Day 2 (Nov 2, 2008): Incheon temple tour

There are 5 of us on the temple tour offered by the airport. We hop into a tour van and drive 15 minutes through Incheon city and up a narrow mountain road until we reach the temple. Our tour guide is Kim Hae-Suk (last name first name; sounds like "hay sook"). She teaches us a few phrases, including “Hae-Suk is beautiful.”

On the more practical side, we also learn how to say hello and thank you, which become our words of the day. Pierre and I give the phrases English equivalents and stories to remember the pronunciation, which otherwise feel totally random.

- ann yeong haseyo (hello) becomes “Ann Young has say ‘yo’.”

- gamsa hamnida (thank you) is a bit trickier, but we eventually settle on a story in which Grandpa (G(r)am(p)sa) needs a ham (ham needa) and we’re thanking someone for having thought to bring one for him. A bit convoluted but it works well enough for the day.

When we reach the temple, Hae-Suk tells us that its name, Yonggungsa means “Dragon Palace Temple.” The temple consists of a series of small buildings that are 1300 years old. On the grounds there are two 1300 year old trees (with lots of supports and trunk reinforced with concrete) and 3 monks (not 1300 years old) that live on the temple grounds.

1300 year old tree :

Today the monks are doing a special ceremony. (“…because we’re here?” asks one skeptic from the group.) We’re a little sketchy on the details, but from Hae-Suk’s explanation we understand that the ceremony allows people to come and say prayers for the dead and have the monks say a special prayer as well. (I have a sound recording of the chanting but I can't seem to upload it yet.)

She explains a couple of details around us that we would have missed otherwise:

- The buildings are all originals, she says, but they have been repaired and re-repaired over the years and the paintings, based on the originals, are retouched continually:



- A small bell outside one of the buildings has a fish sculpture as a chime weight. The fish symbolized water (the buildings are made of wood and fire was a real threat to hem) and freedom (when you look at the fish against the sky it looks like it’s swimming in the ocean):



We walk around the temple grounds for a few minutes before we head back to the van, past the temple garden, outhouse, laundry line and satellite dish.

photo credits: PG, DG, DG