ROK #3: Religion in Korea

Buddism takes up an important part of the Korean culture. There are more than 9000 temples and 11 million followers.

In Seoul we found a whole road dedicated to Buddhism where colourful lotus lanterns, monk clothes, prayer beads, Buddhist writings, drums, incenses, music for meditation and so one is well represented. It is a kind of weird browsing through these shops, but in a fun way.

On this road is also located one of the few temples in Korea that is not located in the tranquil mountains. This temple, the Jogyesa Temple, is the centre of Zen Buddhism in Korea.

The main temple building, is about 500 years old and colourful decorated. The lotus flower is one of the most common used symbols in Buddism as it stands for awakening to the spiritual reality of life.

Many people prayed and meditated in front of the great Buddha statues while we were there. We chatted with a friendly Korean guy who told us that he had learned about the Danes, Grundtvig and Dalgas at school, and we talked to one of the people working at the temple, about the upcoming lotus lantern festival and the temple stays. Both could be cool to take part of one day.

Our final stop down the road of Buddhism for now was at the restaurant Sanchon. A former monk started this restaurant which serves vegetarian food mostly made of ingredients from the mountains and inspired by the temple life. Temple cuisine emphasis on fresh vegetables and herbs reflects a tradition of Korean cooking of closeness to the nature. That evening we had more that 20 different dishes ranging from the Korean traditional pickled cabbage to different roots and mushrooms.


We also tasted the home brewed wine, which were quite different than any wine we have ever tried. So were the colour and the decanter.





Religion is not really taking up a big part of our lives – but after a couple of days in Seoul, you cannot help feeling a bit more spiritual.