Buddha's birthday was, as expected, an extravaganza and a visual and aural feast. It offered some surprises too.
The L:il Buddha was ready for an adventure.
We hiked over the mountain behind our apartment to Bongwonsa. It was an ideal day for a hike weatherwise, and it was cool walking over the mountain with the faint sounds of celebration coming up from the temple.
First we passed the gold Buddha above Yonsei, which was decorated with the lotus lanterns and had some friendly old ladies who were, of course, smitten with Lark.
Then it was up and over the mountain. Lots of people were out hiking and also picknicking in the woods all over the mountain.
The temple complex had a lot more people there than usual, although it was not crowded. Many of the buildings that are usually closed were open, so we were able to see into them for the first time. I have posted pictures from this temple before but here are some of the things we haven't seen before:
This is a picture of Skye on the upper part of the temple grounds, with the 3000 Buddha hall behind her. Note the guy with the camera on the right, taking a picture of me. He followed us around for about 30 minutes, taking pictures. I am carrying the lil Buddha in a carrier on my back, and he seemed really interested in her. After the first 10 minutes it got a bit weird. After 20 minutes of his hot pursuit all over the temple complex we were a bit perplexed. But we were the only westerners there, so we must have stuck out.
Here is the fountain of baby Buddha. If you pay a bit you get to place a stick of incense in the burner and then bathe the statue three times (maybe for Buddha, Dharma, Sangha? I need to look this up)
And here is Skye bathing the baby Buddha.
And here is the camera guy taking her picture as she bathed the baby Buddha. See what I mean? --A little strange.
Actually, there were a lot of people taking pictures of Lark.
So it was a nice time there at the temple. There was a samulnori band playing too, all women
(I think this is properly described as samulnori, but it may be p’ungmul. I am a bit dim on the difference, and need to consult my Korean ethnomusicologist friends on this...)
We walked out of the temple complex and then followed other similar noise. This led to one of the craziest experiences we have had here.
Following the sound we curled up the hill through the narrow streets and onto a large wooded area surrounding some kind of abandoned facility. I don't know what was there, but it was the kind of place that kids usually hang out and drink. This was kind of the same thing, only everybody was older. There were hundreds of people eating, drinking, dancing, and playing music. And everybody was very, very drunk. Even by the standards of bluegrass and old time music festivals at home in the U.S., this was an astonishingly drunken and riotous event. Actually, the comparison is pretty good since this really did seem like a rural music festival even though it was happening at this post-industrial site in Seoul, likely, rough, very real and very fun. Wild.
here was the walk in:
This being Seoul, there were of course people set up with little kitchen stands selling food. Much to drink, cases and cases of soju stacked all over. The milky stuff is, I think, makkoli, which is a rural alcoholic drink. I've never tried it.
We saw people unable to continue standing and many people careening around.
This old guy had some kind of white sticks glued beneath his eyes and toothpicks forced up from his bottom lip to his nose. He looked completely insane. Click on the picture, you can see it better. I couldn't get a clear shot of his face, but when I was dancing he came out and danced in front of me for a time. Maybe putting a hex on me, who knows.
There were several of these samulnori drum bands playing, the sound was cacophonous. The different bands blended and bumped into each other. Hard to tell what beat exactly the dancers were following, since there were a lot. There was a woman in the middle with a great, careening voice wearing Lightening Hopkins-style shades and singing into a microphone. I couldn't get a clear picture of her, you can hear her voice in the footage below.
Here is a video which gives some idea of the scene. ( The quality is low, sorry, it is off my little camera). If you look in the middle you can see a woman so drunk she can't stand. The guy trying to help her eventually got fed up and kicked her and walked away. She sat and cried for a time, eventually got back up, and started dancing again. She was still crying.
here is some more. The gong constantly going just drove it all forward and surrounded you, it was extremely disorienting and very fun.
I got pulled into the dance, as were Skye, her sister (who is visiting).
It was either dance or drink soju, which, if you have drunk soju, you know only leads one way and one way only.
I eventually had to stop taking pictures because a drunk old timer got extremely mad at me and I didn't want to further agitate him. I was wearing Lark on my back, and as the dancing got crazier and a lot drunker and people really started grabbing at her we got out of there. I can't really guess what it was like once it got dark...
We walked back toward home and came across yet more bands and jams setting up all over the place and more people pouring up the road to the neighborhood. The party was just getting started.
In all ways it was like a festival at home, except these were all percussion jams rather than string jams, and so incredibly loud. The tunes had no real end, each led into the next, musicians dropped in and out, and there seemed no limit to the numbers of people who could be involved. Only one gong per jam, that seemed to be set.
The whole feeling was like on the edge of control, I have never experienced anything like it.
(and wholly different from the feeling back at the temple, to say the least).
This band was fantastic. The footage only relies a bit of the energy of their playing.
We hiked back home on the straight path skirting the mountain. There we found that a beekeeper has suddenly set up 60 hives. I was really happy to see the bees, I miss being in a beeyard. Now is this an auspicious sight for Buddha's birthday, or what?
Since this is so close to the house I am hoping that I will get a chance to meet up with the beekeeper and see how his hives are set up. I can already see that the equipment he is using is a bit different (some kind of ventilation tops?)
We capped off the day by going in the evening to Jogyesa, which was, as expected, enormously crowded with people at a huge service, and as colorful and as beautiful as it gets.
