Busan: Two Elegant Ladies in the Mountain

I will always remember March 31, 2010. Although it was raining the whole day, the experiences and encounters were out of the ordinary.

We had just come from Tongdusa where I had one too many events of coincidences, and found ourselves in another famous temple, Beomosa.

Given the weather, Beomosa appeared deserted. There was no other visitor in sight. We had not expected to find an information booth, much less a guide.

Will this be a quick walk through an old temple? Well, no.

There IS an information booth. There were two elegant ladies in there, and yes, you may have a guide, in your preferred language, no charge. Unbelievably lucky we were! We each armed ourselves with an electronic guide, like an ipod, and made our way through the temple.

Somehow I was not as at peace as I was at Tongdusa. Not sure why, perhaps the views at Beomosa did not feel as open or expansive as those at Tongdusa, or perhaps I was tired. If I have any impressions of Beomosa, it was the electronic guide and what happened at the information booth after we visited the temple.

I enjoyed the recording on the electronic guide very much. It is very well done – not only the contents, but also the music that go with them. In particular, I remember the story behind the words “下马” (coming down from a horse), carved on one of the columns near the entrance to the temple. I remember that “suffering and enlightenment are the same”, that was a profound and an eureka! moment. I remember most, if not all, of the process one goes through in search of enlightenment (depicted by pictures of the cowherd and the cow on one of the walls). There is also background information about Buddhism and you can replay any section as many times as you like. Really, the recordings are very well done.

By the time we returned to the information booth to return the ipod, we were cold and tired, and I felt badly in need of a hot shower. Lo and behold! Hot tea and rice cakes waiting for us! How little acts of thoughtfulness turn a cold day warm, instantly. These elegant ladies are volunteer guides, but it is clear that they love what they do. With that kind of enthusiasm and passion, I imagine they turn every encounter into indelible memories for the visitor, like what they did for me. We spent a good hour in the little booth eating and yakking away.

Because I did not get to see cherry blossoms on this trip (they blossomed late due to the unusually cold weather), one of the ladies sent me this beautiful photo of a fully blossomed tree, through Kim. How very thoughtful and sweet.