Yongmun Temple

I have lots of days of updates...so here goes. This was the trip we took on Saturday with the base. They have a travel agency and organize trips off the base each month to different destinations. There were only 9 of us on this trip and honestly Taylor and I didn't have very high expectations for it, but it was something to do and something new to see. We were going to Yongmun Temple and King Sejong Tomb (King Sejong Tomb is in the next/previous post because there were lots of pictures to upload for these) So the pictures below were from Yongmun Temple on a beautifully rainy day...literally poured ALL...DAY...LONG.

BUT...we were very pleasantly surprised with the trip and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yongmun Temple was east of the city in the mountains...it was nice to get out of the city for a bit. I really liked the country and the mountains reminded me of the Smokey Mountains...they were very pretty. Anyway...this is the entrance to Yongmun Temple. Every temple, tomb, palace, etc has a gate that you enter through, similar to something like this. They believe that when you walk through that gate your body and your spirit has been cleansed to see the temple or whatever building you're going to see.

Yongmun: Yong means dragon and mun means gate. Notice the dragons on the side of the gate. There is an army base in Seoul that we have gone to a few times that is named Yongsun...which means dragon mountain or dragon hill. And there happens to be a big lodge on base called Dragon Hill Lodge...all the pieces are coming together to make sense for me :)

This tree is 1200 years old. It seems to be a very important part of this place and was pictured on our ticket to get in...but I'm not sure of the significance of it besides its old age.

This is inside one of the buildings at the temple. It was the building for Buddah. This is a temple that is still being used and there are still monks who live up there. Their housing quarters were in another area we didn't see. The lady who was doing our tour told us that many Koreans view Buddhism as part of their culture more than a religion. I'm not sure of the statistics, but there are quite a few Christian churches through out the area. They all have red crosses on their steeples that are lit up at night. I've seen a few Baptist and then many that I can't read the signs! Anyway, she was telling us that some people don't want to go on the tour because it is a Buddhist temple, but she said most people would not view it as being religious.

This is the outside of Buddahs building...the picture you saw above. If you notice through all the posts...many of the traditional buildings look VERY similar. They are all painted using mostly different shades of green with a few blues and reds and whites thrown in there as well. Taylor finally said yesterday, I feel like I'm taking a picture of the same building everywhere we go! And it's true...they are all very similar!

This is inside Buddah's building as well. I thought the lights were very pretty!

This is another view from the inside. There were other buildings for various reasons. One was for children where you could pray for your children or you could pray to have children. No worries...we didn't set foot in that building :) There was one for deaths where they would pray for a loved one who died. And actually it was all about the money...you could pay a certain fee and then the monks would pray for whatever you asked them to...hmmm...I dont know about that one, I think this happened once before in history...or something similar...you could pay for your forgiveness?? Anyway...

Another of Taylor's creative pictures...I started out with the camera on this trip, but I was fired as the picture taker. It was very difficult though because I had an umbrella and it was pouring rain and I was trying to hold the umbrella and take pictures without getting the lens of the camera wet! Instead, Taylor took the camera and kept it under his jacket and I would come over with the umbrella and hold it up for every picture we took outside so the lens wouldn't get wet and blurry! It was quite an effort to get these pictures...I said I feel like a camera assistant...we'd have to shift and switch angles as I guarded the camera with the umbrella! Anyway, I'm sure it was an amusing sight!

This was some type of burial area....we're not really sure. We just saw it off to the side as we were walking back down the mountain.

This was a pretty stream all the way down the mountain. Our guide said in the summer the water is much deeper and many people come up to swim and play in the water up there.

Taylor with his Gore-Tex jacket. He swears by that thing. I promise you, we could be out in a hurricane and he'd say oh, no big deal, I have my Gore-Tex, I'll be fine. What a great rowing purchase...he's gotten his money out of that one! While the jacket kept the top of him dry...our shoes were another story...soaking wet feet...mmmm...so nice.

Me on the other hand...I'll take the umbrella. I was still a tad wet...and my feet were absolutely soaked, but it was such a cool area we still really liked the temple. There's only so much you can control!

This was in the little mountain village outside the temple. It is a little market on the side of the street selling all kinds of vegetables. They have these all over! Even in the middle of downtown Seoul there are older ladies sitting on the sidewalk selling vegetables and all kinds of traditional foods! Just wanted to show a little example of one of them.

Anyway...the rest of the trip is in the next post. King Sejong's Tomb...I might not get to it tonight. I have the pictures uploaded which takes the longest, but I havent written anything yet and it's 6:30 and Taylor just got home with dinner. AND American Idol comes on in 30 minutes...we have priorities people! Be back later!