i first wanted to see a set of tombs called seosamneung...three tombs all with different names...(so how did the three tombs end up with the other name to describe them? does the name seosamneung mean something in korean?)...huireung, hyoreung, and yereung are the names of the tombs in this complex...i rode the subway out to samsong (which sounds really similar to samseong, another subway stop on the other side of seoul) then waited for a little while for a yellow bus (i'd never ridden a yellow bus before)...the bus came to the subway stop, i got on, the bus driver turned the bus off, and got off for a break...i took out my book and started reading, knowing that he'd eventually get back on...and he did...i don't know how long i read, but that didn't really matter...i thought the bus ride would be 15 minutes, but it was more like 5...again, thank goodness for being able to read and understand the basic bus announcements...i hopped off the bus, and started walking in the direction the sign pointed...it was supposed to be 600m down the road...
fortunately, i simply waited for the bus to come back, got back to the subway station, went two stops, and got on another bus...this time i was on my way to paju samneung...the web page had listed quite a few buses that would take me where i wanted to go, but i didn't see nearly that many listed at the bus stop...i did see a couple numbers, so i read the routes, and they did seem to indicate that i'd get to where i wanted to go...i can read korean, but not quickly, so i tend to stand in front of the bus routes and read for a lot longer than any korean would...they probably get annoyed or laugh at me for taking so long to figure things out...anywho...relatively quickly a bus came along that had the right number, so i hopped on...it was a bit crowded, but i was able to stand near the front, right in front of the more detailed route...every single stop was listed...since it was on the bus, there was no "you are here" sort of arrow, which meant i had to figure out which stop was the one at which i had boarded the bus...
that took a lot longer than i'd like to admit...usually subway station stops are marked a little more brightly, or with a different colour, but that wasn't the case this time...oh well...i figured out (finally) where i'd boarded, then figured out which direction i needed to look by reading the names of a coupe stops, then went back to the route map and started reading some more...this route map had english translations, but i figured out that they weren't very helpful...sometimes the translation didn't bear much resemblance to the korean name, which was awful...i quickly realized the name i was looking for wasn't correct in english...so i went back to my slow korean reading...and found the stop i was looking for...the bus announcements would say the upcoming stop, and the stop that would come after that...which was handy, when in combo with my reading skills...basically that gave me two warnings when my stop was coming...the web page said i should get off the bus at "gongneung"...(not to be confused with gangneung, which is where i had attempted to go the day before)...the english on the bus route said "gongdong"...the hangeul (korean) said "gongreung"...the announcement said "paju samneung"...you'd think they'd get it all together...i was glad i had read that the name of the tomb complex area was paju samneung...(again with the naming of a complex area, in addition to each tomb inside the tomb area)...i was listening really carefully, knowing that my stop was about to come up, so i was ready to get off the bus at the right time...there was a sign on the highway pointing, so i followed...it was about a 10 minute walk...absolutely nothing of note along the way...nothing...then i came to a small sign pointing to a parking lot and it mentioned that i was entering an area of the royal tombs of the joseon dynasty...another sign, in the parking lot, was similar to the UNESCO world heritage sign i'd seen previously at other tomb sights...i think they all say the same thing...
i suppose i could take a picture of one of them, but they're not very interesting...there was an information board, with a translation in english...love it!...and a picture, not that it's ever very hard to figure out where to go...the entry fee was 1000won, which is less than a dollar...there can't be many UNESCO world heritage sights that are so cheap...the lady who sold me the ticket also handed out an english information brochure...there were korean brochures sitting out, but i'm guessing they don't get a whole lot of english speakers at this particular tomb complex...anywho...i walked down the pathway, which wasn't at all sealed, it was more like a sand covered trail...i'm guessing it wouldn't be pleasant to walk along there just after majour snow or rain...i chose first to see gongneung, the tomb of queen jangsun...one web site says she was the lawful wife of the 8th king yejong, the other says she was a consort to the king...so i don't really know...her father was han myeonghoe, who was the prime minister under king sejo...after the first son of king sejo died, and yejong ascended the throne, han myeonghoe made her crown princess...(i don't know how he got to do it, but that's what i read)...basically, he had the political power, and he wanted her in the monarchy...
