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First we went to Heather's parents' house in the countryside of Ulsan. This is their place:
That's Heather's mom coming out of the house, her sister-in-law with little Jiseok (my favorite Korean), Kate (Heather's daughter) in the foreground, and Jane (Jiseok's sister) in front of Heather's grandmother off to the right:
Atop the mountain was a temple with female monks. There was some confusion as to which sex was actually in residence at the temple, since both men and women monks were there, but somehow someone figured out that it was women. The men must have been visiting. There was even an American monk there, and she said hi to us, but only Leon heard her and responded.
Here is a bridge we saw at the temple and were not allowed on. Monks only:
One of the buildings at the temple from outside the entrance:
Mountains, and parking lot:
Me and some trees:
More mountain:
I took this picture from the car:
Heather was telling us all these crazy stories about Buddhist temples for some reason. She was saying that women used to come to the temples when they couldn't have a son. They would pray to the statues, and the monks would "help" them. Heather got a big kick out of telling that one. It reminded me of Dad's old joke about the kids looking like the milkman.
She also told us that people sometimes sacrifice their babies to the monks, who would make huge bells out of metal and babies melted and molded together. Heather said it makes the bells sound different once complete. She told us the temples were generally built in places with dark histories, because the people there needed to sacrifice their children to atone for evil deeds. Very, very strange.
I think she got her story a bit wrong, though. She seemed to be saying that this happened (and still happens) not infrequently, but the legend seems to be a one-time thing, with one specific bell. I found this entry on the internets:
The Gyeongju National Museum holds many beautiful artifacts inside and outside the main buildings. The centerpiece is the very large Divine Bell of King Songdok, constructed in 711 A.D. Upon its debut the sound which rang forth was not the sweet sound anticipated, but a dull cracking sound. Each subsequent design failed to produce the desired effect, so it was determined a child sacrifice was necessary to obtain a perfect bell. Legend states a poor farm woman offered her daughter, who was thrown into the melting copper pot. The bell made from this copper appeared to be singing, “Emille” — “Mommy.” To this day, people mourn for this child.
It's funny, I went the that museum a few months ago, and I vaguely remember there being a bell there, outside. I didn't know anything about the legend, though. I read a couple different versions of the child sacrifice online--one said it had to be a purehearted child, another said it had to be a child born in the year, month, week, day, and minute of the Dragon and there was a mighty search held to find one. At least it was only one child in the legend, and not as rampant as Heather suggested.
