another tomb and temple day

 another day of attempting to see the tombs and temples of seoul, and not having everything work out the way i want it to...fortunately, there are so many different places to go that this isn't an issue...for this day, i'd figured out stuff to see in the northwest area of seoul...actually, i think all of these are technically out of seoul boundaries, but i don't know for sure...
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...

less than 200m later, i saw a guard shack of sorts, and a gate across the road...someone came out of the shack and said something...i don't know exactly what, but i'm guessing it was along the lines of "where are you going?"...i said the name seosamneung, and he said it was closed...gutted!! i was gutted!! making my way all the way out there to find it was closed...ugh...the web page had said one area of seosamneung was closed, but that some of the tombs were open...apparently i read that wrong, or misunderstood what had been written...argh argh argh...
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...

walking around the temple area was nice...all the buildings were around a central open space, which is probably used for big ceremonies...(every temple in seoul has a day when official ceremonies take place, i've never seen one of the ceremonies, but i've seen plenty of photos...since the ceremonies are not in english, i don't know if i'd get anything out of them, even if i did know when they take place...
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?

as i walked back out of the temple area of jingwansa, and back down the road past the temple gate, i noticed a couple signs saying bongeunsa...both in hangeul and english...i could see the symbol for temple as well...(the symbol for temple is often confused as the nazi swastika...the temple symbol has been around for a LOT longer)...the signs said it was only 300m down an unsealed road, so i followed...i went up and down a set of small hills, and found the temple...which was in a state of total disarray...(sp?)...i could see an outdoor shrine to buddha (with his favourite tiger keeping him company, and a bunch of candles) and another of those turtle-y things i've mentioned in an earlier post...plus, what looked to be a temple, or at least an old building that had once been a temple...it was in bad shape, and there were things piled up on a back porch of sorts...it looked like a building that had once been something, but wasn't used for it's original purpose anymore...i found the sliding doors on the side, and when i pushed, they opened...a shrine was still in there, and it looked like the inside of any other temple i've seen in korea...it smelled like paint thinner though...or cleaning agents...in one corner was a bell with a big hammer...in another corner was a small case of small buddhas...totally quiet of course...i loved it, and sat for a little while...there was a house near this, but that seemed totally empty as well, so i don't know if it was lived in, or not...or even if it was a house...the whole area felt abandoned, even though some of the candles in the outdoor buddha shrine were lit...hmmm, a temple mystery!!

as i walked back down the road to get back to the bus stop, i looked slightly up, and saw some tombs (the lumps are easy to spot) as well as a turtle-y thing...to most people that wouldn't mean anything...but i also noticed that there was no fence stopping me from getting close...woo hoo!! it didn't really seem to be an actual sight, but that sort of thing never stops me...i climbed up, and whaddya know, there was a handy dandy sign there to tell me exactly what i was seeing...yay!! it was a sight after all, just not mentioned in any guidebook, or on the web at all...the sign said it was the graveyard of prince yeongsan...he's buried there with both of his wives, lady sim and lady jeong...(were they married at the same time?)...it doesn't say whether the wives knew each other, or how long they were each married, or who was first, second, etc...previous signs i've seen have said how old people were when they died, and how many heirs they had (or didn't have,) but this one didn't mention such things...
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:)

taking a day off

 one part of the contract i have with my school says that i have three sick days to take during the year...it also says that if i want to, i can take those sick days as personal days on fridays if i clear it ahead of time...since the end of my contract is right around the corner, i wanted to use my last friday as a personal day...fridays at my school are special days, meaning we don't have normal class...it's always a birthday party (1x a month,) a field trip (2x a month,) or theme day (usually the last friday of the month)...this friday was a field trip, so i wasn't missing anything at all...(since i don't have a specific class of kids - i teach all the kids in the school - there isn't a group that has to be covered if i'm gone)...
i woke up to a beautiful sunny day...blue skies (above the smog that is)...chilly, but pretty much my idea of perfect...after spending way too much time online, i ventured out...first to pay bills (i love the way i can pay bills through a machine in my bank) and then to get cash...then on to the subway...i'd figured out one temple and two tombs i wanted to see...
45 minutes later, i was off the subway, and found what i thought was the right bus stop...according to the map in the subway, i needed this specific exit to catch the bus that would take me closest to the temple...the papers i had printed from the web said i needed a different bus stop, but those papers had been wrong at other times, so i wasn't very trusting...anywho, i hopped on the right bus, only to get the feeling that it wasn't going in the right direction...because i tend to get freaked out about those things, i got off, and backtracked a ways...luckily, the paper for this particular temple had a small map showing me where i needed to go...straight down a street that is called hwagyesa-ro...which means hwagye temple street...how convenient!! i did see the bus as i walked, but i wasn't able to tell where it was coming from...i also saw it on the other side of the street...i never did figure out if i should've stayed on the bus or not...either way, it wouldn't have taken me all the way to the temple, though i would've been able to get off at the right stop, as i knew the name in english and korean...since the weather was fantastic, i didn't mind the walk...and i like walking, so that made it even better...i walked past lots of little restaurants where i could get food if i got hungry, and made note of those...(i like to eat; me figuring out places to get food should come as no secret)...

