Ahn Yang Am Temple in the Center of Metropolitan Seoul

This post is consisted of several ones I had wrote before.

Changsingdong is a very confused and retard area, even though this area is located in the center of Seoul metropolitan. Here, I saw an unexpected Buddhist temple. Actually this place seemed far from the resident area when it was built. As time passing, the sewing factories and the resident facilities for the workers had been built, and naturally the temple was surrounded by the factories and the small shops.

Buddhism seemed to be with the tired souls, paradoxically this place might’ve been the right place in the religious meaning of Buddhism for saving people.

There was the flank card to celebrate the birth of Buddha when I got there.

As passing through the gate, there was a grandiose rock at the side of the temple. Correctly speaking, the temple took a place at the food of the rock.

The existence of this rock looked like to tell this place was originally far from people’s area. This should've been a sacred place for a long time ago.

The main building of the temple, Dae Wung Jeon was decorated with colorful lanterns.

The inside of Dae Wung Jeon hall was also splendid with the lanterns.

The name of Ahn Yang means the Buddhist Paradise according to the Buddhist holly script. The last word ‘Am’ means small temple.

A Buddha relief was carved on the rock standing beside the temple.
It looked strange for a foreign women attending this tour with us.
She seemed to look at here and there for a while, and she looked very serious in front of the relief.

So I got closer to there after her leaving, as I’d not disturb her tranquility.
She looked so happy while standing there. I could read her peaceful mind on her slight smile on her face.

It was written this relief was carved at the very last period of Choson Dynasty. King and Royal family funded for this relief, in my guess they’d like to do everything to preserve their crown.
But regardless of their wishes, Choson Kingdom was fallen into the rule by the Imperialist Japan.

Interesting thing was the face of Buddha seemed to look after King Gojong who funded for this relief, in my guess.

While looking around the temple, I found out the steps on the rock.
So I climbed up and there I saw the nice panorama.
It was really nice, in such a large city of Seoul, it was not easy to enjoy this panorama.

There was a small place for the plants that monks seemed to cultivate.
In Buddhism, Working is very important mean for self enlightenment.
Many great monks were working on the field even at the very last moment of their lives.
There was a Buddhist saying “No Work, No food”

It was a surprise for me to find out the cave on the rock.
At first time, I though it was made for the religious reason to make Buddha Statue. But soon, I noticed this cave was made as a bomb shelter under the Imperial rule of Japanese.

The small Buddha statue was placed at the beginning of the cave.
I was curious what forced them to make this tunnel.

I walked into the cave, it was very well made.
The cave was not long, I could reach the other side of the tunnel and see the light. The light looked like a symbol of a hope in our lives. It was a really something.

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