Seokbulsa Temple

Busan is a giant city that moves at breakneck speed at all times. It's easy to get caught up in that and move right along with it but sometimes you just need to get away from the car horns and crowds. Today was one of those days. A few weeks ago I visited the Beomeosa Temple which was built around 678 AD, burned to the ground in 1592 and was rebuilt in 1602 and many of the buildings from that time still remain. It is one of the most well known Buddhist Temples in Korea and is very easy to get to by subway and taxi which is evident by the large crowds that frequent it.

One of the many shrines in Beomeosa Temple. Outside the main entrance to Beomeosa Temple. It was built in 1602. Three Buddhist shrines. Each was dedicated to a different monk that lived at the temple.
One of the four temple gate guards.

Back to today. I had such a great experience at Beomeosa that I wanted to find another Buddhist temple to check out. I had heard of one called Seokbulsa that was very hard to find but would be worth the challenge. My friend Brian and I hopped on the subway at 10am and took it 30 minutes north to Maekdo. From there we hopped in a taxi and drove another 15 minutes up a steep mountain road until we came to a trail head. After enjoying a squid pajeon (which is basically a Korean pancake with squid and whole scallions)that a man cooked for us out of the back of his truck, we started up the trail that would supposedly lead us to Seokbulsa. We walked up a steep trail for about 30 minutes and came to the entrance of the temple. Seokbulsa means "stone Buddha" and there is a reason it's called that. The entire temple is carved out of rock. Needless to say it was a very peaceful place and provided a great view. The feeling you get when visiting a Buddhist temple is pretty surreal. At one point a bee kept buzzing by my head and when it landed on the ground in front of me I lifted my foot to step on it but stopped myself when I realized where I was.

Brian next to the giant Buddha carvings.

One of the shrine caves. I found out the steel box I kept seeing at the shrines are for donations.

There is public health equipment everywhere in Korea. As you can see it's not Gold's Gym standard.

I have taken a lot of photographs since being here and unfortunately I can't post them all on this site. I am going to open an account strictly for pictures and when I do I will send everyone the link.