Beomeosa Temple

And back to my trip to Busan from a few months ago, this is definitely one of the highlights. Busan features an absolutely beautiful Buddhist temple called Beomeosa located halfway up a mountain on the north side of town. The trip involved about 45 minutes on the subway and maybe another 20 on the bus, so it was definitely worth the trip....twice. My friend Daniel and I went on an afternoon and didn't have enough time, so we went straight back there again the next morning.

So a little background then, I guess. According to Wikipedia, this temple was built in the year 678 originally but burned down a few times. The main hall and front gate were reconstructed in 1612, and still stand. Well that's all I will say about the history anyway, since I mostly just enjoyed the scenery. Here is a picture of the nearby mountains:

This is the long walkway leading up to the front entrance:

The side of one of the buildings was lined with bamboo trees, which looked great:

Some great artwork on one of the doors:

A few tiny monks keeping watch:

A nice view of one of the buildings:

One of the older buildngs, I'm guessing it's up for renovation soon:

There were four guards keeping watch at one of the fountains, and here is one:

Some prayer beads lining a wall:

This is definitely one of my favorite photos, the monk on a cell phone. Another interesting monk moment was when I went into the bathroom and noticed that a monk was just finishing up his business. I'm sure this is not true for every monk, but he did not wash his hands.

All in all my few hours spent there were pretty great. I got some really nice gifts from the shop, too, including a bracelet for my little sister with tiny wooden skull beads. There was also a great picnic area with some large rocks located in a stream flowing down the moutain. It was really nice but also super packed with picnicing people.

Beomeosa was my favorite temple I've been to, even if not all of the employees wash before returning to work. I would like to do a temple stay soon and it is on the top of the list of candidates. The only problem is that its at least 4 hours of travel time each way.