Haeinsa

Welcome to Haeinsa, a World Heritage Site that recognizes this Buddhist temple as irreplaceable to the Korean people and to their culture.

I love this pic, I took it!!!!! See the sheer genius of the shot? It's one of my favorite pictures.

This overlooks the temple, which of course is set in the mountains surrounded by relatively untouched Korean forest.

I still can't get over the craftsmanship of the decorations around the temples.

Ok, please agree with me on how unfair this is.........he takes me out for dinner........and yet I still have to cook it!!!!

Read the caption beside us, it's worth it.

Now I know that this is suppose to be a world heritage site and this is probably for security BUT doesn't it make you wonder whether they are watching ESPN or not?




This was at the base of the mountain......kinda........it's sometimes hard to tell where the mountains end.......or the stunted hills. It's actually quite commercial here.


I don't think I have to comment lol.



Ok this is why this is a world heritage site. Haeinsa is the repository of the Tripitaka Koreana. For EVERYONE (because who knows this stuff?) It is also known as the Goryeo Buddhist canon. Which is one of the worlds most significant complete Buddhist sac rad texts. I'll break it down like this. Tripitaka in its literal translation is "three baskets", which is representative of the three divisions of Buddhism. Which are the Sutra (scriptures), Vinaya (laws), and the Abhidharma (treatises). Can you tell I just got that from a guide book? Like I remember this stuff off the top of my head. If I did I'd be a doctor.

This is how absolutely amazing this is. There are over 80,000 carved wooden blocks, roughly cut in the same size, with beautiful carvings of the Tripitaka. Apparently this makes them even more valuable. To make this it took 16 years. This includes cutting, curing, and carving the wooden blocks.

They carefully selected birch wood , then soaked it in brine and boiling it in salt before drying it (to help preserve it in the forth coming years........it worked). Locating and constructing a "sophisticated repository" (It really is a piece of work, considering it was constructed over 600 years ago) and then carved the blocks into their present form.

This is the coolest part! And this shows that modern technology got nothing on the old traditions. In the 1970's, President Pak Chung-hee wanted to move the Tripitaka to a modern facility that should have insured the preservation. When some of the blocks were found to have started growing mildew the plan was pitched and it was moved back to it's original holding in Haeinsa.

The blocks that are on display are actually the second set. About a hundred years earlier some invaders burnt the original ones that were made between 1011 and 1087. The second set was made shortly after the burning occurred, between 1232 and 1251.


This is one of the blocks close up. The picture above is one of the rows of the Tripitaka.

This was on one of the bends before you got up to the hill/mountain that the temple is on. Maybe about a 15 minute walk from that area.