Haeinsa

The new year in Ulsan is off to a good start as I spent a truly amazing day with my director, Mr. Park, and his wife and daughter in Gayasan National Park, about two hours west of Ulsan. Besides being another of Korea's sanctuaries of natural beauty, Gayasan is home to Haeinsa, the most famous Buddhist temple in all of Korea:














Haeinsa is most well-known for the Haeinsa daejang gyeongpan, a collection of over 80,000 wooden blocks that make up the "Tripitaka Koreana," a record of the essential writings and teachings of Buddhism. The project of creating these blocks began in 1237 and was completed in 1251. The blocks were used to print Buddhist teachings for distribution to temples throughout the kingdom and represent one of the most important pieces of Korean history and culture. Koreans also take pride in the magnitude of such a project and view it as an example of the technological innovations of their ancestors in the field of printing. In 1995, the Janggyeong panjeon, which houses the blocks, was named a UNESCO site:














After visiting the main temple, we attempted to hike into the mountains behind it when a snow storm sprang up out of nowhere (apparently, the western half of Korea is much colder in the winter than the east is, where I live). So, finally it feels like winter to me. I never thought I'd be so happy to see snow: