Temple Stay

One of the things to do I had on “my list” before coming to Korea was doing a temple stay. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do this early in my trip. At 8:43 Saturday morning we headed towards Gimcheon. It took about 2 hours to get there by train. We were in a hurry to get to the temple because lunch was served at 11:30, so we took a taxi to Jikjisa Temple.

The temple was 30 minuets away from the station by bus. Mountains surrounded the city, and trees surrounded the temple. A stream of water ran through the temple providing a fresh source of water. Butterflies were found everywhere. This place was truly peaceful. It has been awhile that I have been surrounded with such nature.

By the time we reached the area, it was 11:40 a.m., and no one was there. Close to noon a man came out and said that we could go eat lunch and then check in. All meals at the temple were vegetarian. We had to serve ourselves only what we could eat because we were told we had to eat all our food. After we finished eating we had to wash our plates.

When we checked-in we were explained the temple rules, which are as follows:

• Being noise, drinking and smoking are strictly prohibited
• Greet monks with a half bow
• Always keep hands together when talking with a monk
• Keep silent during meal time
• Try to eat all your food
• Wash your bowls by yourself after each meal
• Enter or exit halls with polite manner to the Buddha with a half bow
• Before leaving, clean room and return all things received

Meal times:

• Breakfast 6:00 – 6:30
• Lunch 11:30 – 12:00
• Dinner 5:30 – 6:00

Chanting times:

• Morning 3:30
• Evening 6:15

Our stay was only for one day and it only cost 30,000 won. After we were given our uniforms and shown our rooms, we received a brief introduction to mediation and 108 bows.

Our room

Outside our room

We went on a short walk up the hill to another area of the temple. There we met a monk, who spoke very good English and offered us Mulberry tea, which he said was good for your blood. This monk had done some traveling, gone to school for medicine, been in the military, and now was under the master monk who was 85 years old, who we briefly got to meet. This by far was the highlight of my stay.

Here is the monk

We then had dinner, which consisted of the same kind of things we had for lunch.

After we attending the chanting and did 108 bows, which was a work out! Then we walked to a park near by, and ended our evening with tea. I had Jujube tea.

That night we slept on the floor with pillows stuffed with rice. The next morning I tried getting up for the 3:00 a.m. chant, but was too tiered to go. I slept in until 9:00. I also missed breakfast, but that was okay since I don’t really like the idea of eating Korean food in the morning.

Before we left the temple, we stopped at the Hall of One Thousand Budhas. This Biroheon had 1,000 Buddha statues made of jade. One of them was naked. We were told that the first person to find it in the group will find a good mate, and if that person was already married, they would have a son first.

There he is!

I am not sure if it was the environment, the temple, or the extra sleep I got, but I did feel calm and at peace when I left the temple.

We had lunch at a local restaurant. We all had bibimbop, and it came with many side dishes. This particular bibimbop was supposed to have ingredients from the mountains.

Our next stop was Daejon. (This is where Costco is at) It was an hour away from Gimcheon. When we got to the station we went to the information desk and we decided to go to O-World.

This amusement park had Zoo Land, Joy Land, and Flower Land. We paid 8,000 won for Zoo Land and Flower Land. (Joy Land had all the rides in it) There were other exhibitions in the park but we had to pay extra for that. We walked through Zoo Land that had animals in very small cages. I felt bad for the little guys. They were also not cleaned or maintained too well. Then we walked to Flower Land. It was an extremely hot day and the flowers looked like they needed more water and some shade.

After the park we headed back home.