Buddha's Birthday - Lotus Lantern Festival

After a very nice dinner at the Maru Korean Art Dining at the great National Museum of Korea with colleagues I returned to the Jogye-sa Tempel area, just in time to the overwhelming finish of the Lotus Lantern Festival. Suddenly I dived deeply in a wonderland of colours and costumes and sounds. The whole broad Ujonggungno Road closed for traffic and open for the parade, wonderful moments everywhere. Please excuse so much photos.

One of the three Buddha statues in the mainhall of the Joge-sa, they are some of the largest bronce sitting statues ever cast in Korea.

The road Jogno 1ga becomes a large arena for a buddhist mass on a big stage

Tired

Buddha's Birthday - Lotus Lantern Festival, preparations at Jogyesa Temple

The Lotus Lantern Festival is held every year in April in honor of Buddha's Birth. The festival is preceded by hanging of lotus-shaped lanterns across Seoul for several weeks, and officially kicks off with lighting of the Jangeumdang, a large lantern that symbolizes Buddhism and Buddha's Birthday, at the Seoul Plaza. The celebration continues with a wide array of Buddhist programs and activities, before ending with an impressive lantern parade in the heart of Seoul. This year the parade was on Saturday the 26th and I went already afternoon to the Jogyesa Temple, one of the main preparation areas for the lantern festival. The other big preparation center is the Bongeunsa Temple. 

600-year-old white bark pine-tree

myeoungbu-jeon (judgement hall)

beopdang (main dharma hall), built starting March 1937 in one year and seven month

Macro - the small world

Herrliches Wetter am Oster-Sonntag, lange schlafen, bissl Bogenschießen und dann ein Ausflug in eine ganz kleine Welt mit meinem Canon EF 2.8/100 Macro.

Für Alle, die es bisher ausgehalten haben, noch ein bissl größeres Lebewesen.