The L:il Buddha was ready for an adventure.
We hiked over the mountain behind our apartment to Bongwonsa. It was an ideal day for a hike weatherwise, and it was cool walking over the mountain with the faint sounds of celebration coming up from the temple.
First we passed the gold Buddha above Yonsei, which was decorated with the lotus lanterns and had some friendly old ladies who were, of course, smitten with Lark.
Then it was up and over the mountain. Lots of people were out hiking and also picknicking in the woods all over the mountain.
The temple complex had a lot more people there than usual, although it was not crowded. Many of the buildings that are usually closed were open, so we were able to see into them for the first time. I have posted pictures from this temple before but here are some of the things we haven't seen before:
This is a picture of Skye on the upper part of the temple grounds, with the 3000 Buddha hall behind her. Note the guy with the camera on the right, taking a picture of me. He followed us around for about 30 minutes, taking pictures. I am carrying the lil Buddha in a carrier on my back, and he seemed really interested in her. After the first 10 minutes it got a bit weird. After 20 minutes of his hot pursuit all over the temple complex we were a bit perplexed. But we were the only westerners there, so we must have stuck out.
Here is the fountain of baby Buddha. If you pay a bit you get to place a stick of incense in the burner and then bathe the statue three times (maybe for Buddha, Dharma, Sangha? I need to look this up)
And here is Skye bathing the baby Buddha.
And here is the camera guy taking her picture as she bathed the baby Buddha. See what I mean? --A little strange.
Actually, there were a lot of people taking pictures of Lark.
So it was a nice time there at the temple. There was a samulnori band playing too, all women
(I think this is properly described as samulnori, but it may be p’ungmul. I am a bit dim on the difference, and need to consult my Korean ethnomusicologist friends on this...)
We walked out of the temple complex and then followed other similar noise. This led to one of the craziest experiences we have had here.
Following the sound we curled up the hill through the narrow streets and onto a large wooded area surrounding some kind of abandoned facility. I don't know what was there, but it was the kind of place that kids usually hang out and drink. This was kind of the same thing, only everybody was older. There were hundreds of people eating, drinking, dancing, and playing music. And everybody was very, very drunk. Even by the standards of bluegrass and old time music festivals at home in the U.S., this was an astonishingly drunken and riotous event. Actually, the comparison is pretty good since this really did seem like a rural music festival even though it was happening at this post-industrial site in Seoul, likely, rough, very real and very fun. Wild.
here was the walk in:
This being Seoul, there were of course people set up with little kitchen stands selling food. Much to drink, cases and cases of soju stacked all over. The milky stuff is, I think, makkoli, which is a rural alcoholic drink. I've never tried it.
We saw people unable to continue standing and many people careening around.
This old guy had some kind of white sticks glued beneath his eyes and toothpicks forced up from his bottom lip to his nose. He looked completely insane. Click on the picture, you can see it better. I couldn't get a clear shot of his face, but when I was dancing he came out and danced in front of me for a time. Maybe putting a hex on me, who knows.
There were several of these samulnori drum bands playing, the sound was cacophonous. The different bands blended and bumped into each other. Hard to tell what beat exactly the dancers were following, since there were a lot. There was a woman in the middle with a great, careening voice wearing Lightening Hopkins-style shades and singing into a microphone. I couldn't get a clear picture of her, you can hear her voice in the footage below.
Here is a video which gives some idea of the scene. ( The quality is low, sorry, it is off my little camera). If you look in the middle you can see a woman so drunk she can't stand. The guy trying to help her eventually got fed up and kicked her and walked away. She sat and cried for a time, eventually got back up, and started dancing again. She was still crying.
here is some more. The gong constantly going just drove it all forward and surrounded you, it was extremely disorienting and very fun.
I got pulled into the dance, as were Skye, her sister (who is visiting).
It was either dance or drink soju, which, if you have drunk soju, you know only leads one way and one way only.
I eventually had to stop taking pictures because a drunk old timer got extremely mad at me and I didn't want to further agitate him. I was wearing Lark on my back, and as the dancing got crazier and a lot drunker and people really started grabbing at her we got out of there. I can't really guess what it was like once it got dark...
We walked back toward home and came across yet more bands and jams setting up all over the place and more people pouring up the road to the neighborhood. The party was just getting started.
In all ways it was like a festival at home, except these were all percussion jams rather than string jams, and so incredibly loud. The tunes had no real end, each led into the next, musicians dropped in and out, and there seemed no limit to the numbers of people who could be involved. Only one gong per jam, that seemed to be set.
The whole feeling was like on the edge of control, I have never experienced anything like it.
(and wholly different from the feeling back at the temple, to say the least).
This band was fantastic. The footage only relies a bit of the energy of their playing.
We hiked back home on the straight path skirting the mountain. There we found that a beekeeper has suddenly set up 60 hives. I was really happy to see the bees, I miss being in a beeyard. Now is this an auspicious sight for Buddha's birthday, or what?
Since this is so close to the house I am hoping that I will get a chance to meet up with the beekeeper and see how his hives are set up. I can already see that the equipment he is using is a bit different (some kind of ventilation tops?)
We capped off the day by going in the evening to Jogyesa, which was, as expected, enormously crowded with people at a huge service, and as colorful and as beautiful as it gets.
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