By Greg Brooks-English
Contributing Writer
A group of dedicated foreigners is planning a project aimed at giving Korea an opportunity to improve its tourist attractions.
The ``Following the Footsteps of Wonhyo" project is to foster the worldwide trend for pilgrimage journeys and to give Korea an opportunity to improve what it has to offer both Koreans and foreigners.
The project consists of building a pilgrimage trail inspired by the journey of Wonhyo, a Korean Buddhist monk in the seventh century.
The idea of the project was raised in 2007 by a group of foreigners living in Korea. All of them were interested in Korean Buddhism as a way of achieving personal development and they wanted to learn more about the famous monk.
They started to undertake research on the journey followed by Wonhyo from Korea to China in order to study Buddhism. This journey was supposed to start in Gyeongju and to lead to Pyeongtaek, where he achieved enlightenment and where he decided to end his trip and stay in Korea.
The Wonhyo trail will serve as the basis for designing a methodology to build a range of pilgrimage trails as flagship tourist attractions.
A three-year project, it will be supervised by an international preparatory committee, composed of specialists in tourism development, spirituality, pilgrimage, Korean Buddhism and other pertinent areas.
1. The Wonhyo Trail, a flagship Korean tourism attraction retracing the route of Wonhyo, a Korean monk born in 661. It includes numerous temples.
2. A Modern Korean Canterbury Tales, a collective work by professional writers, echoing the spirit of the famous Canterbury Tales of Britian's Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, but in 21st century Korea.
3. The World Pilgrimage Trail Network (WPTN) Web site, an international web community for all pilgrims in the world.
Curiously, few people are aware of the exact path taken by Wonhyo on his journey and no one has yet come up with the idea of creating a pilgrimage trail.
That's what led to the group deciding to design a pilgrimage trail that would follow in the footsteps of Wonhyo in order to offer Koreans and foreign visitors an opportunity to be inspired and to discover the beauty of Korean landscapes while visiting Buddhist temples and hiking in the mountains.
As English-speaking foreigners, they hit on the idea that the pilgrimage experience could be promoted through writings from pilgrims, similar to the Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales tell the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who met in a tavern before their journey from London to Canterbury and decided to amuse each other by telling stories.
Thus, the group believe that Korea could form the head of a surging worldwide trend for pilgrimage and tourist expeditions to spiritual locations.