Monuments & Temples

Songnisan National Park (songni Mountain)

Songnisan was nearly in my backyard when I lived near my In-laws. It is a gorgeous place covered with cherry trees and many other flowering plants. The major attraction there is Popchu temple which contains many of South Korea's national treasures. This temple, established in 553, was once the largest in Korea and home to 30,000 monks. There are now only a few of these monks still at the temple keeping vigil. Most of the treasures are protected, and thus can't be photographed, but I can share some of them with you.

Entry to the park is through a large gate, a structure often seen at the entrance of temples in Korea and China. The detail of a structure like this is very difficult to capture with a still camera. Not to mention I really needed a longer street for this picture, as the structure is breathtakingly huge.

Just beyond this gate, between it and the temple, is a trail along which is planted hundreds of varieties of tree that can be found all over Korea. During the Japanese occupation of Korea it is said that many of the trees were harvested and sent to Japan. The Korean war and the hardship that followed stripped even more trees from the landscape. Then came massive expansion of the cities and trees and other flora were replaced by concrete and steel. Needless to say, Koreans are very protective of the trees they have left and this garden path is jealously protected.

The temple has a couple of gates in addition to the one to the park. Inside this one are four guards that nearly touch the ceiling inside. As you can probably guess just from these gates, the scale of everything in the park is much larger than life.

In all fairness, though, not everything was put into place by the Buddhist monks who built the temple. Much of what is seen here was brought together in this park by the government of Korea. Korea's Temples these days are the keepers of the nation's treasures, including the monks themselves. Being a monk in Korea has not always been an easy job, with kings and various other forces eliminating large numbers of them throughout the country's history. I don't recall the specifics, but at one time a group of monks were in open conflict with the government over who should control the country. You might call these conflicts an early version of the debate over the separation of church and state.

One of the things that was moved in was this very large (30 meters tall), and very impressive, statue.To give you an idea of the size of this statue just imagine me, a six foot two inch medium built man, lying comfortably in the palm of its outstretched hand with enough room for a friend or two. Or better yet, look at the picture on the right and think about the fact that the little things at its base are people. According to the National Parks Service this is the largest free-standing Buddha in Korea.

The base of the statue houses a small museum display and a central chamber with stone carvings depicting the life of Buddha surrounding an alter in the middle. The ceiling above the alter extends up into the statue and the candles clustered here give the effect of an ascending gold lined tunnel of light. At least one monk keeps a constant chanting vigil at the base of this alter at all times. I was told the belief was that if the monks stopped chanting, or praying for the salvation of their people, the country and its people would suffer great harm.

The entryway to the base of the statue is guarded by a couple of alabaster lion-like beasts and the door by a couple of soldiers in bas relief. Both of my children, Chae Lynn and Chae Eun, are named after this beast. Forgive me for forgetting what the Koreans call it, but the Chae in my children's names is the Chinese rendering and the middle names signify jade and silver. This beast is the "judge of all things", a moniker my very judgemental children seem overly intent in living up to.

While in the museum my wife, an artist herself, commented that Koreans felt that they had somehow lost the ability to render art in as much detail as was once the case. I suppose that could be said of a lot of societies. I can't help but wonder if we have lost the ability, or if its more a matter of patience. Who these days would take the time and spend the money on these immense works, some of which took the lifetime of the artist create? Whatever the case, the park is full of enviable examples. Not to mention a contribution here and there by nature herself.

The park is also home to the oldest wooden structure still standing in Korea, this stunning five story pagoda style temple. Inside is a large collection of Buddha statues (I'm not sure how many; a lot) each with a unique facial expression.

Supposedly if a woman stands in the doorway with her eyes closed, then the first face she sees when she opens them will have the same visage as her future husband. I asked my wife if she saw me in the temple when she openned her eyes, to which she said, "Don't be silly, they are Korean statues, none of them look like you."

The caretakers are very aware of just how easily this wooden structure could go up in flames. Inside the structure is a state of the art fire supression system and the staff members are ready and willing to risk their lives saving the temple should something happen. If the temple were somehow destroyed how would young women know who they were supposed to marry? As if there isn't enough pressure on choosing the right guy to marry, young girls have to seek guidance from the temple too.

