very impressive and beautiful. Jogyesa also has three gigantic gold Buddhas in their temple. They must be 30 feet tall. It's very cool.

At the festival there were also tons of tents lining the street with a lot of free cultural activities. I took the opportunity to make a paper lotus lantern of my own. There were also quite a few people dressed in hanbok, which is traditional Korean garb. Apparently there was a lantern parade too on Sunday night with over 100,000 lanterns processing. Of course I missed it because I didn't realize it was even going on until it was too late. Oh, well, perhaps next year. At the temple today they did have one of the rooms darkened and the lanterns were lit up, so I got a taste of it. All pictures you see with umbrellas, by the way, were taken today at Bonguensa Temple. Those sunny pics were taken on Sunday at Jogyesa Temple.

After a little research I discovered the significance of the lotus flower. It's a symbol of the Buddha. It's a fragrant and beautiful flower which grows in the middle of dirty mud ponds. Buddha was a perfect person in the middle of our ugly world. It also flowers and bears fruit at the same time, which reminds Buddhists of the law of cause and effect. Everything that one does has a repercussions so you must think through all your actions.

Korean Phrase of the Day: Pi-gah wah-yo! - It's raining!