With further hopes that the weather will turn decent, the ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY - Korea Branch will offer a one-day tour to the southern section of Sogni-san [Remote-from-the-Mundane-World Mountains] National Park, featuring Beobju-sa – Sunday Sept 3rd.
If you haven’t been there, this is a great opportunity — i can attest that it’s one of the most beautiful, photogenic and interesting places in the nation. The mountains are an amazing granite wall around the isolated valley, and Beobju-sa is one of Korea’s best temples to visit and most-important — one of the Top-20 on my list — it includes Korea’s only surviving five-story wooden pagoda and its largest standing bronze Buddha (Mireuk, B of Future Salvation). We should have time for a hike up to Munjang-dae Peak for those who want to. I will lead this tour with plenty of historical & cultural commentary, if enough people sign up. Leave Seoul Sunday morning, arrive back early that evening.
It’s w36,500 each, with 20% off for members — R.A.S. membership is very worthwhile if you’re at all interested in Korea. For more info and to register, see our homepage. Or call 763-9483 10~12 am or 2~5 pm, or e-mail: raskb@kornet.net
The RAS is ALSO offering a Rafting-Tour on the Dong-gang River on that SAME day! — it was rescheduled from today due to the thunderstorms — always a popular tour, for good reasons. So there’ll be some competition, rafting thru unspoiled beuty versus profound-temple-&-crags — such choices! Neither one will sell out, probably…
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Enjoy Korea’s templed mountains while you can, expats and gyopos. I missed them like crazy while I was in the flatlands of the midwest last year. Forested Appalachian ridges encircle my new home, an improvement in scenery, but still lacking the drama and contrast of the sharp peaks of Korea and eastern China.
I visited Songnisan in the fall; I remember that it was a good hike to the top, not too strenuous, and the bronze Buddha was beautifully framed by warmly colored leaves.
I look forward to seeing pics from the trip posted on the blog.
RAS took me to Songisan and Beopchusa in the winter of ’01 with a similarly worded description of the place. The park was great but the Buddha was wrapped in scaffolding and tarps, undergoing cleaning and repairs lasting a few years. I presume it’s visible now
I visited Songnisan in the winter of 2000: Nice temple with a Buddha Statue big enough to envoke thoughts of those gaudy Chinese kung fu movies.
The hike to the top is pretty easy (although I was in much better shape then than now). I went over the top of the mountain and ended up in Sangju. I don’t recommend that course since there is little of interest on the other side.
I visited Songnisan in the winter of 2000: Nice temple with a Buddha Statue big enough to invoke thoughts of those gaudy Chinese kung fu movies.
The hike to the top is pretty easy (although I was in much better shape then than now). I went over the top of the mountain and ended up in Sangju. I don’t recommend that course since there is little of interest on the other side.
Oops, double… uh triple post.
> I went over the top of the mountain and ended up in
> Sangju. I don’t recommend that course since there
> is little of interest on the other side.
Oh, i dunno, there’s SOMEthing… great scenery, the Osong
Waterfall, an alpine mountain-spirit altar famous enough to
be marked on the maps, and the fairly-spectacular newly-built
Seongbul-sa…
http://www.san-shin.net/Sognisan-04.html
Sanshinseon’s and Andy’s avatars complement each other nicely when they’re lined up together.
Oops, I clearly went down the wrong trail from the peak.
maybe so! tho i thought there was only that one….
Everybody — Call the RAS soon if interested in this Sogni-san
trip, as signups will close at 4pm on Thursday!
Sonagi (#6): How about now? Three old Korean dudes in a row…
Beopjusa is one temple I haven’t seen that I very much want to say, mainly for the 오층탑.
Now, if we could only get the Western Confucian to comment here, and we’d have 4 out of 4 variations on an avatar theme….
Three old Korean dudes? :b
Coda: unfortunately, this tour got canceled because too many people defected to the Dong-gang river-rafting tour, not leaving enough to justify a bus… Oh, well, we’ll just reschedule it for later in the fall, hope that more folks sign up for it then.
That’s a shame.
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