 eventually i came to a gate...once you've seen one of these temple gates in korea, you've seen them all...koreans would probably say differently, but to me, they all look the same...and i've seen plenty...i like going to see temples, even if they do look the same...hee hee...right around the temple gate a lot of construction is going on...a new set of apartments, fixing up other stuff, etc...it wasn't a quiet area...pretty soon i came to the turtle looking thing at the top of this entry...i think they mark a particular person? again, i've seen tons of them, and they all look the same, though presumably if i could read the chinese characters, i wouldn't think so...

 just after the turtle marker, there was a trail, with a small map indicating what i could see along the trail...it showed another temple...woo hoo...i decided to go see the temple i'd come for, and consider the other temple on the way back...in korea, maps are always faced in the direction in which you are looking...for me, this is fantastic, but for most people who assume north is at the top of the map, it's confusing...anywho, i continued along the road, and got to the rest of the temple area...a huge building, in which the templestay program looked like it takes place, and a bunch of other smaller buildings...none of them looked particularly open, and everything was in korean...not an english word to be found...which i kinda liked...(again with the "this is korea, there should be lots of korean here" thinking)...i could hear chanting coming from one building, but i didn't see any open doors, and didn't want to interrupt anything...i figured monks/nuns were in there meditating and/or chanting...it was nice to listen to, especially because i was the only person i could see outside...after seeing a couple signs, i could tell that the chanting was coming from the main temple hall...

hwagyesa temple belongs to the jogye order of korean buddhism...(i don't know what, if there are any, other orders of korean buddhism are called)...the description on the web site i use to find things/places to see in seoul says the temple is in the city of seoul, but that it doesn't feel like it's in a city because the surrounding area is so quiet and peaceful...the temple is at the base of a mountain, and all around there is a lot of nature...it actually feels like a functioning temple, unlike some of the really touristy temples...the temple was built in 1522, in the 17th year of the reign of king jungjong in the joseon dynasty...then it was destroyed by fire in 1618...almost 300 years later, funds were raised and the temple rebuilt in 1866...according to the site there is a small spring somewhere in the temple grounds, but i never did find it...

in front of the building on the far left you can see two of the korean version of a "wishing well"...you can find them in pretty much every korean temple complex, but i liked these because the papers are tied in a bow, which is different from anything i've seen previously...usually i see cards with stuff written on them...i was tempted to unroll one of these bows, but that's obviously wrong...lol...i also wanted to write a wish of my own, but didn't see any paper or pencils anywhere in order to do so...i wonder how long the papers remain on the wishing well, and if there is a monk/nun who is specifically tasked to take care of the wishing wells...i suppose pretty much every area of the temple is taken care of by someone who lives there...

one aspect of this temple that i really liked was the feeling that it's a real temple, that monks/nuns live here, and that it's not just to be seen by tourists...i could see a building in which i presume they live...i wonder what their individual living quarters are like...off to the side of the living quarters was this area for kimchi pots...were they actually full of kimchi? i don't know...traditionally kimchi is put together, put in these pots, and buried underground for a length of time...howeva, most of the time these days people make the kimchi so that it's ready to eat as soon as it's done...

