By Kim Ji-myung
My recent visit to the Tongdo Temple in southeastern Korea seemed to be more than five decades overdue. The head family of the Gyeongju Kim clan, my family clan, has lived just 40 kilometers from Yangsan City, where this 1,300-year-old temple stands.
The Gyeongju Kim clan village was very close to the small train station on the Seoul-Busan line. For the people of Yangsan, this station was their main passage to the outside world when roads were underdeveloped. Now that the area has been urbanized, most of it has been absorbed into the outskirts of Busan.
I heard that many family gatherings and big events on important occasions were held at nearby Tongdo Temple, one of the biggest and most beautiful Buddhist temples in the south. However, my father had left his hometown alone at the age of 12 to enter middle school in Seoul, and then advanced to a college in Japan. After graduation, he lived in Seoul and my family has remained detached from clan occasions, although we visited his hometown very often.
Throughout my career, my work involved creating or editing texts on Korean history and cultural heritage one way or another. Tongdo Temple always stayed somewhere in a corner of my mind. In Buddhist terms, my nidana with this old temple must not have been strong enough until now.
As I write this article, a long-forgotten story comes back to me. When I was of elementary school age, someone told me that "Tongdo Temple's iron cauldron is so big that when they boil red bean porridge, they go in a boat and stir."
If the seven selected sansa, Buddhist mountain monasteries in Korea, including Tongdo Temple (together with Diamond Precept Platform), failed to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in June, I may have never visited the monastery.
On my way to Tongdo Temple two weeks ago by KTX train, I felt like I was visiting a long-separated close relative.
As is well known, the Three Jewels Temples are the three principal Buddhist temples in Korea, each representing one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism. Tongdo Temple represents the Buddha, Haein Temple represents the dharma or Buddhist teachings, while Songgwang Temple represents the sangha or Buddhist community.
Vinaya Master Jajang of the Silla Kingdom brought the relics, including part of the Buddha's robes, from China and enshrined them in the Diamond Precept Platform at Tongdo Temple in 646. This substitutes for an image of the Buddha.
The many beautiful structures, treasures and the natural environment of Tongdo Temple impress people with its ambience, which is possible only with time-honored depth and weight. But what amazed me more was the highest master monk of the temple. His disarming smile and quiet statements made me feel as if I really had come home.
Patriarch Seongpa, over 80 years old, was a born artist, with out-flowing talents and energy. He was test-producing silk prints using the ottchil (Korean lacquer) printing technique. The government awarded him the "2017 Merit for the Arts" for his contribution to the advancement of Korean culture.
Probably his most monumental achievement must be the 16,000 ceramic plates of the Tripitaka Koreana: 52cm wide, 26cm long and 1.5cm thick, each weighing four kilograms. He began the project in June 1991 as a sincere prayer for national unification. For more than 20 years, the master monk, five students and 20 engineers have devoted their bodies and souls to the endeavor.
Calligraphy, painting, pottery burning, lacquer art, textile dying and furniture design ― in all of these genres he is beyond an ordinary craftsman. He is also a poet of the Korean sijo genre and operates a competition to encourage people to write sijo.
One revelation on this visit concerned the role of a Buddhist temple. It is not only a collector, user and repository, but it can function as a creator and producer of artistic Buddhist heritage.
However, you need not go all the way to Tongdo Temple to experience these masterpieces. From July 3 to Sept. 30, a special exhibition titled "Full Buddhist Temple and Tongdo Temple" will be held at the Buddhist Museum at Jogye Temple in Seoul.
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is heritagekorea21@gmail.com.
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The Gyeongju Kim clan village was very close to the small train station on the Seoul-Busan line. For the people of Yangsan, this station was their main passage to the outside world when roads were underdeveloped. Now that the area has been urbanized, most of it has been absorbed into the outskirts of Busan.
I heard that many family gatherings and big events on important occasions were held at nearby Tongdo Temple, one of the biggest and most beautiful Buddhist temples in the south. However, my father had left his hometown alone at the age of 12 to enter middle school in Seoul, and then advanced to a college in Japan. After graduation, he lived in Seoul and my family has remained detached from clan occasions, although we visited his hometown very often.
Throughout my career, my work involved creating or editing texts on Korean history and cultural heritage one way or another. Tongdo Temple always stayed somewhere in a corner of my mind. In Buddhist terms, my nidana with this old temple must not have been strong enough until now.
As I write this article, a long-forgotten story comes back to me. When I was of elementary school age, someone told me that "Tongdo Temple's iron cauldron is so big that when they boil red bean porridge, they go in a boat and stir."
If the seven selected sansa, Buddhist mountain monasteries in Korea, including Tongdo Temple (together with Diamond Precept Platform), failed to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in June, I may have never visited the monastery.
On my way to Tongdo Temple two weeks ago by KTX train, I felt like I was visiting a long-separated close relative.
As is well known, the Three Jewels Temples are the three principal Buddhist temples in Korea, each representing one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism. Tongdo Temple represents the Buddha, Haein Temple represents the dharma or Buddhist teachings, while Songgwang Temple represents the sangha or Buddhist community.
Vinaya Master Jajang of the Silla Kingdom brought the relics, including part of the Buddha's robes, from China and enshrined them in the Diamond Precept Platform at Tongdo Temple in 646. This substitutes for an image of the Buddha.
The many beautiful structures, treasures and the natural environment of Tongdo Temple impress people with its ambience, which is possible only with time-honored depth and weight. But what amazed me more was the highest master monk of the temple. His disarming smile and quiet statements made me feel as if I really had come home.
Patriarch Seongpa, over 80 years old, was a born artist, with out-flowing talents and energy. He was test-producing silk prints using the ottchil (Korean lacquer) printing technique. The government awarded him the "2017 Merit for the Arts" for his contribution to the advancement of Korean culture.
Probably his most monumental achievement must be the 16,000 ceramic plates of the Tripitaka Koreana: 52cm wide, 26cm long and 1.5cm thick, each weighing four kilograms. He began the project in June 1991 as a sincere prayer for national unification. For more than 20 years, the master monk, five students and 20 engineers have devoted their bodies and souls to the endeavor.
Calligraphy, painting, pottery burning, lacquer art, textile dying and furniture design ― in all of these genres he is beyond an ordinary craftsman. He is also a poet of the Korean sijo genre and operates a competition to encourage people to write sijo.
One revelation on this visit concerned the role of a Buddhist temple. It is not only a collector, user and repository, but it can function as a creator and producer of artistic Buddhist heritage.
However, you need not go all the way to Tongdo Temple to experience these masterpieces. From July 3 to Sept. 30, a special exhibition titled "Full Buddhist Temple and Tongdo Temple" will be held at the Buddhist Museum at Jogye Temple in Seoul.
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is heritagekorea21@gmail.com.
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