Hi there! So Keith and I were invited in a few weeks ago to join the 2009 Yakchunsa Temple Stay in Seogwipo (south end of Jeju island) for this past weekend. Usually when tourists go on temple stays, there is a fee; however, our wonderful EPIK leader, Ria Kim, along with the Jeju Tourism group, made it an all-accommodated weekend at the temple for us EPIK teachers. Only 40 teachers could participate, so we quickly filled out our form to be a part of this experience. I arrived with a few EPIK friends in my building- Magda, Kyla and Mike, and got to the free bus that took us down to Seogwipo. Keith was teaching all morning for his extra-paid Saturday class...so he met us at the temple around 2:30pm.
It was interesting as soon as we got there...we walked up to this huge gorgeous temple with a few small temples and ponds, forest, and other buildings around it. We were then given a set of Korean clothing, Hanbok, which looked like pinkish peach pj clothing but stiff material and very big at the waist and short in the legs on me! Not quite the fashion statement. I actually felt like I was in jail because of the clothing....but don't worry, not from the experience! The whole experience was great! We then went into our rooms to change into the clothing. The girls were separated into two rooms, while the boys had another two rooms across from us. There were maybe around 8 people to a room, with everyone sleeping on the floor on blankets (and we were able to later grab some little pillows...the ones that you worship on).
Everyone then met in the temple...where of course, you take off your shoes before entering. I have never taken my shoes off so many times in 2 days!!! :) In the amazingly beautiful temple (with breathless architecture and 3 huge gold buddhas in the center), we all took a seat on the floor on top of red shiny bowing pillows. Ria Kim, along with a monk and another Jeju Tourism host had a welcoming ceremony and introduced to us about the temple we were staying at and our schedule for the weekend. We first listened to the commentary on Buddhism architecture style and listened about the commentary on applance and furniture within the Buddhist temple. We were then taught the correct way to bow. You first take a bow to the buddha, then kneel on the pillow with your head to the ground, your right hand goes down on the floor first, than your left hand. Next, you move your hands the opposite way so they are facing the ceiling. You then raise to your feet (without the help of your hands) and you keep your hands in the praying position in front. You then kneel again and repeat the steps three times. On the third time, you raise your head a little above the floor along with your hands in the praying position, then move your head down to the floor again with your hands facing upwards towards the ceiling. You then raise to your feet and give one last bow to the Buddhas.
We were only practicing the correct form, but the following morning at 4:30am, we did one type of bow, where you give 108 bows (each set of three are for different reasons, such as bowing for yourself, bowing for the buddhas, and bowing for the earth, etc....they were all shown to us on the video we watched as we did the bowing the next morning). It was interesting trying the bowing and meditation; however, made it a little less cultural when there were so many cameras taking pictures of us the entire time, as well as tv stations recording us. There were banners all over the temple area presenting the EPIK program temple stay, so it must have been a huge deal in Jeju. We also had many toursits asking for us to be in their picture because we had the Hanbok clothing on. A lot of us EPIK teachers have this idea that we are all on a reality Korean tv show that we don't know about, because we feel like they're all taping us and taking pictures at every big event EPIK has. LOL It would be hilarious if Koreans were always watching us and knew all of us as TV characters. Just a thought....
At the opening ceremony, we were also told more about the Buddha religion and Korean culture, but I will have to look some of it up again to share it with you. Ria Kim, who was translating for the monk into English, had a hard time translating, and her English isn't very clear so I didn't catch a lot of what they were saying.
After the ceremony and some time to chat with your EPIK friends as well as check out the temple, we were then given a tour of the temple area. We took a path and walked around to a few small temples. One was actually in a cave and there we watched as the monk and a few EPIK teachers lit the incents, waved out the flame, placed the unburnt area on their forehead, and then placed the incent down. It ended being a pretty hot day and we were all wearing the hanbok clothingalong with some clothing underneath , so the cave felt very nice and cool. We were all told it would be pretty cold in the temple and where we were staying since we were up in the mountains. However, the temperature was very warm and we were not up too high.
Near the cave there was a fountain that you could use scoops to drink from. We were told that the water would cure you from any illness. I actually felt very healthy all weekend...no wonder! It's like magic! While we were on the tour, Keith arrived...yaaa! We were then taken into a building that had about 100 little minituare buddha statues. Only one was a gift from Korea. It wore a crown and you can see it in the picture above. All the rest of the buddha statues were given from many different asian countries.