obviously these pots aren't underground, but it's nice to think that the monks and nuns are still living the more traditional way of life...i could see a couple areas where things were planted as well...i loved the simplicity of it all...i wonder who takes care of all the food for the monks/nuns...do they eat together? what time do they eat each day? how do they know when it's time to do various things in temple life? is a bell rung? do they wear watches? what time do they get up each morning? what time do they go to bed? i remember my schedule from my meditation retreat, but that was in thailand, geared specifically for foreigners...is a typical temple day at all similar here?

notice the small bell...is it ever rung? these three items were next to what i assume are the living quarters of those residing at the temple...is it only monks and nuns who live at a temple? or are there secular folks as well? does anyone ever pay attention to this little buddha? he's only a foot tall, give or take...(that's 30cm for anyone who is not american)...i didn't walk around this entire building, so i don't know if there were similar things on the other side of it...this building definitely looked like a home...

the size of the templestay building was at least twice the size of any of the other buildings in the complex...i could see what i thought was an office, or welcome room for anyone who does a templestay, but i don't know what else was in there...just outside the temple complex was this set of gravestones...i don't think real people are buried underneath this spot (it's cement) but i could be totally wrong...i didn't see any signs that could tell me who is here, or why they get special markers...and why are some of the markers smaller than others? i know i ask a lot of questions, but these sorts of things are never explained, not even at the more touristy temples...just outside the main temple complex area was a huge international zen center...it looked like a building in which a big group of people could stay for a while...like a college dormitory, something along those lines...these smaller markers were along the street, just behind the zen center...

as i kept walking back toward the original temple gate, i saw these big markers...again, there were no signs to tell me what i was looking at, and it wasn't easy to get close to them...obviously, they're bigger, and with the way asian (and let's face it, western) society often works, that means someone, or some idea that's more important...these look more like memorials to me, rather than grave markers, but i don't know if that's true...somehow, i don't think anyone is ever going to write up a sign in korean or english (or any other language, for that matter) that says what all these markers are for, specifically...my guess is that koreans already know...maybe they learn in school, or maybe there is temple literature somewhere that says who is buried where, and why they get big markers, or any markers at all...i don't even know who i would ask to find out, even if i did speak korean...after looking around and just enjoying the peacefullness of the whole area, i walked back to the subway station...walking back was a whole lot faster, or at least it seemed that way!! i suppose i could've tried a bus, but i was really enjoying the weather, though most people think i'm crazy for liking to walk as much as i do...

from that subway station i went to another subway, and caught another bus...back in november i interviewed with a private elementary school in this part of seoul, so the bus i caught, and the stop at which i was supposed to get off were familiar...yay!! because i knew where i wanted to get off, i was only listening to the announcements, not trying to read the names on each stop we passed...as it turned out, the bus driver was playing each announcement slightly late...i stood up immediately after he played the announcement for the stop i wanted, but that was after we'd passed the stop on the road already...anywho...

the bus driver asked me which stop i wanted, and i told him...he realized i'd stood up at the proper time, but we'd already passed the stop, so he pulled the bus over straightaway and let me out in between stops...i walked back to the proper stop, and found the entrance to the tombs i wanted to see...again with the joseon dynasty tombs:)...and just like temples, they all look the same, but i love them anywho...this one was called taereung...again with the questions: how did they come up with the names of the tombs? and when the tomb names change later, why? the signs always say what the tomb is called, but it doesn't say (in english anywho) if the name translates to anything in english...korean names often mean something, which wouldn't be obvious to a non-korean speaker...like other tombs i've seen in seoul, there was a big stone information board that designated this tomb as a UNESCO world heritage sight...

taereung is the tomb of queen munjeong...a very politically ambitious queen...she was the second lawful wife of king jungjong...as far as korean royalty goes, she lived for quite a while, being over 60 when she died...(1501-1565)...
just her luck, the king had had an heir with his first wife...howeva, the queen didn't let that sort of thing get in her way...with the king, she had 5 kids, 1 son and 4 daughters...she killed the first heir (had him killed, i guess) so that her son would be the next king...so king myeongjong ascended the throne at age 12...since he was obviously too young to rule, she acted as regent and did it for him...as the web site says, she ruled from behind the veil...it isn't the first time in history that such a thing has happened, but i think in western cultures there was an official title for the person who ruled behind the child monarch...she made her younger brother part of the administration, basically in name only...while she was in charge, she got rid of a lot of political adversaries, many of whom were scholars...a different web site says something about her wanting to rehabilitate buddhism, i don't know what that means...while she was in charge she wanted to move the tomb of her king, and she wanted to be buried next to him when she died...but this didn't happen...according to the 2nd web page, her son posthumously granted her the name munjeong, so i have no idea what she was called while she was alive...why would he change her name after she died? it's not as if he was granting her a new title, if that makes any sense...