Because of its location this is a temple rarely visited by foreigners. If you are ever in Korea I highly recommend that if you see no other temple you see this one. I am a bit biased, of course, as I lived in the area for a number of years. Popchu temple is on Songni Mountain (Songni-San) just North of Poun and about four hours South of Seoul by bus. Shortly after I left Korea a major railroad line was built through Poun, so you may be able to travel directly there. There are plenty of really nice Western style hotels on a lovely shopping street just outside the main gate.

Other Songnisan Pages

Soraksan National Park

Sorak is on the Northeast coast of Korea and is a similar park to Songnisan. The park was dedicated as a national park in the hopes that North and South Korea will one day be reunited. It is indeed very close to their neighbor, a fact that I was reminded of by guard posts overlooking the ocean and facing North Korea.

Unfortunately this park was a six hour drive away, and there are so many things to see in the area. My wife, girlfriend at the time, and I went to Sokcho, the nearest town to the temple, for the weekend, but by the time we got there on Saturday it was time to find something to eat and turn in. These pictures were snapped in kind of a hurry to catch the bus back home on Sunday afternoon. Somehow Sunny had managed to book a vacation package including a condominium for the weekend. I instantly fell in love with the Kangnung and Sokcho areas with its beaches and seaside cities.

We were at the park for about an hour the first time we visited. I honestly didn't know what all there was to see in the park at the time but did get a chance to for a more leisurely visit later on. My wife and I took a week vacation and just wandered down the East coast, staring at Soraksan. I'll have to dig out some of my other pictures of the area and expand this section as time permits.

Entry is gained through a gate similar to the one at Songnisan, the notable difference being the large dragon in the ceiling of this gate. I tried several times to capture the vibrant colors in this gate, but my digital camera wasn't up to the challenge. My poor little Casio camera just didn't know what to think of all the variations in intensity, so it picked a flat average. Pity. It really is something to see. I'll take my regular camera as well next time. I stood at this gate for a few more minutes than my wife wanted to; I had never seen anything quite like it. I guess if you live in Korea your whole life you get used to monsters coming out of the ceiling though.

This is about as far as we got on our first visit. The park is set up around a seated Buddha, with a cable car building opposite that takes passengers to the top of the mountain for a breathtaking view from the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, the wait for the cable car was over an hour so we had to postpone that trip. In retrospect, we should have waited for the cable car.

On returning to Sorak with a few friends and one of our visiting teachers we took the journey to just short of the top of the mountain where guides lead you on a rope climb the rest of the way up. Though the park is called Sorak, the actual mount Sorak sits some distance away and rises as a dominant peak you can only really appreciate if you take on the mild climb up the face of the adjoining mountain.

Just a little way farther into the park is a small temple facing a very peaceful and serene mountain stream and gorgeous mountains. Check out the scenery section of the album for pictures from the Sorak mountain area. You won't be disapointed.

Other Soraksan Pages

At the entry to the park is a large pond with an island for its inhabitants, small turtles (a symbol for long life), to rest on. Just beyond is a large pagoda (seen in the forground in the photo above) which affords a great view of the whole compound. The theme of the turtle runs throughout the park, creating a serene environment filled with ponds and waterfalls.

Inside the temple itself is a collection of wooden statues. The natural wood gives these pieces a very erie, almost lifelike look. It was really too dark in the temple to take good pictures, but I was able to capture this one of the three main statues. My digital camera at the time balked at very bright or very dark shots and since taking pictures in the temple was technically forbidden a flash was out of the question. I respectfully lowered my camera to waist level and snapped just one quick picture.

I think this was the first where I really felt I understood what these temples were all about. I came to realize that our religions weren't all that different; that we too build massive monuments to our God and I was standing in the house of God. Sure, the symbols are different, but the ideas are the same. I have always said I wasn't overly religious, and I'm not, but it's not the idea of God I resist, but rather the idea of church. Maybe if our churches looked like Korean temples I'd be there more often though. I do like the Buddhist take on church that one doesn't really have to go there with any regularity because we have monks to pray for us.

Update: Unfortunately I can't recommend this temple anymore as I read recently that it was lost to a forest fire. Ironically, the last time I was at Naksansa they were putting new tiles on the roofs of the buildings. In the central courtyard were stacks of the curved black clay tiles, where for a small fee you could have your name written on the bottom of one of the tiles before it was placed on a roof. This temple has been partially destroyed and rebuild several times in its 1300 year history and I imagined someone re-tiling the roof in another thousand or so years scratching his head, puzzled at the signature on the last tile he had removed. There goes another shot at immortality I guess. I truly mourn the loss of this wonderful place.

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