Tuesday, April 3, 2007
The bell above was finished in 771 C.E., weighs 25 tons, could be heard 40 miles away on a clear day, and is the largest bell in Korea. It’s a masterpiece of the “Unified Silla” period, which lasted from roughly 661 - 935 C.E. It’s currently housed in the Gyeongju National Museum. Gyeongju is a city in the southeastern corner of the Korean peninsula and was the capital of the Silla kingdom for the entire first millennium C.E. Today it’s known as a “museum without walls” and is a major tourist destination because of its historical significance.
We also visited Bulguksa (temple of the Buddha land: Bul = Buddha, guk = land, sa = temple) on Tuesday. Temple records show evidence of construction as early as 528 C.E., with current facilities restored as of 1973 following the Korean War. Bulguksa is at the top of the list of significant Korean temple sites. This one’s worth a visit to the Wikipedia entry for all you true scholars out there.
Our tour guide was head monk Juji Sunim, with whom we also shared tea in a small building marked “Staff Only” in English. Our new friend Mrs. Yo Nam-Hee (a.k.a. Fancy Lady), who is very well connected here, has been with us almost every day, and is a practicing Buddhist, tells us we got a much more thorough tour than did George and Laura Bush when they visited in December 2005.
