We docked in Incheon, South Korea – famous in the US for Operation Chromite during the Korean War. However, I was not touring here. Myself and ten other cruise guests signed up for an over-night stay in Seoul, leaving the pier after the other tours departed and traveled north-east.
And immediately ran into traffic jams. Many, many traffic jams. Our 90-minute trip took over two hours, which put the entire day’s itinerary out of whack. On the other hand, there were many miles of cherry trees in blossom, which was nice.
Our first stop was the Bongeunsa Buddhist temple. This temple had many armature-supported paper statues/figures. Outside the main gate was a diorama with a child holding a finger in the air. According to Buddhist lore, when born the Buddha took seven steps and announced he was the one, true Buddha. According to this diorama, he was born with trousers on.
Temples thru-out Asia decorate with paper lanterns. However, Bongeunsa strung them in mass across paths between buildings in order to provide sun cover. It was a good look.
I saw that some of the lanterns had paper wishes attached. I then noticed the tents along the paths selling these wishes, with different cost depending on where you wanted your wish hung from – for example, a large vs small lantern.
The big difference between Korean temples and others I have seen in Asia is that Koreans paint murals on theirs. I’ve seen sculpted stories, but not painted murals. Vive le’ difference.
Here is a statue of the Bodhisattva “Maitreya“, the Buddha yet-to-come. Our guide said it is among the tallest stone statues in Korea. Side note: I’ve spent hours trying to find the significance of the square hat the statue is wearing.
Yeonji Gwanseum Bosal is a Bodhisattva of compassion, known as “Kannon” in Japan.
That’s enough for one post. More of day one to come.