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Day : 11-07-06 08:30
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Mihwangsa Templestay
Posted on June 16, 2011 by Nora| 1 Comment
Last Saturday, I met up with Sean and took a bus to Haenam (about 2 hours). We got a great lunch in town (12 banchan!) and then got on a bus to Mihwangsa Temple. The temple’s just as I remember it (see my post from October) – absolutely stunning. All around were reminders of being in nature: a babbling stream, dozens of bird singing, a clean, fresh breeze blowing sometimes with the hint of the ocean, the smell of the jasmine bush. The definition of peaceful.
The temple was built in 749AD but certain buildings burned down and had to be rebuilt 400 years ago. In keeping with traditional Korean architecture, or “hanok,” no nails were used in the construction of the buildings. Every piece of wood fits dovetails perfectly with another to create the strong and secure structures you see above.
The Legend of Mihwangsa: One day, a mysterious stone ship appeared off the coast of the southern tip of Korea. People heard beautiful sounds from the boat, but when they approached the ship to investigate, it receded from the shore. When they gave up and turned their backs to leave, it would come closer. This process repeated for several days. It finally anchored after Buddhist master Eujo Hwasang and 102 other people purified themselves and offered prayers. On the boat were the Lotus Sutra, a Buddhist wall painting, and dozens of statues. After opening a golden box on the ship, they broke open the black rock (I guess it was also on the ship??). A tiny black cow emerged and suddenly grew into a huge cow. That night, Master Euijo Hwasang had a dream in which a man in golden robes said that he was the king of India and told him to place the statues on the back of the cow and build a temple wherever the cow laid down. The cow laid down twice so Tonggyosa temple is built where it fell down first and Mihwangsa where it laid down the second time. The name of the temple means beautiful (Mi) after the unusually pleasing, strangely musical bellow of the cow, and yellow/gold (Hwang) after the golden robes of the main in the dream (“Sa” just denotes a temple).
So, we started our templestay on Saturday at 5pm. Here’s the schedule they gave us. There was a lot of “take a rest”/”take a nice stroll” time in between so it was very peaceful and relaxing. Some templestays are a little intense on following a schedule but Mihwangsa was very chill. It’s a Seon (Zen) Buddhist temple so the main focus is meditation.
Saturday
5:00PM Instruction on basic temple manners (Here a female monk taught us how to properly perform the 3 bows when entering a Buddhist temple)
6:00 Dinner (amazing vegetables grown right at the temple)
7:00 Yebul (evening chanting inside the main hall followed by walking around the courtyard a few times in silent meditation)
7:30 Tea time with monk (tea engages all of the senses; we had green, white lotus, and yellow flower…maybe 8 cups total!)
10:00 Sleep (I didn’t sleep very well thanks to all the tea…oh well)
Sunday
4:00AM Wake up (apparently you wake up as early as 3:30 at other temples)
4:20 Yebul (morning chanting similar to evening chanting)
5:00 Meditation (I need to work on this…and my cross-legged sitting posture)
6:30 Breakfast (yummy veggies again!)
7:30 Oolyeok (this is time for Community Work, so basic maintenance of the temple, but because it was raining we just had to clean our rooms)
8:30 Free Time (Sean and I decided to climb to the top of Dolma-san. Gorgeous view of the ocean, islands, and mountain range…So beautiful)
10:00 Yebul (optional chanting without our guide…we were a little confused)
11:30 Lunch (more deliciousness)
12:30 Departure
The total cost for 1 night 2 days is 50,000 won per person, which is about normal I think for a templestay. Although I don’t imagine I’ll be converting any time soon, it was an experience I’m glad I had.
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