Galati Travels: Jeolla

Jeollanam-do has some great sights - particularly forests. In March, just as the weather was getting better, we had another weekend trip further south, where we visited Jangheung and Yeonggam. Jangheung is a small county in Jeollanam-do that is located near the sea of Boseongman Bay, and by the big lake created by Jangheung Dam and Tamjingang River. It's also the same place they have the water festival, but this time around, we visited the Cypress Forest Woodland there. Needless to say, if you are in the region, it is certainly worth a visit since cypress trees are not a common sighting in Korea and make for a very pleasant hike.

The Cypress Forest has great walking pathways, all over the forest, and it is located around Eokbulsan Mountain. There are also various hanok-style pensions, for people to stay at, and some random sculptures in the forest.

Following Jangheung, we made our way to Yeonggam to participate and enjoy the Wangin Culture Festival. The festival is meant to commemorate the achievement of Korea’s Dr. Wangin, who traveled to Japan some 1,600 years ago to spread knowledge about Korean culture, and arts. The festival takes place in two parks, the Bongseondae and Sangdaepo Historic Park.

Within the area, there are excellent views of the Cherry Blossoms, as well as a number of games and activities, from Hanbok wearing to tug-of-war games.

There is also a section for trick art.

This is followed by a parade with drummers and women in traditional attire, that "see off" Wangin.

The entire historical event of Wangin leaving Korea for Japan is re-enacted.

Wangin is believed to have been a teacher to the emperor of that time. His teachings included the Thousand-Character Text and the Analects of Confucius. The person was also highly proficient in teaching writing composition to the Japanese and helped with developing the foundations of education, which had a great influence on some areas of study such as social science, politics, economics, culture, and art.

Each year, this festival seems to attract a few foreigners as the local area has been trying to promote it. So if next year you want to go, take a bus to Mokpo and head over. Though the program isn’t announced early, there are many activities and great food options.

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This weekend, we headed down south of Korea, making a stop at the city of Yeonggwang. There, we visited a place called Supjaengi park. The really crazy thing about this place we visited was its connections to Pakistan!

The Supjaengi Park isn't really a very touristy place but it does have an aura of peace there. It's relatively small, and as soon as you go over a hill, you arrive at a temple/sanctuary area. It is this temple that is connected to Gandhara.

The view from the hill itself is also wonderful and you can see a hanok village as well as a random display of trees! Indeed a perfect place for a temple.

The temple that you see after the hill is really fascinating. It's significance lies in the fact that it commemorates the introduction of Buddhism of the region. You see, Yeonggwang was the birthplace of Korean Baekje Buddhism and the temple was inspired by Gandharan culture. Surprisingly, there wasn't a proper name to this temple but it's called "Birthplace of Baekje Buddhism (백제불교최초도래지).

In 384, a monk called Marananta from Gandhara (present day Pakistan) came to Korea from China bringing with him Buddhist texts and knowledge of the then new religion. Marananta entered the mountains and founded Korea’s first temple, Bulgap-sa, also in Yeonggwang. His records or mentions are found in the Samgungnyusa. These are called, Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms and it is basically a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdom Period (Read my Primer on Korea).

These records narrate that Marananta was the one who brought Buddhism to Baekje, along with Sundo in Goguryeo and Ado in Silla. There are only scant mentions of Marananta in historical records.

Alongside the temple, there is also a Gandharan Culture Hall, or museum, which has a lovely collection of Gandharan sculptures and artifacts from this important period of exchange between cultures.

Next to the temple area you can see the Beopseong Port - a small, quiet fishing community.

In the temple area, you will also encounter stairs leading up to a small section of the temple and then further to a large Buddha!

If you climb the stairs, you come across a section of the temple, where there are lots of Buddha statues and also a temple you can pray in.

Then, there are another slight of stairs all the way to the larger Buddha.

Definitely worth visiting to see how different countries and regions have historically been connected through trade, culture and religion.