It was then time for rice cake making! Everyone had the chance to pound the rice that was mixed with sugar, flour and a little bit of water with these huge wooden mallets. This reminded Keith of his donkey kong videogame playing days. After everyone had a chance to pound the rice, including the monks, some ojammas then cut up the rice into little pieces and rolled them into a red bean flour (Injulmi). Then a few EPIK teachers served them to everyone. We all hung out on the grass field area and ate rice cake and oranges, and played some card games. It was fun and the experience made the rice cakes even more worthwhile to eat since we worked hard to make them.
After pounding the rice cakes, we had an hour break. Keith and I took a nap in one of the temples...I mean we mediated:) and then I showed him around on the parts of the tour that he missed (the temple in the cave and the wishing well). We also looked at the gift shop which had lots of jewelry, including karma beads and bead necklaces. These are actually used for worshipping. One can count the beads and keep track of how many bows they are on. There were also lots of worshipping music, windchimes, and other souvenoirs.
After our break, we met in a room that was in the building we were sleeping in. All the EPIK teachers sat in a long row on each side of the room, facing one another, while the main monk sat at one end and guided us through the dinner ceremony. We spent about an hour being taught the Buddhist manners for a meal and ways to go about cleaning all the bowls you are given before and after a meal. There is a special way of serving also, where the people on the end serve the water to wash your bowls (pouring one bowl of hot water into another), and then they serve the rice, the plate of side dishes (all veggies and kimchi), and the soup. The server asks how much you would like and we were supposed to choose the exact amount that we would eat. You could not ask for more later (which may have been difficult for keith:) and you had to eat all your food and not leave even a single grain of rice (which was difficult for me! :) We also had to eat while holding the bowl to your mouth but place it back down when chewing. Watching Keith do this was a funny site because he has gotten used to eating very quickly here with his chopsticks, so he kept picking up a bowl and placing it back down and then quickly picking another one up. Although Koreans eat very fast, we were supposed to be thinking of how thankful we are for each grain of rice and each piece of food we were eating by giving thanks to the Buddha. We also had to say a certain thanks for the meal in korean and bow before and after eating. It was the longest and most complicated process of dinner I have ever experienced!
After dinner, we heard the loud bang of the bell, which meant it was time for worshipping. We then all went into the temple where we had our night worship, which included bowing and meditation. After an hour, we were given a long break and then headed back into the same room that we had dinner, where we began carving our caligraphy pieces. We were given a little block of wood with an image on it (of a monk?) and some Korean writing. Keith and I sat at a little table next to one another and began carving with our tools. One tool held the piece tightly in place on the table, while the other one was a sharp carving knife. We were sitting on the floor by the way, on the little kneeling pillow in each room that we did an activity with a table that was little and close to the floor.
The carving took about 45 minutes and Keith and I both added some unique carving of our own on our pieces. I carved my name in Korean and Keith wrote "Wojack", along with some other shapes and messages. When we were done, we turned in our pieces, which we would paint tomorrow after the tracer paper was taken off. Since dinner was early and a little small, Ria Kim suprised us all (I mean really surprised us) by ordering pizza for all of us. It was a little odd to me that we were staying in the temple and was there for the cultural experience and now we were all eating pizza and drinking pop like true American! haha Oh well! I was hungry so dived in for a few pieces too. The rest of the night was ours to get some sleep before our 4:30 am morning worship before the sunrise. Although I probably should have gone right to sleep, a bunch of us stayed up til about midnight playing some card games...Speed and mini-gold.
The next morning was not as bad as I had planned. We woke up to the banging of the bell and everyone met in the temple at 4:30am. We did some bows and worshipping, then the 108 bows meditation for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of Zen-Buddhist meditation. This was nice and relaxing and helped me wake up for the day. Everyone then did a walking meditation around the inside of the temple and ended it with singing some songs and a few more bows. If we looked tired or out of position, the monk (who was very nice and laughing out of happiness throughout the entire weekend) was sure to wake us up by hitting us with a wooden stick he had on our shoulders (he hit mine and it didn't really hurt but actually felt like a massage where it feels very good afterwards and it did wake me up!). He also focused on how we were sitting. We had to sit up high with our backs straight and sit in Indian style with one foot over the other. Our hands were then held in a certain position in front of our stomachs.
