sunam and i left pohang early on the morning of wednesday, january 24th on a bus bound for 경주(gyeongju). after riding only 45 minutes to the south we arrived in gyeongju, a small town these days but once the capital of the ancient silla kingdom. our first stop was �굴암(seokguram), a mountaintop buddhist temple which houses an immense sculpture of buddha within a cave grotto.
we took a bus from gyeongju station to the base of the mountain seokguram is on. from there we caught another bus to the top of the mountain and began our trek up to the grotto itself.
seokguram
this pavilion with large bell stands at the entrance to the complex
from there we walked the long and peaceful path around and up towards the main site
the central site of seokguram, with the grotto at the top
walking into the cave-side grotto
taking photos inside is forbidden, but basically inside there is a rotunda built into the cave, in which rests an impressively large sculpture of buddha. there are a mix of tourists and buddhists there to pray, although no more than twelve or so people fit comfortably in the observation area. there are also various smaller statues, engravings, and other images lining the walls of the chamber.
lanterns were strung all around
a smaller statue of buddha in another building, photographed from outside
the last time i visited i hadn't noticed these messages people from all around the world left
i liked this one from nepal, what a neat looking written script
the one i didn't like was one i saw from a christian australian, who for some reason i can't comprehend thought it would be a good idea to quote john 3:16 on a message at a buddhist temple. don't get me started.
our nice visit to gyeongju continues in the next few posts. if any of this looks familiar, i did visit gyeongju once before in april of 2005.
| link ~ comments (1) | prev ~ next |
![[Valid RSS]](../images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}