A Colorful Korean Fall at the Haeinsa Temple

For my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I serve in the Primary for all the Military congregations in South Korea.  This Sunday, I was needing to go to Daegu to help with the Primary in that area.  We decided that we would make today a family day-trip, and head to the Haeinsa Temple in Gayasan National Park after my visit in Daegu.  We missed the opportunity to see the fall colors of South Korea last year, so we would be able to not only see the national park in the splash of fall colors, but also see the ancient Buddhist Temple. 

As with most driving in South Korea, the directions can be a little off.  I followed Waze to the supposed destination, then we had to rely on the brown signs posted for directions to the temple.  We came to a really neat pavilion with two large Buddha's and a rather large pagoda, we thought that this must be the stop, so we pulled over, put our jackets on and went out to take in the beautiful colors around us.  We had to cross a bridge to get to the site, and it was such a beauty!

We explored the area for a while.  The kids all had fun pointing out the different colors that the tree leaves were changing too.  Until this point, our kids have only lived in warm states that don't have the color changing fall, so this was a new adventure for them.

After looking at Google Maps, Waze, and attempting to read a few signs, we came to the conclusion that this beautiful spot was not the Haeinsa Temple that we were seeking.  So we got back in the car to find it.  We took a few wrong turns, had to show the locals a picture and kept saying "temple?temple?", and not to mention we have mastered the amazing art of mime, we finally found the right place.

The grounds for the Haeinsa Temple is huge!  We first stopped at the Wongyeongwangsabi Monument.  

After loving the sites and colors at the monument we made our way to the Iljumun Gate and walked the beautiful trail to the Bonghwangmun Gate. The Iljumun Gate is considered a sacred place because it was the first gate that every sattya had to pass to become a Buddha. 

The Temple Pavilion was crisp, clean and full of pagodas and worshiping halls.  We even got to see a bell.  Little Monster had it set on his mind that he was going to ring the bell, it was a really good thing we had the hiking backpack, because he was definitely living up to his nickname.

We then made our way towards the back of the temple to the main reason we wanted to come, to see the original Buddha printing blocks in the Tripitaka Koreana. This is the most famous national treasure of the Haeinsa Temple.  It is the most comprehensive and oldest collection of original Buddhist scripture.  There are over 81,000 of these wood blocks.  Photos are not allowed inside and the housing is only open certain hours of the day.  We got there with about 10 minutes to spare, but in Korean fashion, they would not let us enter, they said they were closed.  We were able to peek in and see the inside, but not able to take the time to walk around.  That was probably for the best, since Monster was done and we verbally screaming about it.  They were probably worried our kids would take 2 minutes to destroy a national artifact.  

We took our cue from Monster that it was time to head home.  We took the scenic route to our car and took some last pictures of the oranges, yellows, greens, and reds of the fall around us.  Everyone was glad we made this little detour to the temple and made a fun family day out of it.