Happy Seokga Tansinil!

This year May 21 was the celebration of Seokga Tansinil, or Buddha's Birthday in Korea. His birthday is celebrated each year on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month. Our boy Buddha is 2,634 years old, based on a birth year of 624 BC. In South Korea, Buddha's Birthday is celebrated by hanging colorful lotus lanterns in temples for the month of May. On his birthday many people visit the temples to pray and light a lantern.

We visited Busan for Buddha's birthday to visit the very special Beomeosa Temple. Beomeosa Temple translates to "Temple of the Nirvana Fish". This temple was built in 678 and has a very special story on the origin of it's name.

The mountain where Beomeosa is found is said to have at the summit a golden well which never, ever dries up. The water of this well is believed to have very special magical properties, as one day a golden fish came from heaven to play in the well and has lived there ever since.

The temple has been reconstructed twice - once in 1602, after it was burned down following a Japanese invasion in 1592. It burned down again only years later in 1613, this time in an accidental fire.

To get to the top of the mountain where the temple is found we take a bus from near the Beomeosa metro station. Since it was Buddha's Birthday we were in the company of hundreds of Koreans. The lines were extremely long and the heat was excruciating, but I channeled my inner Buddha to find calm and nirvana. This allowed me to keep my cool while I watched groups of old Koreans cut the mile long line and nab a spot on the bus before everyone else. After a 30 minute wait for the bus, and a sweaty, claustrophobic 30 minute bus ride to the top we were finally there.

The first thing we were greeted by was vendors, selling a variety of things, from small knickknacks and toys, to traditional Korean rice cake and cotton candy. There were also candidates for the upcoming elections shaking hands and kissing babies everywhere.









The temple itself was beautiful. There were brightly colored lanterns hanging everywhere, with tags on each. I believe that people can buy a tag and write a wish for their family on the tag, to hang from the lantern. They were not lit yet, as it was not dark.





As we wandered we came across many small temple rooms, where people would pray to various images of the Buddha. We weren't able to go in, or take pictures of these small rooms, as it didn't feel right to interrupt the worship. Although I did attend Buddhist temple on occasion with my family when I was young, I never really learned much beyond the basic bow - and the warning not to play with my o-juzu beads in temple.

Apparently other foreigners had no problem posing for cheesy pictures in front of the prayer rooms, or having their pictures taken with monks like they were seeing Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. It was definitely a strange dichotomy, with some people there to have a special religious day and others there to sight see.

There was a small stage, with some women playing traditional music. I assume that later in the evening there would be more of a ceremony on the stage, when all the lanterns would be lit up.



The temple also provides lunch for all visitors to the temple that day - which is a staggering number of meals. We didn't partake in the meal, which is a traditional lunch of rice, vegetables and chili sauce - bibimbap.

It was great to see a traditional, historical sight on such a special day. I look forward to visiting another temple in Busan, which is built into the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean, but we will save that trip for a day when it is less busy.