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After a long hiatus from trips, we finally ventured outside of Seoul, again heading to a bunch of places on the west coast of Korea, namely Buan, Jeollabuk-do. We began our journey with the visit to the Naeososa Temple, which is an old Buddhist temple famous for its templestay program. The temple is all the way in Buan in Jeollabuk-do, and took us around 3 hours to reach. It may take longer depending on traffic, so I suggest staying the night if time permits.

The Naesosa Temple is an old Buddhist temple originally constructed way back in 633 A.D. by the monk Hyegu during the Baekje Dynasty; A quick recap, the Baekje dynasty was one of the three dynasties that ruled Korea. The temple was originally known as Soraesa Temple, but was destroyed and then a thousand years later, was rebuilt in 1633 by the monk Cheongmin which was in the Josean Dynasty, the most recent dynasty. It was later that the temple's name was changed to Naesosa Temple.

In order to get to the temple, you can get your tickets and you pass through the first gate, known as the Iljumun Gate. Then, you walk about a 600 meters to get to what is called the Cheonwangmun Gate which is beautifully lined with mature fir trees. Near the very end, and right before this gate, are cherry trees. The rather tall Cheonwangmun Gate houses four rather expressive Heavenly Kings. These kings are also called Sacheonwangsang that “guard” the temple and their expressions are matched by the demonic faces of the demons they are trampling under foot.

Upon reaching the temple itself (just past the guards) the first thing you’ll notice is the 1000-year-old tree. It didnt look so old, but they call it the grandma tree, cause grandmas live long!

Just as you go up the stairs, and on opposite ends of the temple grounds, are two separate bell pavilions. The one to the far right houses the contemporary bells used in morning and evening rituals for the templestay program. We did not see those. Instead, we went towards the bell pavilion to the left houses a bronze bell that dates back to 1222. These are common in many Buddhist temples. This one in particular, was built during the Goryeo era and has three images of Buddge called Samjonsang. This includes an image of a Buddha on a lotus flower with two Bodhisattvas standing at his side.

After that, there was another pavilion which was open, and didn't have anything there. There were little pieces of paper hanging from it with people’s thoughts and prayers on them.

Finally, you’ll reappear out from under the pavilion and on the terrace where the main Budde hall is located. Out in front of the main hall is a three-story stone pagoda that dates back to the Goryeo Dynasty.

The Main Buddha Hall itself was rebuilt as well, without using any iron nails in 1633. If you look close enough, you’ll see that there are wooden slats that connect the frame. There is beautiful floral latticework adorning the front doors to the temple, as there are unpainted dragons up in the eaves.

As for the interior, and sitting on the main altar, sits a triad of statues centered by the Historical Buddha). He’s joined on either side by Munsu-bosal (The Bodhisattva of Wisdom) and Bohyun-bosal (The Bodhisattva of Power). To the right of the main altar hangs a colourful and well populated guardian mural. And to the left hangs a uniquely painted red mural dedicated to Jijang-bosal (The Bodhisattva of the Afterlife).

Once outside, there are a collection of monk facilities and dorms to the right of the main hall and the remaining halls that people can visit at Naesosa Temple are to the left of the main hall.

One of the halls we visited was the Myeongbu-jeon Hall. This newer looking hall is adorned with some of the most elaborate paintings of the Ten Kings of the Underworld along the exterior walls. Each is represented in their own painting judging over their own territory in the underworld. As for the interior, and sitting on the main altar, is a golden-capped, Jijang-bosal (Buddha of the Afterlife). He is joined by newer looking, and vibrantly painted, Ten Kings of the Underworld statues.

To the far left is a shrine for the dead, so be respectful while looking in this hall.

Behind these three halls, and slightly up the embankment and a stone trail that winds its way up to it, is a plain looking shaman shrine hall. Inside this hall are three folk-like paintings. It’s also from this hall that you get a great view of the temple grounds down below and the towering mountains all around.

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The past weekend, we were invited to take part in a tour to the towns of Jangheung, Gangjin, Muan and Gwangju on the West Coast. It's somewhere down south in Korea, in the same level as Busan but on the other side of the edge of the peninsula.