After the morning service, we were served breakfast (bibimbop, another meal with rice!) at 6am. We were supposed to then do a 2 hr. olleh hike (a walking course) but it was raining all morning so we had time to nap instead. Keith and I grabbed some delicious coffee from the vending machines and took a nap in the office nearby. We then talked about our goals for the year and future plans and then played some more card games with the other teachers. We had lost some of the EPIK teachers who left the night before. So instead of the 37 we had started with, we now only had about 24 teachers participating. This made it a little frustrating that so many people left without letting Ria Kim know and they spent so much time and effort providing us this wonderful opportunity. Ria Kim and the other volunteered staff members kept giving us little treats and even had a wonderful gift for us at the end. It was a mug with the grandfather stone on it all wrapped up in a little gift box. In addition, we finished our caligraphy pieces by painting them and were given a package to bring them home in to use for decoration for our apartments. They turned out great!
Next, we had a tea ceremony where we were taught the art of ceremonial tea-making. We learned the way to prepare the green tea, serve our guests and then clean all the dishes afterwards by using the hot water. We also were taught a Shuttlecock game (Jaegichagi) and the winners were given prizes of special vitamins on the island. The game was similar to hackey sack, but with a hard piece with a bell that had feathers on the top. We had to see how many times we could hit the shuttlecok with our feet (and practiced by hitting it to others in a circle). We then ate more rice and veggies at lunch and then were told to change back into our clothes and head to the temple where there was a closing ceremony. At the closing ceremony, we were told that we were no longer monks and entering the real world again. We were given a bead necklace with 108 beads on it as a souvenoir and as a gift from the monks in appreciation for taking the time to experience the Buddha religion and their culture. All the EPIK teachers than thanked everyone there and we took a bus back to our apartments and got back around 3:00 sunday.
It was a great weekend and although there were people taking pictures of us and recording us on TV all weekend which made it very touristy, it was a great experience in learning more about the Korean culture and about Buddhism. It was also fun hanging out with all our EPIK friends and being able to bring home some souvenoirs. I have to admit though, today my knees and thighs are very sore from all the bowing! I guess that's just part of the experience! :)
It was interesting as soon as we got there...we walked up to this huge gorgeous temple with a few small temples and ponds, forest, and other buildings around it. We were then given a set of Korean clothing, Hanbok, which looked like pinkish peach pj clothing but stiff material and very big at the waist and short in the legs on me! Not quite the fashion statement. I actually felt like I was in jail because of the clothing....but don't worry, not from the experience! The whole experience was great! We then went into our rooms to change into the clothing. The girls were separated into two rooms, while the boys had another two rooms across from us. There were maybe around 8 people to a room, with everyone sleeping on the floor on blankets (and we were able to later grab some little pillows...the ones that you worship on).
Everyone then met in the temple...where of course, you take off your shoes before entering. I have never taken my shoes off so many times in 2 days!!! :) In the amazingly beautiful temple (with breathless architecture and 3 huge gold buddhas in the center), we all took a seat on the floor on top of red shiny bowing pillows. Ria Kim, along with a monk and another Jeju Tourism host had a welcoming ceremony and introduced to us about the temple we were staying at and our schedule for the weekend. We first listened to the commentary on Buddhism architecture style and listened about the commentary on applance and furniture within the Buddhist temple. We were then taught the correct way to bow. You first take a bow to the buddha, then kneel on the pillow with your head to the ground, your right hand goes down on the floor first, than your left hand. Next, you move your hands the opposite way so they are facing the ceiling. You then raise to your feet (without the help of your hands) and you keep your hands in the praying position in front. You then kneel again and repeat the steps three times. On the third time, you raise your head a little above the floor along with your hands in the praying position, then move your head down to the floor again with your hands facing upwards towards the ceiling. You then raise to your feet and give one last bow to the Buddhas.
