Beauty of Boseoksa, harmony of nature and artifact.

Beauty is a relative thing.
Everything in the world has its own beauty.
You can find different beauty depending on your perspective of view.
Close observation and sensitivity are required to enjoy the beauty.
Through many travels, I recently learned that the most important way of enjoying the beauty of something is to accept it as itself.

The traditional temples I visited had their own particular characteristics.
Although they looked similar, with a close look, you could find the uniqueness of each temple.

Boseoksa was also a beautiful temple. Boseoksa means a temple of jewel.
According to the legend, Boseoksa was made of the gold, mined from the mountain near the temple, 1300 years ago. That’s why it was named as a temple of jewel.

The beauty of Boseoksa is a proper combination of nature and artifact.
Though buildings were not many nor particularly unique, the temple and the nature surrounding it harmonized very well.
If the building is too grand, then it blinds the beauty of nature. In the opposite case, the building is overwhelmed by the landscape.

In Boseoksa, I saw an old artificial pond.
It seemed as if it was formed naturally because the pond and the surrounding went well together.
Even if something looked very natural, with close observation, you could find out that it was touched by a human’s hand.

That mysterious harmony of nature and artifact made me peaceful in Boseoksa.
I saw some jangdogdae in the corner of the temple. Jangdogdae is a large bowl to keep and to ferment Korean traditional seasonings.
Korean use Jangdogdae because most of the Korean traditional seasonings need to be fermented.

Some old ladies came out after practicing Buddhist service.
I took pictures of them because they harmonized well with this temple.

The most famous thing in this temple is a 1000-year-old ginkgo tree.
it is about 20 meters high.
People hung notes written their wish on the tree.
I wonder what this ginkgo tree has seen through 1000 years.
Before entering the temple, I rested in a quiet place and enjoyed that moment.