Buddha's Birthday

Buddha's birthday fell on Friday, May 21st this year, which means we were able to enjoy a long weekend. I was hoping to plan a trip to one of the national parks in the area but never got around to it. Also, with the entire country having a three day weekend, the parks were bound to be crowded. Instead, I headed back out to Yongin and Dan and I went in search of a more traditional Buddhist temple on Friday afternoon.

In the weeks leading up to Buddha's birthday, temples hang strings of colored lanterns leading from the street or main road to the temple itself. So, we hopped on a bus and rode it out past Waujeongsa to look for a temple that the gentleman in the Hummer told us about when he picked us up at the bus stop. We managed to get off at the right stop and followed a string of lanterns up a hill. A big hill. When we finally made it to the top, we wandered around the grounds for a little bit until we attracted the attention of somebody inside what appeared to be the administrative building. She spoke zero English, and we didn't speak enough Korean to communicate with her. They humored us and let us wander around a bit longer, and then we were herded back to the administrative building, where the women inside sat us down and fed us a meal. I had read that Buddhist temples provided a meal to visitors on Buddha's birthday but completely forgotten this fact until they put chopsticks in our hands and started piling plates of food on the table in front of us. What followed was a tasty, if slightly awkward, meal of traditional Korean food (rice and vegetables). All in all, it made for a good afternoon. Below are some pictures of the temple grounds.