Palgongsan and Donghwasa

After a miserable thunderstorm on Friday night I woke up on Saturday to find a beautiful, sunny day. I had planned a hike on Saturday and Mike said he wanted to see Palgongsan, so I grabbed him and we set out to Dongdaegu to catch a bus to the park. When the bus stop became impossible to find we opted for a cab, which was only about 13000won ($12USD) anyway and headed up to the park.

Our first stop was Donghwasa 동화사 a temple about halfway up the summit. It is one of the oldest temples in the area. The temple itself looks much like many other temples in Korea. Not that that is a bad thing, but there is a uniformity about them that makes excessive picture taking a bit redundant after a while. However, this temple houses a 17m tall standing Buddha. Although not especially old (it was build as a prayer to reunification. I couldn't find an exact year but after 1953 anyway) it was still very impressive.

for perspective

the pagoda is also huge

The Buddha

me and Buddha

Buddha from up close

the base of one of the pagoda's

the walk behind Buddha

from the side

detailed carvings

After spending a bit of time enjoying the statue we walked around it, looking at dozens of carved images from the Buddhist pantheon. Then it was back to the entrance for lunch. 

After lunch we opted to walk to Buinsa, another temple which was a good kilometer away and was apparently one of the most important temples of Silla Korea (around 400-900AD). After along walk along a nice trail we found the temple but it clearly was past its glory days. A 1500 year old pagoda just sat there with moss on it in the front area used as a parking lot. However inside the temple there was a small, well maintained area with a Buddhist statue that you could actually photograph (or at least no one there said you couldn't). At many temples they don't want you filming or photographing Buddhist things but at other places it seems fine. I guess here it was fine.

an enlightened parking lot

1500 year old pagoda in said parking lot

Korean style Buddhist altar

The Buddha

After Buinsa we walked back down to the main area where the bus in to Daegu left from. We got off at Daegu airport looking for the subway, but in fact Ayanggyo (아양고) but in fact the "airport" stop is a good 20 minute walk. We eventually found it and made it back to Wolbae where i was asleep before midnight.