We were on the shuttle bus to Beomosa, the bus drove slowly along the S-bends
of the mountain road. On both sides of the road was heavy forest. The road is
a 'one C way' road, and almost no people is walking on it. For a time I almost
forgot we were going to Beomosa, it looked just like we were on the frontier in
the tropical rain forest. Forty minutes later,we arrived at the entrance to Beomosa.
Getting off the bus, I saw huge Pusan city below my eyes, we already were halfway
up the mountain.
We walked towards the temple. At the side of the road
there were standing so many huge monuments on the back of the stone tortoises.
On the monuments are the traditional Chinese characters, recording somebody 's
contribution to the Temple. This may remind the tourists not to forget their ancestor's
devotion to the temple. Unfortunately, among contemporary Koreans very few can
read the monuments writing, which only symbolizes the ancient and sacred culture.
Getting into the temple, we went up step by step, I found out it wasn't so splendid
and glorious as I imagined. Before I came here,I had heard that it is the biggest
temple in Pusan. I have been to many small temples in Pusan, whose decorations
are so beautiful, not only inside but also outside looking like palaces, big and
small temples surrounded by green trees, located on different mountains, expressing
some ancient cultural atmosphere in the modernized city. But this temple really
looks so poor, the wooden house isn't so wide inside, even slightly narrow, the
decoration inside also quite ordinary. The wall is so short and there are many
cracks in the woodwork, the wood colour isn't healthy and bright, actually it
is quite pale,like the colour of a person's face who is going to die. Anyway,the
wood looks like it is decaying little by little. I even suspect its safety, I
am afraid it is going to fall down in the near future.
Even the temple is
so poor. You can see so many reverend Buddhists going into the house. Most of
them are middle-aged couples. The women dress quite modern, make-up heavily, the
hair colour has been changed, and a small handbag on the arm, the man wearing
suit and necktie. They are serious, no smile on their faces, as if something very
important will happen soon.They walk humbly. After entering the individual temples,
they say nothing to each other,just stand there and pray by themselves, and then
they pray with their knees and hands and head touching the floor together. They
are so reverend and respectful that I admire the poor temple at once. Maybe they
are praying for safety for the family, the health of the old father or mother,
or for their young son and daughter's success in their studying. There are different
Bodhisattvas in the different houses. They pray at each one by one. The whole
temple is quite big, and there are also quite a lot of people here, but you can't
hear much noise. It is very calm here.
Coming out from the temple, I venerated
it from the bottom of my heart, though I am not a Buddhist. Just in the ordinary
temple, just in the ugly house, it has accepted people's praying for more than
1100 years. Under the blue sky, surrounded by the heavy green trees, it will continue
to foster Buddhist's praying and tourists' visiting one generation after another.
Leaving
Beomosa, my soul seems to adopt the baptism of the ancient temple too. I feel
relaxed and quiet, and forget all the boring things that bothered me in daily
life.
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