beomeosa temple stay

korea is home to many temples. one of the best things about them - besides the beauty, tranquility, and history they offer - is that many will let you stay the night for a brief experience of the monk life.

i had the opportunity to participate in a temple stay at Beomeosa, a well-known temple in busan.

it is very old and equally beautiful. think vividly-colored buildings nestled in the nature of an enormous mountain, all peace and relative quiet.

upon arriving, we were handed the temple stay clothes - a purple top and roomy cream pants - and taken on a tour of the temple grounds.

it happened to be the birthday of the temple, which meant the grounds were full of visitors present for the festivities. there were souvenirs being sold and musical acts being performed on a stage. i’m not sure how two sets of k-pop groups were deemed temple-appropriate, but nobody batted an eyelid.

after the tour, we ate dinner (traditional korean food served in sectioned trays - it was very Orange is the New Black), and attended buddhist service.

this was followed by a prayer bead making activity, where one had to bow before placing each bead on the cord, totalling in 108 bows.

needless to say, anyone who has had to bow for more than ten consecutive minutes will welcome a bed with open arms, which is what happened right after. lights out was at 9pm.

we were awoken at 5am the following morning for the world’s most depressing breakfast: the exact same thing we’d dined on the previous night. i used to think i didn’t care about what i ate, and i still largely hold a ‘food for fuel’ attitude. yet one thing i learned about myself during this experience is that i cannot tolerate an absence of coffee in the morning.

this became painfully evident as the next activity was unveiled: hiking to the top of geumjeongsan, the mountain that houses the temple.

view from above.

another thing i learned about myself during this experience is that i am by no means an adept hiker. being the last of the pack from the moment we set foot uphill made this evident, and it was further proved when i got lost on the way back down from the top.

however, i knocked two things off my year-long goal list: visit this temple, and hike to the top of a mountain.