Bulguksa Temple

The other major site we saw in Gyeongju was Bulguksa Temple, one of the most famous temples in South Korea. I gotta be honest; I'm not into temples. The architecture is nice, but other than that I have no interest, being irreligious and unspiritual as I am. There were quite a lot of people at the temple, though. It's quite the hot spot, especially for Buddhists.
I didn't go into any of the buildings, but I looked in. I almost went into one, but when I saw that people were just bowing to Buddha in there, I decided against it. I also almost got knocked off the landing, too, because you had to go up a flight of stairs to get inside, and the landing in front, where you remove your shoes, is quite narrow. Pushing people around in crowds is not considered rude in this country, so it was quite dangerous for me to linger there to try and put my stupid shoes back on.

According to the admission ticket (4000 won, about four dollars), the Bulguksa temple we erected in the 15th year of King BeopHeung of Sinra some 15 centuries ago, and later rebuilt by Prime Minister DaeSong on a much larger scale. In the 16th century, Daeungjon, Geukrakjeon, and Jahamun (people I've never heard of) were saved from war fire by the Rev. Damhwa (another person I've never heard of) and his disciples. The restoration for the other burnt wooden buildings was competed in December 1972 after three years of construction.

Here are some pictures of the temple, which is comprised of several pagodas, columns, and other decorative structures on a walled in compound:

This seems to be the main building. Kate says the stairs are in her history book.




This is also in Kate's history book. I'm not in the history book, though. Yet.


You can see the narrow landing on this pagoda. Now imagine a staircase twice as high and add thirty people to the platform, with me tottering on the edge, one foot barely in a shoe, one shoe in my hand.


You can see Buddha carved into the column. What you can't see are hundreds of other images carved into it, some quite detailed.


Top of a column.

The ceiling was quite intricate, and here are a nice fish and a gong hanging from above. Kate said the fish is a drum. Neato.