We were only practicing the correct form, but the following morning at 4:30am, we did one type of bow, where you give 108 bows (each set of three are for different reasons, such as bowing for yourself, bowing for the buddhas, and bowing for the earth, etc....they were all shown to us on the video we watched as we did the bowing the next morning). It was interesting trying the bowing and meditation; however, made it a little less cultural when there were so many cameras taking pictures of us the entire time, as well as tv stations recording us. There were banners all over the temple area presenting the EPIK program temple stay, so it must have been a huge deal in Jeju. We also had many toursits asking for us to be in their picture because we had the Hanbok clothing on. A lot of us EPIK teachers have this idea that we are all on a reality Korean tv show that we don't know about, because we feel like they're all taping us and taking pictures at every big event EPIK has. LOL It would be hilarious if Koreans were always watching us and knew all of us as TV characters. Just a thought....
At the opening ceremony, we were also told more about the Buddha religion and Korean culture, but I will have to look some of it up again to share it with you. Ria Kim, who was translating for the monk into English, had a hard time translating, and her English isn't very clear so I didn't catch a lot of what they were saying.
After the ceremony and some time to chat with your EPIK friends as well as check out the temple, we were then given a tour of the temple area. We took a path and walked around to a few small temples. One was actually in a cave and there we watched as the monk and a few EPIK teachers lit the incents, waved out the flame, placed the unburnt area on their forehead, and then placed the incent down. It ended being a pretty hot day and we were all wearing the hanbok clothingalong with some clothing underneath , so the cave felt very nice and cool. We were all told it would be pretty cold in the temple and where we were staying since we were up in the mountains. However, the temperature was very warm and we were not up too high.
Near the cave there was a fountain that you could use scoops to drink from. We were told that the water would cure you from any illness. I actually felt very healthy all weekend...no wonder! It's like magic! While we were on the tour, Keith arrived...yaaa! We were then taken into a building that had about 100 little minituare buddha statues. Only one was a gift from Korea. It wore a crown and you can see it in the picture above. All the rest of the buddha statues were given from many different asian countries.
It was then time for rice cake making! Everyone had the chance to pound the rice that was mixed with sugar, flour and a little bit of water with these huge wooden mallets. This reminded Keith of his donkey kong videogame playing days. After everyone had a chance to pound the rice, including the monks, some ojammas then cut up the rice into little pieces and rolled them into a red bean flour (Injulmi). Then a few EPIK teachers served them to everyone. We all hung out on the grass field area and ate rice cake and oranges, and played some card games. It was fun and the experience made the rice cakes even more worthwhile to eat since we worked hard to make them.
After pounding the rice cakes, we had an hour break. Keith and I took a nap in one of the temples...I mean we mediated:) and then I showed him around on the parts of the tour that he missed (the temple in the cave and the wishing well). We also looked at the gift shop which had lots of jewelry, including karma beads and bead necklaces. These are actually used for worshipping. One can count the beads and keep track of how many bows they are on. There were also lots of worshipping music, windchimes, and other souvenoirs.
After our break, we met in a room that was in the building we were sleeping in. All the EPIK teachers sat in a long row on each side of the room, facing one another, while the main monk sat at one end and guided us through the dinner ceremony. We spent about an hour being taught the Buddhist manners for a meal and ways to go about cleaning all the bowls you are given before and after a meal. There is a special way of serving also, where the people on the end serve the water to wash your bowls (pouring one bowl of hot water into another), and then they serve the rice, the plate of side dishes (all veggies and kimchi), and the soup. The server asks how much you would like and we were supposed to choose the exact amount that we would eat. You could not ask for more later (which may have been difficult for keith:) and you had to eat all your food and not leave even a single grain of rice (which was difficult for me! :) We also had to eat while holding the bowl to your mouth but place it back down when chewing. Watching Keith do this was a funny site because he has gotten used to eating very quickly here with his chopsticks, so he kept picking up a bowl and placing it back down and then quickly picking another one up. Although Koreans eat very fast, we were supposed to be thinking of how thankful we are for each grain of rice and each piece of food we were eating by giving thanks to the Buddha. We also had to say a certain thanks for the meal in korean and bow before and after eating. It was the longest and most complicated process of dinner I have ever experienced!
After dinner, we heard the loud bang of the bell, which meant it was time for worshipping. We then all went into the temple where we had our night worship, which included bowing and meditation. After an hour, we were given a long break and then headed back into the same room that we had dinner, where we began carving our caligraphy pieces. We were given a little block of wood with an image on it (of a monk?) and some Korean writing. Keith and I sat at a little table next to one another and began carving with our tools. One tool held the piece tightly in place on the table, while the other one was a sharp carving knife. We were sitting on the floor by the way, on the little kneeling pillow in each room that we did an activity with a table that was little and close to the floor.