she ended up dying not too long after, from complications of birthing prince inseong...she was only 17...she was only crown princess when she died, her queen title was posthumous...king sejo is said to have thought she was beautiful, and very nice and was thrilled when she was installed as crown princess...her husband died not too long after she did, he only served as king for a few years...
there was no fence blocking me from walking up the hill, so this time i opted to walk straight up the hill from behind the big building...it was a steep hill, and i didn't get that close to the tomb, but i did get to take a photo...(it's the second photo of this entry)...the whole time i stood there i was worried i'd set off another motion detector siren...and this time there was another family there at the same time...hee hee...howeva, as i came back down the hill, i noticed the father climbing up one side of the hill, so i know i'm not alone in wanting to get closer...i think if there were hoards of tourists, the korean government would make a sturdier barrier preventing people from getting too close, but for now, the CCTV cameras and such serve as a good enough deterrent to keep people from getting too close and destroying the monuments...my next tomb was called sulleung...the tomb of queen gonghye...she was the wife of king seongjong...it's rather confusing, but i'll try to explain...she was the younger sister of queen jangsun...(needless to say, i'm sure pa was thrilled to have two daughters end up as queens!)...the tomb actually faces her sister, though i didn't figure that out until i read it...this tomb is fancier (notice the photo with the drawings of the different animals and such in front of the tomb) because she was actually queen when she died, as opposed to her sister...she was younger by about ten years...pa had a total of at least four daughters, i wonder what happened to the two oldest...
yejong died, not long after his wife...at the time, they'd already had kids, but the 15 year old was "sickly" and the 3 year old was, well, 3 years old...so the heir ended up being the son of king deokjong, king seongjong...(i had to write down a family tree in order for this to make sense to me because the description was more than a little confusing)...this was the only time in korean history when two sisters became queen...the third tomb was the only double tomb in the complex...it's the tomb of king jinjong and his queen hyosun...jinjong was the oldest son of king yeongjo, and though he became crown prince at age 7, he died before his 15th birthday...his wife lived until she was 37, childless...(on a side note, king yeongjo killed his second son, crown prince sado, by locking him in a rice chest)...
moving on...as i was waiting for the bus to this set of tombs at the subway station, i noticed that another bus went to a temple i had wanted to see previously...so when i came back to the station, i switched buses...i asked the bus driver just in case, and listened to the announcements...when the bus got to the stop, he remembered i wanted to go there, and let me know this was the right stop...(sometimes i really love seoul bus drivers!)...
the road leading to the entrance of the temple, wasn't exactly clear...(or maybe that was just me, since i tend to overanalyze such things)...in fact, the beginning of it was blocked off, but since i could see plenty of others on the road, i figured out it was blocked off to vehicular traffic only...but walking down the street only got me to a T-intersection, and no sign telling me where to go...so i guessed...fortunately, i guessed the correct way...and that road led me to another T-intersection...howeva, at that intersection it was obvious where i needed to go...since i tend to freak out about such things, i asked a vendor just in case...he laughed at me, and said i needed to walk about 300m farther down the road...(i asked in my ridiculously basic korean, but he understood me just fine)...as i walked, i passed plenty of people coming out of the national park (bukhansan national park) after a day of hiking...all decked out in the latest greatest hiking gear, which always makes me laugh...
the entrance gate to the temple was in the middle of the road, just like the one i'd seen the day before at hwagyesa...it's as if the gates have been built, then they stay as they are and life just continues around them...i'm guessing there is some sort of templestay program here as well, because i could see buildings that clearly weren't part of the temple itself, but were still part of the temple complex, if that makes any sense at all...there were also information/direction signs that were stowed away but could easily be put out when needed...
