This weekend provided a bit of a break from the rest of the trip - it was more relaxed and slow-going, which we all appreciated after running around Seoul so much. We had the opportunity to participate in an over-night Buddhist temple stay at the Lotus Lantern Temple (and coincidentally, this weekend was the Lotus Lantern festival, which celebrates Buddha's birthday!).
Saturday we woke up and traveled to the Buddhist temple, which was about a three-hour trip. Once we arrived, we were instructed to put on certain attire provided by the temple, which was to be worn until we left. This consisted of a grey vest, along with very roomy grey pants. Afterwords, we had orientation which gave us a basic overview of the temple along with rules, such as when to be quiet and what not.
After orientation, we had a short break until we heard the ringing of the block signaling dinner time. At dinner, we were not allowed to speak and sat on comfy pillows on the floor. Food was served buffet-style, and I must say it was all pretty good. There was one or two times where I took something I did not end up liking, however because you need to be courteous we were required to eat all that was on our plate anyways.
Next we headed to a stadium to celebrate the Lotus Lantern festival. The event started off with some very good musical performances, along with a b-boy (breakdancing) group. The crowd consisted mainly of families, monks, and military men. After the performances, a monk went on stage and began the ceremony recognizing Buddha. Overall the experience was very interesting, and although we could not understand what he was saying, the general idea was understood.
When the ceremony ended, we had one more surprise before the night was over - we were going to be in a parade! Each of us received a paper lantern along with a candle to be lit inside, and walked along with the rest of the crowd to celebrate the festival. It turns out we were the first foreigners to participate in the parade in the last 10 years, and so the locals were very excited about the whole thing. Some of us started to even do a (kind of cult-like looking) movement of our arms to the beat of the band playing, which the locals got a kick out of. At the end of the parade, we gathered around an area where sky lanterns were being distributed. I must say, I loved this experience where we all lit the fire to fill up our sky lantern and watch them fly away together (and we almost lit a tree on fire, but that didn't happen, so no worries...). After the sky lanterns, prizes started being raffled off, such as bikes and toilet paper. Two of our very own group members won frying pans - congratulations Ayesha and Lena :D! Afterwords, we headed back to the temple and slept.
We didn't get to sleep long though... we had to wake up at 4AM the next day! We went to the temple, and joined in the morning chants the monk chanted. Afterwords, we headed over to a room nearby to meditate for a little over half an hour. Meditating was a bit tough, mainly due to how tired we were at the time. However, it was still a cool experience, and I enjoyed the time to relax. Coming up next was more chanting, specifically the 108 prostrations. This was optional, but most of us participated. The ceremony involved us to execute a full-body bow 108 times while the monk chanted the entire time, and for many of us this was a workout. I was shocked to find out that monks sometimes perform up to 3000 prostrations during their training.
We received a much-needed break, and had breakfast (I couldn't believe how much we had already done before eating breakfast - it was a very productive feeling). Then we had a short tour of the area around the temple, where we got to see rice fields and the pets the temple takes care of (which is unique to this temple - most temples do not allow pets). We came back and had tea time, where we got to ask the monk any questions we had. The monk was very open, and it was a great opportunity to get to know him more. We then had the chance to practice our calligraphy skills and copied sutras in Chinese characters, Korean characters, and English.
Next I got to participate in a unique activity as it was my birthday. I had the privilege of offering rice to the Buddha, before the rest of the group came and we participated in more chanting. Afterwords, we had lunch and then cleaned our rooms before heading out. The monks were very nice and offered to take us to the most-popular temple, which we eagerly accepted. Typically you have to pay to visit this temple, however since we had monks with us, we basically had VIP status and could just keep driving in. While we were short on time, we had a nice informative tour of the temple. We also had the opportunity to see and perform bows to the Buddha within the oldest temple of Korea.
Overall, the experience was amazing and we all really appreciated it :). It was great to experience another part of Korean culture, and participate in it first-hand. It will definitely be one of my fondest memories of Korea.
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