Haeinsa Temple(Gyeongsang Province)
Haeinsa (해인사, "Reflections on a Smooth Sea") is an important Buddhist temple on Gaya Mountain in Gyeongsang province, South Korea. Founded in the 9th century and rebuilt in the 19th century, it is best known for its complete copy of the Buddhist scriptures, the Tripitaka Koreana(팔만 대장경 or 고려 대장경)Buddhist Scriptures carved on the wood.
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Its still summer and I want to share a place(Haeinsa pronounce are H- IN-SA) where we used to go and definitely a place we would still be going in the next few years for our summer getaway(hahaha~)...
This place is really cool even not in Summer season though what we really like about the place aside from the visiting the Buddhist Temple is the River that flows from the Top of Gaya Mountain down the place where we did camp for sometime(of course we did bring a small tent and a mat with us) after a SERIOUS WALKING,going to and from the temple. That river has really cool and clean water flowing in it,and If you are lucky and did bring some spare clothes with you,can even go for a bathe. Another great experience was the delicious food you can eat from small restaurants(now I can say restaurant but dont expect eating in a fine one though),managed and prepared by mostly old people in that area. But well, for me it was really the best especially the Dootori, Pajeon, with some fresh and clean taste of cold Makgeolli(Rice Wine)....Yum!~
And of course,lastly the Temple Itself has a lot of special things in there. I even observed the Trees around the place was really old,and Humongous.
Here is a brief history of the Haeinsa Temple.
History
Tradition says that Haeinsa was first settled in 802 by the monks Suneung and Ijeong, who had just returned from China. The name, meaning "Temple of Reflections on a Smooth Sea," derives from a verse in a Buddhist sutra that compares the Buddha's wisdom to a calm sea. When the mind is freed from the wild waves of worldly desires and follies, it will attain a calmness in which the true image of all existence is clearly reflected.
Soon after, the temple was built by a grateful King Aejang after the monks healed his wife. According to legend, the monks tied one end of string to the queen's tumor and the other end to a tree, chanting Buddhist verses. Miraculously, the tumor vanished as the tree withered and died.
Hundreds of years later, 13th-century Korea was at war with the Mongols. The Korean government, in exile on Ganghwa island, commissioned a copy of the Buddhist scriptures in hopes of earning the Buddha's intervention in the war. The resulting Tripitaka Koreana (carved 1237-48) is considered the best copy of the scriptures in Asia. According to tradition, the woodblocks were made of white birch first soaked and then boiled in sea water for three years, then dried for three years in the shade.
Haeinsa suffered a devastating fire in 1817, in which nearly all the wooden temple buildings were destroyed. Only the Tripitaka library at the rear of the complex, built in 1488, escaped damage. The main worship hall was rebuilt in 1818 during the late Joseon (Chosôn) dynasty, on the foundations of the one built a thousand years earlier by Haeinsa's two original monks.
The library hall and its woodblocks of scripture were designated a Korean national treasure in 1962 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
In the late 20th century the monks of Haeinsa entered the computer age, painstakingly inputting the contents of the Tripitaka Koreana into electronic form from 1992 to 1994. The ancient text is now stored on a CD-ROM and the monks have further plans to provide a parallel translation into modern Korean and extensive cross-referencing and other indexes.
What to See
Haeinsa's magnificent Tripitaka consists of 52,382,960 classical Chinese characters carved on 81,258 double-sided woodblocks in 6,802 volumes. It is said to be the oldest and most complete copy of the Buddhist scriptures in the world, and also one of the most beautifully made. It is displayed on floor-to-ceiling shelves in the oldest building at the temple (1488), called the Janggyeong Panjeon.
The Janggyeong Panjeon building is notable in itself. It is one of the oldest buildings constructed specifically for the storage of artifacts and it exhibits "remarkably effective solutions developed in the 15th century to the problems posed by the need to preserve woodblocks against deterioration" (UNESCO).
The main worship hall, Daejeokkwangjeon (Hall of Great Silence and Light), was rebuilt 1818 on ancient foundations. Unusually, it houses a Vairocana Buddha statue, carved in 1769, instead of the usual Seokgamoni. One of the Five Celestial Buddhas, Vairocana represents the center of the universe. Behind the statue are wall paintings of the Buddha's life.
Thanks for reading and I hope you visit and enjoy this place this summer as well.
Watch out for more blogs from DaeguMom.^^~
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