Gakwonsa Buddhist Temple

I already posted these photos on Facebook but I figure I'd post here as well for those of you who aren't on Facebook. Yesterday I spent Liberation Day at Gakwonsa Buddhist Temple, which is a large temple complex to the northeast of the city. It was super easy to get there - I just told the cab driver where I wanted to go and $10 and about 30 minutes later we were at the temple.

There was a bus full of tourists all sporting these purple shirts but otherwise it was surprisingly not very crowded despite the holiday and nice weather.

I'm a sucker for Asian architecture and this place certainly delivered. Really ornate carvings adorned every single building and were lavishly painted with rich colors.

At the front of the complex is this huge two-tier pavilion with giant columns. On the second floor is a massive bronze bell. This whole structure was completely gorgeous.

Here you can see the main temple building at the top of the complex with its back to the forests of Mt. Taejosan to the east of Cheonan. I'm not sure why it is that the most beautiful parts of Korea that I've seen have these big tacky banners all over the place, but it still was very beautiful.

Here's a view of the main building from the side, along with that smaller building just to the left above. The amount of detail in the architecture is just astonishing.

Here is the giant Buddha statue just next to the temple complex. I think it's stone but coated in bronze. It's completely gigantic - about 50 feet tall. Supposedly it's the second largest Buddha statue in Korea.

There were loads of these paper lanterns in racks with prayers tied to them.

The path up the mountain behind the temple was lined with these piles of rocks that I guess worshipers had left as shrines.

We found this shrine further up the path.

All of the temple buildings are covered in a huge variety of colorful carvings.

The inside of the main temple building. I wanted to take a few more pictures of these huge golden statues and the interior architecture but there were a lot of people (mainly older women) praying so I didn't want to bother them or ruin the atmosphere by taking too many photos.

Testing the macro mode on my phone camera on a lotus flower just outside of the main temple building.

Relaxing on the steps up to the main building after walking the mountain paths for a while.

There was a sign on the stairway that led up to the top level of that bell pavilion that probably said "KEEP OUT!" or something like that, but the "I'm just a dumb foreigner!" card could easily been played had we needed it. No one said anything though so I guess it was ok. Anyway, behold the giant bell.

More ornate painted carvings, including these dragons overlooking the bell.

View of the complex from the top floor of the bell pavilion.

View from another courtyard.

One last look at the temple nestled in the mountains before we headed back into the city.

I will definitely be returning to this temple, especially once the fall colors start coming in on the trees. It will probably also be very beautiful with some snow on the ground in winter.