Beomeosa

The first place we visited after arriving in Busan was Beomeosa, a peaceful temple in the mountains of Busan.  My former co-teacher, Yeong Oak, picked us up from the airport and brought us to the temple, which was having some sort of festival on the weekend.  In Korea, it seems like there is never a time when a festival isn't going on!

Beomeosa is the temple where John and I did an overnight temple stay program several years ago when we lived in Busan.  Yeong Oak is a devout Buddhist and told us that the reason there are so many different temple buildings at the complex is that if you wish to pray for a specific thing, you can go to a certain temple building devoted to that.

At the festival, the mayor of the city and his wife dressed up in traditional Korean dress like the old royalty used to wear.  There was a procession and some beautiful performances of dancing and Korean traditional music.  Around the temple grounds we could also participate in print-making art and traditional Korean games (throwing arrows into a pot, and playing something that resembled "hacky sack").

This festival did not attract many "waygookin" aka foreigners, so there were quite a few avid Korean photographers taking our picture.  While I was taking pictures of the beautiful lanterns, a group of photographers with big cameras and tripods were snapping away.  I'll probably end up in a Korean magazine at some point!