The carving took about 45 minutes and Keith and I both added some unique carving of our own on our pieces. I carved my name in Korean and Keith wrote "Wojack", along with some other shapes and messages. When we were done, we turned in our pieces, which we would paint tomorrow after the tracer paper was taken off. Since dinner was early and a little small, Ria Kim suprised us all (I mean really surprised us) by ordering pizza for all of us. It was a little odd to me that we were staying in the temple and was there for the cultural experience and now we were all eating pizza and drinking pop like true American! haha Oh well! I was hungry so dived in for a few pieces too. The rest of the night was ours to get some sleep before our 4:30 am morning worship before the sunrise. Although I probably should have gone right to sleep, a bunch of us stayed up til about midnight playing some card games...Speed and mini-gold.
The next morning was not as bad as I had planned. We woke up to the banging of the bell and everyone met in the temple at 4:30am. We did some bows and worshipping, then the 108 bows meditation for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of Zen-Buddhist meditation. This was nice and relaxing and helped me wake up for the day. Everyone then did a walking meditation around the inside of the temple and ended it with singing some songs and a few more bows. If we looked tired or out of position, the monk (who was very nice and laughing out of happiness throughout the entire weekend) was sure to wake us up by hitting us with a wooden stick he had on our shoulders (he hit mine and it didn't really hurt but actually felt like a massage where it feels very good afterwards and it did wake me up!). He also focused on how we were sitting. We had to sit up high with our backs straight and sit in Indian style with one foot over the other. Our hands were then held in a certain position in front of our stomachs.
After the morning service, we were served breakfast (bibimbop, another meal with rice!) at 6am. We were supposed to then do a 2 hr. olleh hike (a walking course) but it was raining all morning so we had time to nap instead. Keith and I grabbed some delicious coffee from the vending machines and took a nap in the office nearby. We then talked about our goals for the year and future plans and then played some more card games with the other teachers. We had lost some of the EPIK teachers who left the night before. So instead of the 37 we had started with, we now only had about 24 teachers participating. This made it a little frustrating that so many people left without letting Ria Kim know and they spent so much time and effort providing us this wonderful opportunity. Ria Kim and the other volunteered staff members kept giving us little treats and even had a wonderful gift for us at the end. It was a mug with the grandfather stone on it all wrapped up in a little gift box. In addition, we finished our caligraphy pieces by painting them and were given a package to bring them home in to use for decoration for our apartments. They turned out great!
Next, we had a tea ceremony where we were taught the art of ceremonial tea-making. We learned the way to prepare the green tea, serve our guests and then clean all the dishes afterwards by using the hot water. We also were taught a Shuttlecock game (Jaegichagi) and the winners were given prizes of special vitamins on the island. The game was similar to hackey sack, but with a hard piece with a bell that had feathers on the top. We had to see how many times we could hit the shuttlecok with our feet (and practiced by hitting it to others in a circle). We then ate more rice and veggies at lunch and then were told to change back into our clothes and head to the temple where there was a closing ceremony. At the closing ceremony, we were told that we were no longer monks and entering the real world again. We were given a bead necklace with 108 beads on it as a souvenoir and as a gift from the monks in appreciation for taking the time to experience the Buddha religion and their culture. All the EPIK teachers than thanked everyone there and we took a bus back to our apartments and got back around 3:00 sunday.
It was a great weekend and although there were people taking pictures of us and recording us on TV all weekend which made it very touristy, it was a great experience in learning more about the Korean culture and about Buddhism. It was also fun hanging out with all our EPIK friends and being able to bring home some souvenoirs. I have to admit though, today my knees and thighs are very sore from all the bowing! I guess that's just part of the experience! :)
So I just found out from a friend that the reason the cameras were following us around all weekend at the temple stay was because we were on the Jeju news (and I'm actually in the video eating rice cake! :/) Check out the video. Once you get to the page click on the D on Saturday the 7th. The part about the Temple Stay is towards the beginning and middle. We were also in the newpaper and I'm in the picture on the front page and I think we were on other channels.
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