MY BULGUSKA TEMPLE STAY EXPERIENCE

All of my life, one of my dreams is to visit a temple and see the huge golden Buddha statue, i had that opportunity when I visited Korea.
I experienced temple stay at the Bulguska Temple.

This article was first posted on Kfriends Facebook by me , and has been updated and posted here with more information and to reach more audience.

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The temple is located in North Gyeongsang Province ,Gyeongju, Korea. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, the temple has amazing architecture and is very peaceful .

My templestay began with my arrival at my templestay accommodation on the 8th of November 2023, where i was given the official temple cloth. After settling in and changing to the temple wear, the coordinator of the temple stay explained the rules and etiquette of the temple, how to walk in the temple, how to greet the monks, what we are expected to do at the temple which includes prayer, bowing and doing prayer bead.

Also in the evening of my first day I learnt the history of the temple, ate dinner, watched people pray and bead but I did not join, I was just fascinated to watch.

After the evening prayers, I went back to my temple stay Hanok residence and made videos, explored the area. The accompanying was like that of the kdrama houses and was super amazing, i learnt how to lay the traditional bedding style and slept so well.

Making my bed in a Hanok during temple stay

The second day of Temple Stay

In the morning of my second day, we woke up as early as 5am and prepared to go the temple to have breakfast , a lot of us were still sleepy, but it was an amazing experience because I got to see the early morning sky, the moon and experience nature . We then did a small morning walk exercise to the cafeteria Kitchen/dinning room

Alina and I , experiencing our shock of how early it is

When I got to the cafeteria dinning room, I was a bit confused as the only thing that looked familiar was rice , kimchi,seaweed and fruits. The fun part about this trip is the fully experience Korea, Korean food and Korean culture, so i was excited to try out new things.

The Food Buffet at the temple cafeteria, image by me

I had breakfast at the temple cafeteria, I decided to go with something light since it was so early, went with rice , Kimchi and 3 slices of fruit.

After we had breakfast, I decided to follow and watch people meditate, pray and finish their prayer bead, then also did some exercises .

Meditation and exercise, image from Korea net YouTube

After a while of watching them, I decided to go and watch the sun rise and then I explored the temple environ , all these and more I did. It was an amazing experience

Done with the Temple, we had a forest walk and also visited the Seokguram. Seokguram is a UNESCO world heritage site, subscribe to my website and YouTube so you don’t miss anything.