i liked this tomb because i could actually see the tomb itself from the bottom of the hill...(remember an earlier post when i said all these tombs are on top of man made hills?)...i still wanted to get closer, for a better photo, so i walked up the side of the hill, and tried to walk across the hill, just in front of the tomb...but i set off the motion detector siren!! whoops...apparently the CCTV cameras that you see on tall poles at the back of every tomb complex aren't all just for show:)...hee hee...obviously, i didn't get the photo i wanted...i knew i was the only one at the tomb right then, but i didn't know if an alarm bell was going off in an office somewhere...there was a blinking red light as well...after i got back over to the side of the hill, the siren stopped wailing...i dont know if it was really that loud, but it sure seemed that way to me!! i was ridiculously nervous as i walked out of the front gate of the tomb complex, i was terrified i'd get in official trouble...but i didn't...

on the map at the entrance, i could see that there were two tombs...the other one was called gangneung,   and is the tomb of king myeongjong and queen insun...it's a double tomb...to get to gangneung from taereung, i had to go back out on the street, and walk quite a ways...when i got to the entrance gate of gangneung, it was closed...argh argh argh...oh well...i walked to the nearest bus stop, (near the entrance gate of sahmyook university) and started making my way back home...

seoul sisters

i can't believe i haven't posted this yet:

myogaksa (묘각사)

on the last day of my lunar new year holiday, i decided i should get out and see something else in seoul...with my time here winding down really fast, i know there are a lot of things i haven't seen that i should've seen during my time here...myogaksa is one of the temples in seoul that has a templestay programme, and though i wasn't interested in that at the time, it's definitely a possibility in the future...

myogaksa is on the side of a hill in north central seoul, so when you get there you can look out over a fair amount of the city...go figure, the day i went, the weather was hazy/overcast...due to the holiday and small size of the temple complex there weren't many people there, so i really enjoyed the solitude...there are staircases all over the complex that lead to it's different parts, including this large buddha, a bell, and more...

soon after i came in the entrance door of the temple a nun approached and asked why i was there...i think she wanted do know if i was there for a temple stay, and if so, she would've directed me to the right place...but since i was just curious and wanted to look around...as she saw me a few minutes later having climbed up a couple sets of stairs, she told me the temple is 500 years old...at least, i think that's what she meant...or maybe she meant the huge buddha that was carved into the stone side of the mountain...anywho, i really appreciated the friendliness, yet aloofness...

in between this set of candles and another set of candles was a deep tray full of burned incense...it smelled lovely, and the aesthetic appeal was lovely...aesthetic appeal is one reason i continue to try to find temples to go visit, even though most people would say that most temples in korea are all the same...to some degree i find this to be true, but i love the peacefullness of each temple, particularly the least touristy temples...

i ended up spending a good 30 minutes meditating with the monks on the second floor of this temple, as they chanted and banged on the noisemaker...in korea a different sect of buddhism is most predominant (as opposed to the rest of the world which mostly sticks to two majour divisions (mahayana and theravada) so i don't know if the chanting was in pali, the language of the buddha or not...but i think so...

in front of each of these small buddha statues was a card on which was written a name...i'm assuming these were contributors, or wishmakers, or something along those lines...

haengjusanseong (행주산성) and seooreung (서오릉)

lunar new year, known as seolnal in korea, is a holiday celebrated all over asia...in china it's easily the most important holiday of the year, and lasts a couple weeks...in korea, it's only 3 days...the dates of the holiday are based on the lunar calendar, which means the dates themselves vary quite a bit from year to year...this year the days of the holiday fell on a wednesday/thursday/friday, which is awesome...add the weekend, and it becomes a five day holiday...(obviously, the worst is when the three days fall on a weekend)...this is one of korea's two most important holidays, and the whole country takes time off work...i didn't make any travel plans at all, not even in korea...it did seem a good idea to see something though...