After several hours of travel and a few pit stops for a wee-wee break and sustenance replenishment, we finally arrived in Jangheung. Jangheung is a small county in Jeollanam-do that is located near the sea of Boseongman Bay, and by the big lake created by Jangheung Dam and Tamjingang River. We found out that each year, in July, the Janheung Jeongnamjin Aqua Festival is held. We had no idea what to expect, but were handed water guns. What began was one of the largest water fights, and there were huge fire trucks raining water down on us.It was a GREAT way to have fun and cool down in the summer heat.

Advice: For getting wet, bring somewhat covered clothes. No one in Korea gets wet in a bikini, or even swimsuit. Shorts and T-Shirt and towel! That is all you need. No guy is shirtless either, so save the skin for European beaches.

After that, we walked around and there was a pool; canoeing, river obstacles and much more. We didnt have time to do much but by the end of it, we were soaked. Not long after, perhaps another hour, we were in Gangjin. Gangjin is thought to be a must-visit place for exploring the southern provinces as it houses varied historical cultural assets. Goryeo Dynasty, one of the three dynasties in the Thee Kingdom Period. At Gangjin, we mainly visited the Celadon Festival.

Celadon is a kind of ceramic often seen in many Korean museums. The complex techniques of firing and coloring celadon were imported from China around the 9th century and subsequently improved by craftsmen. At this festival, we had a chance to see how celadon pottery is fired and try it ourselves.

There was a really nice parade that took place and we also participated in the water slide!

That night, we also did a "Hanok Stay"in Gangjin. Hanok Stay refers to staying in a traditional Korean house and not only is it a good opportunity to experience traditional Korean life, but to enjoy home cooked food. In our "hanok", it didn't look too traditional, as the house had a massage chair. Additionally, we had a sofa and bed to our disposal. We were fed amazing Korean food!

We were lucky that the other couple with us could speak Korean so we managed to get by!

The next day, Sunday, we made our way to the city of Muan. Muan is the capital of Jeollanam-do, South Korea but didn't look like much was happening there. There, we visited the Muan Ecological Tidal Flat Center. Mud flats are basically coastal wetlands which are under the water in high tide, but are exposed in the air in low tide. Since Jeollanam-do has a long coast from the Yellow Sea to the south sea, it so follows that it has great mudflats. Muan is a Ramsar Convention wetland, and famous for small octopuses and Deukryang bay where is a repository of tideland’s living creatures.

At Muan, we had the chance to walk out along the sprawling mud flats and catch glimpses of, and learn all about, the various creepy crawlies that inhabit this unique ecosystem.

We saw the crabs in display. They were white sand crabs, very well camouflaged in the background. They are also a bit like Fiddler crabs in that they have one claw visible and the other was too tiny (or perhaps not there?)

From there, we went to Gwangju, which is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of Jeollanam-do until the provincial office moved to the southern village of Namak in Muan County in 2005. There, we stopped at Boribap Street for lunch. The street is named after Boribap, which is a barley rice topped with an overwhelming range of fresh sautéed vegetables, red chili paste and sesame oil. Eating barley rice has a handful of health benefits, including good digestion and weight control.

Well, it wasn't over. We made our way to the Penguin Village. The entrance is quite unassuming...

But then, once side, you see that the neighbourhood has alot of character. It is said to be unchanged since the 70s and 80s. It is named this because it is believed that the old people in the neighbourhood walk like this.

Its a great photo opp place, with some quaint pictures on the wall. Does anyone know the deal with why there are so many fish?

After the Penguin Village, we visited the Gwangju National Museum. It is a large, six story building with two stories above ground and four basement floors. We were there for only 30 minutes so sifted through the various historical artifacts, most of which were found in Jeolla region. There were many relics related to Buddhism and earthenware during Baeje, unified Silla, Goryeo, and Joseon dynasties; and some underwater discoveries from Sinan shipwreck. There was also lots of Celadon displayed here too! We didn't stay too long, and then headed back home to Seoul, but certainly, its something to spend more time at.

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