Fall foliage/More Beomeosa photos

Hello!

Adding on to Hannah's previous post about Beomeosa temple, I'd like to share a fistful of photos I took on our sojourn. I'll do my best to put them in a sensical order.

Firstly, the main gate, dating at about 1,400 years old! (Rebuilt in 1715 or thereabouts following being destroyed by the Japanese during the Hideyoshi invasions).

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!"

Outside the main gate were several of these pillars on the backs of turtles. Apaprently, most of these pillars are burial mounds for important monks that lived at the temple. The turtle on the bottom calls to mind the Hindu idea that the world is a gigantic disk sitting atop the shell of a massive cosmic turtle!

Also outside was a cluster of Japanese maple trees. I'm not sure if they are actually related to our familiar red maples, but they turned the same colours of red, yellow, and orange! It made me feel, if only for a moment, that I was in Canada again!

I miiiiight have snapped off a twig and pressed it in a book. I also might not have!

After entering the south gate, we came across a more recent gate, which used to be a guard post.

 

 Inside this (now closed) gate were four elaborate, gigantic statues of the old temple guards. As you can see, each are different; possibly reflecting their different personalities.

This fellow is grasping a dragon in one hand with the other open.

Unsheathing his sword with an iaido-like form. (Iaido being the Japanese art of unsheathing the sword. It's like "quick-drawing" and, ideally, you can unsheath your sword and cut in one motion.)

A trident in one hand and a pagoda (many-level burial structure) in the other. This guy looks positively devious!

I have named this one "Dillon".

"Check it out, bitches! I am ROCKING this lute!"

For whatever reason, there are many bird heads adorning the newer structures. I am unsure if they are herons or not, but their red crests indicate that they may be stylized chickens! This is even more odd if you consider that the Korean expression for a stupid and senseless person is "chicken-headed".

 Click to enlarge, as with all of the other photos!

A much older, weather-beaten "chicken head" from an older part of the temple.

Whereas Seokbulsa temple had a massive iron bell, Beomeosa had a tremendous drum the size of a van!

I really can't think of a good way to conclude this post, so I will just leave you with some photos showing just how elaborate and detailed much of the structures were. Gargoyles abounded; some recent and some several hundred years old!

 This fearsome fellow guarded the west gate.

And, just to drive the whole "attention-to-detail" point home, I give you an electrical maintenance box complete with a painted clay "roof".

....and, finally, here is a picture of Hannah doing what she does best: being a lovely Hannah!

We hope to revisit Beomeosa in the spring, as Hannah previously wrote. I am also considering doing a temple stay there in the spring for one weekend. I will have to research that more, though. I'll tell you all how that goes.