general kwon yul

  i started out by traveling across the city to ilsan, which is technically another city to meet up with a buddy for the day...we hopped on a bus to haengjusanseong, a former fortress, northwest of the city...the fortress was the site of a pretty big battle during the japanese invasion of korea in 1595 (the japanese have invaded korea several times throughout history, this particular time the invasion started in 1592)...when the battle took place, the japanese had already captured seoul...

there isn't much left of this fortress...you can see the earthen "walls" but right now most everything is mud...this set of stairs leads down (where i was standing when i took the photo) to a resting place, (the photo above)...the fortress was built at the top of the hill, one side is along the river which made for a nice natural defensive position...according to the history, the fortress is presumed to have first been built during the baekje kingdom, but "renovations" were made later, of course...

when general kwon led his small army (2300 soldiers) to this fort, his intent was to recapture seoul from the japanese...they (the japanese) hadn't captured this hill yet, 9 attempts were made, from three different directions...over 30,000 japanese were involved in this battle, which makes the korean "victory" pretty impressive...(of course, i can't help but wonder if those numbers are accurate)...more than a third of the japanese soldiers were killed, including their general and two of his lieutenants...

after the battle, the general was promoted to commander in chief...of what, i'm not exactly sure, since the japanese were pretty much in charge of the country at that point...at the time, a memorial was built for the battle at the top of the hill, and a temple to enshrine the tablet of the general...according to the history i've seen, both the temple and the memorial were destroyed during (what americans call) the korean war...the monument was rebuilt during the 1960s...

according to the history i've read, this battle was one of the three most important of the entire invasion...(1592-1598)...i don't know what the other two important battles were, i suppose i should find out...the fortress is supposed to have gotten its current name during the joseon dynasty...apparently the women of the time cut their long skirts in half and wore them like aprons...they used the shortened skirts to collect stones that the soldiers then used to fight during the battle...

this temple/shrine was also rebuilt after the korean war...cory says it's one of his favourite places, partly because not very many people come here...since it was a holiday on the day we went, i have no idea how popular the place normally is among koreans...the grass all around this temple had clearly been shoveled to remove the snow, who knows why...yes, shoveled...who shovels snow off grass?

just outside the entrance area to the fortress is this monument...it's from the korean war, and represents one of the crossings of the river by the american and south korean marines...i'm presuming there was more than one crossing during the course of the war...the monument is two triangles stuck together, according to the sign that's supposed to represent the marines of each country working together...

from haengjusanseong, we took the bus back into ilsan, grabbed lunch, then got on another bus to seooreung...it's a UNESCO world heritage sight (note to self, look up that list and see how many places/sights i've seen, how many are on the list)...it's a complex of tombs from the joseon dynasty...since i love seeing history, cory made the whole day history for me...seooreung means five western tombs...

sugyeongwon

there are a number of different tombs in the complex...the tombs themselves are the round mounds of earth you can see in the middle of the picture above...that tomb is of lady yi, the concubine to yeongjo, the 21st monarch of the joseon dynasty...she gave birth to crown prince sado in 1735, and died in 1764, at the age of 68...since he was the son of a concubine, and crown prince, i'm assuming that the queen of the time didn't have any sons? this tomb was originally in another part of the city, but later moved here...so i don't think the title of this tomb is included in the 5 mentioned in the tomb complex name itself...

for the most part, these tombs are on top of man made hills, which meant that most of the time i didn't have an easy view of the tomb...apparently people go over the fences from time to time to get close to the tombs, something i didn't have the courage to do straightaway...(there is something in me that stops me from going past clearly defined boundaries)...the first tomb wasn't on much of a hill so it was easy to get that photo...

ingneung

all the tombs have these entrance "gates" followed by the temple-ish looking building...this building was empty, so i'm not sure what it's supposed to be...perhaps a place where folks back then could pay respects? usually on the right of that building, at the bottom right of the hill is a little shelter over the tablet of whoeva is buried there...since the korean alphabet (hangeul) hadn't been invented yet, of course the characters on these tablets are chinese characters...(the tablets are bigger than i am)...

