Baekyangsa temple in Naejangsan National Park, South Korea

Naejangsan National Park is known throughout Korea as one of the best places to see the Autumn foliage. As with all National Parks, it's huge! Even after living in Korea for over 3 years I only just found out that there are in fact two separate temples which are on different sides of the park, each falling in a different province. Naejangsan Temple is in Jeollobokdo (click here for a full post on how to get there) and then Baekyangsa Temple (featured in this post) is actually in Jeollonamdo and closer to Gwangju. 

Both temples are beautiful and offer spectacular scenery, but Baekyangsa was my favourite. They are pretty far from each other and unless you have your own car, it would be very hard to get to both in one day. Naejangsan Temple is quite a far walk from the parking lot where the bus from Jeongeup drops you off, but there are lots of food stalls and beautiful leaves to keep you occupied as you make your way up to the temple. The temple at Baekyangsa was a much shorter walk from the parking lot, and had a lot more diverse scenery, and was my favourite place to photograph.

If driving, I have posted the address below. We started at the Naejangsan temple parking lots and then drove the 35km to Baekyangsa temple. The roads weren't very well marked and the sign posts were very erratic. It ended up taking over 1.5 hours to make the 35km journey. You might have better luck by bus going from Gwangju, however as I haven't made the journey by bus I can't offer too much info on it. When in doubt, call the English Helpline (1330 from any cellphone) here in Korea, those guys and girls work magic and will help direct you where you need to go with bus times and other useful info.

There was ample free parking near the entrance to the National Park (W3 000 per person). From there the walk to the temple was beautiful, with lots of views of the mountains and streams.

Address:

26 Yaksu-ri, Bukha-myeon, Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do

Just a note

Dogs are not permitted in the national Park (although we did see a few little fluffy heads poking our of handbags and backpacks). #ShadowtheJindo is too big to hide in a bag and so had to stay at home for this trip. National Parks don't allow dogs, but Provincial Parks like Seounusa and Gaemsa Temple near Gochang are pet friendly as long as your dog is lead. 

Experiencing a Korean Temple Stay: Naesosa Temple

All the English teachers in my small town were taken on a workshop recently, hosted by our local department of Education. Most education departments organise for their teachers to attend workshops, some of which are more team building, while others are planned around lectures and seminars. For this one we were taken to Naesosa Temple to experience a traditional Korean Temple Stay.

Temple Stays are a way for ordinary people to experience the life of the Korean Buddhist Monks, with 4am wakeup calls for worship and meditation as well as arts and craft activities.

We did a lot of activities during our 2 day 1 night program. We made lotus lanterns, painted traditional Korean Buddhist temple designs on wood, rung the bell to call monks to worship, participated in a tea ceremony as well as a traditional Buddhist monk eating ceremony. I found the eating ceremony to be the most fascinating. During the meal, we had to sit in front of our bowls and wait to be called upon to complete a particular role during the ceremony (dish out water or rice). Each bowl had to be placed in order, chopsticks and spoon were only to be placed on top of the top right bowl, and once e had eaten, we were instructed to clean each bowl 2 times using water that was ceremoniously poured at the start. We used a piece if radish to clean the bowls in order, three times, and then had to drink the water used to clean the bowls. Our Monk leader told us that people these days are so wasteful, and so drinking the water used to wash the bow reduces waste and creates more of an awareness for food wastage...it was a rathe interesting experience to say the least. 

As Christians, Farmboy and I were a little hesitant before the trip, and although the local monks wern't too happy with us not wanting to participate in the 108 bows to Buddha, we were able to just wait outside until everyone else was done.  I had a really great time and enjoyed the experiences. If you are interested in a temple stay (and are prepared for the traditional Korean sleeping style and vegetable diet eaten by the Monks) then I would really recommend a temple stay. Naesosa is situated in Jeolloboko, near the Byeonsan National Park.

For more information about Naesosa and the programs they offer, click here.  

Address:

243, Naesosa-ro, Jinseo-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do 
전라북도 부안군 진서면 내소사로 243