Haeinsa Temple
There are places for which we have a certain afinity. When it comes to visiting Buddhist temples, my basic feeling is that if you have seen one, you have pretty much seen them all. However, for some reason I am constantly drawn to Haeinsa Temple. I have been visiting the place for 18 years. Every time I go there is a different feeling. Even though the scenery and buildings remain largely the same, i see and experience different things. I don’t know why, but Haeinsa is a special place for me.
After arriving at the entrance to Haeinsa Temple near Hapcheon at the foot of Kaya Mountain, it is a one kilometer walk to the temple. The walk begins with with a small stone bridge.
The majority of the walk is under a canopy of majestic trees.
One thing I find interesting about Haeinsa is the serious of gates and doors that you must go through to get into the main courtyard.
The first gate.
After the first gate is a long path leading straight to the main temple entrance.
A series of four more gates leads to the main courtyard.
The final gates leading to the main courtyard.
Haeinsa’s pagoda.
Doors.
Roof tiles.
The main attraction of Haeinsa is the Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete set of Buddhist text. The Tripitaka Koreana consists of 81,258 blocks are the equivalent of 6,791 printed volumes, and contain 52,382,960 Chinese characters…all carved backwards so that they can be printed from the wood blocks to paper.
After seeing the sights of temple, the perfect end to the day before heading back down the mountain is to turn around and look out over the temple rooftops.