ingneung is the tomb of queen ingyeong, the first queen of king sukjong, the 19th monarch of the joseon dynasty...she became crown princess in 1671 (when she was only 10 years old!!) and queen in 1674, when sukjong ascended the throne...she died 6 years later, at the ripe old age of 19, in one of the palaces in the city...the information boards at each tomb didn't say why/how any of these folks died...the history online does though, at least occasionally...the online history i found says she died at the age of 20, of smallpox...she had 3 children, all of whom were daughters, none of whom lived long...

daebinmyo

daebinmyo is the burial place of lady jang...full name = jang, huibin...she became part of palace life at a young age, and found favour with the king...her birthdate is unknown, so they don't know her age, but given that everyone else was young, she probably was too...she became his concubine (apparently there is a title for a royal concubine! sugwon) in 1686, sukjong's 12th year of reign, and the next year gave birth to a baby boy, prince yun...(he was called prince yun only after his father officially recognized him as an heir)...

also in 1687, the current queen was dethroned, (i don't know how that works, but that's beside the point...if she was dethroned, why wasn't the king as well?)...when prince yun became crown prince yun, lady jang was made queen...(queen myeongbong was her official title, i think)...howeva, that didn't last foreva...in 1694, a movement put queen inhyeon back on the throne, so lady jang was demoted back to huibin...not surprisingly, the king had to do something to make himself look in control of everything, so he sentenced her to death, and gave her some poison to carry out the sentence...which she did, in 1701...after her death, the king made a law that made it impossible to elevate a concubine to queen...her tomb was also originally located somewhere else, and moved to it's current place in 1969...this was the first tomb at which i stepped over the fence in order to take a photo...i wasn't the first to do so, there were quite a few footprints in the snow...

changneung

changneung is the tomb of king yejong, the 8th king of the joseon dynasty...it's also the tomb of his second lawful wife (as opposed to the royal concubines, i'm guessing) queen ansun...each got their own hill and tomb, with one gate/building...the little shelter holds the tablets for both of them, with separate doors for each...this tomb is the farthest from the entrance of the entire tomb complex...king yejong was actually the second son of king sejo and queen jeonghui, his older brother died young...

these tombs were the second place i went past a fence...hee hee...i wanted a proper photo, and it's clear that the CCTV cameras are there simply to protect the sights...i don't know if i should so easily admit to going past the boundaries, buuuut...anywho, both tombs in this little area had these sculptures in front of them...i don't know what they all represent, but i'm sure i could find the information online if i cared to look...what was interesting was that one hill/tomb was still covered in snow, while the other side was totally clear...king yejong only served as king for 14 months...apparently he didn't deal well with stress/political upheaval, and there was a lot of it during this era of the joseon dynasty...after he died, his queen was made crown princess...she died over 20 years later...

once cory had convinced me that going past the barriers was something koreans do all the time, the next natural step was sledding down the snowy tomb of changneung...yup, sledding...buuut, since we didn't have sleds, what could we use? our bums of course...this was my first attempt, you can see it didn't work so well...in another attempt, i pulled up my legs, and slid down on the path cory had already created...sooooooo much fun, too bad we didn't go the weekend previously:)

i don't know who his other queen was, nor how long she was queen...since he (king yejong) died so young, there must have been a reason he was only buried near his second queen...i don't know where the first queen was buried...or her name, for that matter...

tomb of king sukjong and queen inhyeon, his second wife

myeongneung is another set of tombs, with a separate entrance across the parking lot...3 people total are buried in this area...king sukjong, his 2nd wife and his 3rd wife...one of them is buried right next to him, and the other on another hill not far away...i don't know why the first wife isn't buried there as well, why she has her own tomb elsewhere in the "park"...his second queen (the one who was taken down for the concubine, then put back on the throne) died in 1701, his third queen was put on the throne in 1702...these guys didn't waste any time!! queen inwon (the third queen) died in 1757, she had a nice long life...

i was fascinated by the way the snow stayed on one side of the tomb...it did the same on the double tomb...and one of the other tombs, changneung...cory thought about sliding down this tomb as well, but decided the snow wasn't good enough...lol...

tomb of king sukjong's third lawful wife

his second queen (the one who was taken down for the concubine, then put back on the throne) died in 1701, his third queen was put on the throne in 1702...these guys didn't waste any time!! queen inwon (the third queen) died in 1757, she had a nice long life...myeongneung is the only tomb that doesn't have a fence around it, i don't know why...

myongneung