Experience Korean Buddhism in Seoul, Jogyeosa temple.

There are many factions in Buddhism in Korea. Jogyeojong is the representative faction in Buddhism. Jogyeosa is the main temple of Jogyeojong.

Jogyeosa is located in the center of downtown Seoul. So it is very convenient to look around the Korean temple which is located in the mountain usually.

Today I’d like to introduce Jogyeosa. You could see Jogyeosa by the street. Due to the location in the downtown, the deployment of the temple building is little bit different from ordinary temples of the mountain.

Among these differences, there was one big thing. I could not find out the mountain god’s building. As I posted several times, the mountain god building was an evidence that the acceptance of Buddhism in Korea was not easy at early stage.

Actually Korean traditional religion was a shamanism which had strong connection with that of Siberia. So Koreans thought they came from Central Asia and Siberia.

Until now, you can find lots of Shamans in Korea. Moodang is a Korean name of Shaman.
The mountain god’s building was a result of negotiation between the traditional religion and Buddhism.

Meanwhile, I entered into Jogyesa temple. As entering, I found One thing interesting. That was the 4 Heaven King’s statue. Usually 4 heaven kings were expressed in wooden statues and drawings.

Here in Jogyeosa, the 4 heaven Kings were made up with the steel. It was first time I had seen the 4 heaven king of the steel.

It looked like that was a modern interpretation of 4 heaven king. Anyway it was interesting.

As passing through the main gate, there was a main building. There were lots of people praying. The shoes were looking impressive.

There was a tall white pine tree. The tree trunk was white as it was colored with white colors.

Near the Main Building, there stood a high Zelkova tree. Around zelkova tree, there were lots of lanterns praying for their happiness.

In front of the main building, there was a pagoda. The style of pagoda was little bit different from other pagodas what we had see in the mountain temple.

The style was similar to that of Tibet. I had looked that kind of pagoda in other temple.

Why they made the Tibet style pagoda in this headquarter temple in Korea.
Actually the pagoda is a symbol of Buddha in Buddhism.

One man bowed and prayed to the pagoda. He was very sincere. It was very impressive for me, so I was looking him for a while.

Weather you believe in Buddhism or not, it would be interesting to look around the Buddhist temple in downtown.

Thank you for reading