Ancient ruins at Gyeongju

I finally got a chance to get out of Daegu. On my three day weekend another teacher and I headed off to Gyeongju and ancient Korean city about an hour bus ride from Daegu. Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Dynasty whose powerful families ruled Korean until 700 A.D. This small town is scattered with large mound tombs, stone carvings and temples that gave me my first glimpse of the history and culture of Korea. I wished I had more that a day to see everything but we had only one day to cram it all in. We first headed to the tomb park, Daereungwon, which contains 30 ancient tombs including the tomb of King Michu. There is only one tomb that is open to the public to see the rest of the tombs remain unexcavated. This tomb dates somewhere between the fifth and sixth century and contained many gold and jade pieces. The tombs of the kings were distinguished by a fence around them.

Just a short walk away was Gyerim Forest which has trees that have survived for nearly 2,000 years. It was a beautiful day and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The Koreans seem to prefer the white cherry blossoms so the really do look like snow. They were glorious! From there we walked to Anapji, a pleasure pond where the pavilions have been rebuilt to resemble what they looked like long ago. Most of the structures were made out of wood and have unfortunately most have deteriorated and disappeared long ago. Many of the artifacts that are in the National Museum were excavated from this pond. I think servants that broke something just threw it over the side into the lake. No one would notice. Far better than getting beaten. From there we continued our trek to the National Museum which had phenominal works of art from the area. There were actually four buildings; one for the Buddhist art, a building for Archeology, another building just for Silla Dynasty art and a Children's museum. We could have stayed there for hours but we pressed on so we could see the Bulguksa Temple and I'm really glad we did because it was my favorite part of the trip. This temple is tucked away on the Tohamsan mountain and was created in 751 A.D. Although they call them bridges there are actually stairways consisting of 33 steps symbolizing the 33 heavenly worlds of Buddhism. Once we got there it was well worth the view and seeing this beautiful serene place will always bring back wonderful memories. So after seven hours of walking and sightseeing we headed back to the bus station for the trip back to Daegu. Our tickets round trip were $7.00 each. We staggered onto the bus tired and happily exhausted. Every step was worth it. Gyeongju was by far the most impressive site I've seen in Korea thus far.

A Korean Wedding

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Kim's middle son Hee-dals wedding which is certainly not something everyone gets to experience. The wedding service was held at a lovely hotel here in Daegu in the banquet hall which is where most weddings these days are held. The room was set up with dinner seating and guest sat at their table during the ceremony. There was a long raised runway down the middle of the hall where the procession took place. There was probably around 500 guest and Hee-duk another of the Kim's son's translated the ceremony into English for the few non-Korean speakers. The parents of the bride and groom had special chairs where they sat on either side of the stage and the bride and groom bowed reverently to each set of parents before the ceremony began. The bride wore a traditional western style gown and was really beautiful. Except she was so tiny I thought she was going to pass out dragging her train. The parents mothers wore the traditional Hanbol which are quite beautiful with hand-stitched embroidery. The ceremony lasted only about a half hour and the bride and groom left to go change clothes. We were then served and eight course western style meal from salmon to dessert with such speed and efficiency I barely put down my silverware and another course arrived. The bride and groom once again reappeared in traditional Korean dress and walked the room thanking the guest for coming. They never sat down or rested or ate, this was a workout, like running a marathon. There was no dancing or singing and after the dinner, that had been served with Swiss clock precision, the celebration was over. The teachers were invited to come and see a private ceremony where the bride and groom were introduced to the families. They had to bow in front of each family member based on their status of course. Once again another clothing change, by now the bride is getting flushed and her clothes are so heavy they have to pick her up off the floor each time she bows. Very interesting, maybe its an endurance test for the bride. No wonder divorce rate is so low here, who wants to go through that again. Sorry the pictures aren't better, every time I went to take a picture there were five photographers in front of me. Enjoy!

Haein-sa