Detour to Korea: Templestay in Golgulsa & Home of Sunmudo Templelife

I was finally able to take advantage of one of the many Buddhist templestay programs in Korea a couple of weekends ago. Not that I'm trying to convert or anything, but it seemed like such an interesting experience and has been something I've wanted to do for a little while. An ideal opportunity unexpectedly presented itself so I took advantage of it...

Gyeongju, GyeongBuk Province, is located in the southeastern corner of Korea and was capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – AD 935), which was ruled by 56 kings over 992 years, the longest period of any dynasty in the history of Korea. This bustling city, with over 2,000 years of history, was my destination to partake in my first templestay at Golgusa, home of the Buddhist martial training methodology call Sunmundo.

It was only about a 3 hour train ride thanks to Korea's phenomenal transportation network and then another 45min bus ride from Gyeongju to the temple. Korea has nearly 1,000 buddhist temples so it was hard to decide on which program to try out, but the martial arts background of Golgulsa was enough to put it atop of my list.

I checked around 4pm on Saturday and was given my clothes for the weekend and a key to my room. Given limited space and the popularity of the program, I shared a room with another English teacher who had been there several times already. It helped to have someone familiar with what I was getting myself into, and was also comforting to know that Golgulsa was doing something right if they have repeat customers!

Another draw of coming to this temple was the Martial Arts Festival that was taking place on the Sunday I'd be at the temple. It seemed like the perfect storm and there I was, ready to take it all in!

About an hour after arriving to the temple, I enjoyed vegetarian dinner, rice, vegetables and soup, and then headed up to the orientation at the main temple, a quarter mile up the mountain from the main gate. The highlight of the night was the Sunmundo Training we were able to participate on Saturday, led by one of the monks. Sunmundo, literally meaning “the way of doing meditative martial arts” is a combination of yoga and some basic martial arts moves (kicks, punches and defensive poses). It's amazing how much slow and methodical movements can wear you out.
Training lasted almost 2 hours and I was in bed by 10pm for lights out. I would need the sleep given the 4am wake up time on the schedule.

The last thing I wanted to do was be late for the 4:30am chanting service...if you can read the fine print, penalty for such a thing is 3,000 bows. I wish I would've gotten some audio of the chanting because it was kind of cool and parts of it had a good beat. After about 30 minutes of uncomfortable meditation, we did our slow meditative walk down the mountain where we were cut short because of the monks' festival preparations.

Later in the morning, we had tea with one of the senior monks and had a chance to ask him some questions about temple life, Sunmundo, etc. Even though a couple of the activities were cut short or didn't happen, what I was able to experience was enough for me! The temple grounds were pretty amazing too with it's highlight being a buddha carved on a large piece of granite high above the temple entrance.

Overall, it was a great experience and I'll probably try to do another, more authentic one before leaving. Golgusa is well worth the visit, along with everything else that Gyeongju has to offer. Enjoy a few more pictures from the trip and thanks for reading as usual!