according to the web site, jingwansa (jin-gwan-sa) is one of four majour temples around seoul...i have neither seen nor heard of the others, and i hadn't heard of this one until i looked up temples to see in seoul...but that doesn't mean anything, since i'm a foreigner...jingwansa has been around for a long time...at least, the idea of it has...it was originally dedicated to jingwan in 1010, during the goryeo dynasty...(that dynasty was before the joseon dynasty, for you folks not up to date on your korean history)...during the reign of sejong (the big mighty korean king who also invented the korean alphabet...sejong is definitely regarded as one of the greatest ever korean kings...i always wonder what he actually did himself, and what was created by his underlings and he was then given credit for) a library was created for confucian scholars...he wanted the scholars to visit from all over the country/world...since the internet was obviously not in operation back then, i wonder how information was transferred over great distances...how did priests and scholars know of libraries such as this one? how did they figure out how to get to different places? how long did they stay? what was the typical daily schedule of a visiting priest/scholar at the library? were there opening hours? where did they stay?
the temple complex is officially made up of a whole bunch of buildings...i could type all their names, but that would take a while...these names don't easily roll off my tongue, which means i'd be flipping back and forth between web pages, and that's just a paid...plus, if you're reading this, you probably don't care about the specific names of each of the buildings in the temple area...most of the buildings have shrines to buddha, and there is one that is designated as the main temple hall...it wasn't that much bigger than the others, and it was closed...at least, that's the way it seemed...and i didn't hear any chanting from inside this time...over in one corner, i found three smaller buildings, each appeared to be only big enough for one person to "worship" at a time...they still had the shrines and all, but were quite small...as i walked by one of them, a guy inside answered his cell phone!! if you're in a temple, worshipping, aren't you supposed to turn that thing off? strange...anywho...the smallest building was ridiculously tiny...almost the size of a backyard storage shed...i think it was built to honour someone referred to as the "hermit sage"...i guess it makes sense that it was small, and gave the feeling of isolation...i guess a hermit is pretty isolated...there are signs in this back corner that describe each of the buildings, down to the little details that are supposed to make them different and unique, but this small building was the only one that really sounded like anything unusual to me...the descriptions talked about different elements of the buddha paintings and statues, but since i'm not buddhist, nor have i ever really studied such things, the details don't much matter to me...
as i was getting ready to leave, i notice a nun getting ready to ring the big bell...i'd never seen that before...each temple i've visited has had a huge bell, with the big thing that rings it, but i didn't think the bells were actually used...i guess they are after all!! it's a deep, loud, simple sound that goes on for a while...i heard her hit/ring the bell three times...if i remember correctly, it was about 6pm (1800) so maybe she was indicating dinner, or meditation time...i wasn't the only one who stood still while she rang the bell, everyone else i could see stopped moving as well...how many times a day does that bell get rung? and is it always the same person who rings it?
the original tombstone of the prince is missing, but i think the other tombstones in the graveyard are original...the prince was the 13th son (did his father really have 13 sons? or is it meant to say 13th child? cause even with several wives, that's a lot of kids!!) of his father...
this prince and one of his brothers were in involved in political intrigue, not surprisingly...they supported a palace coup to overthrow one of their brothers (i think that's who it was) and install king jungjong on the throne...but later, a palace servant confessed to the king (jungjong i think?) that another coup was being planned, (to put yeongsan himself on the throne) at which time yeongsan was sent into exile...all the way to hwanghae-do, which is now in north korea...i guess they figured that was far enough away that he couldn't do anything more...so how did he end up buried here? he was granted a pardon by the very king he planned to overthrow...i loved this tomb area just because i was able to get up close and personal to the different tombs, and the different markers...awesome...i wonder why there isn't a listing for the tomb anywhere, though there is a proper informational sign there, which means someone knows about it!
from the tombs, i went home, bought strawberries, baby spinach and feta cheese, and had a lovely salad for dinner...exciting end to a day of wandering and exploring:)
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