Celebration of Birth of Buddha at Dongdaesa(동대사) Temple
Hi Guys, We are Team 'Red Writers' from International Student Supporters for Daegu Tourism.
The month of May is the most exciting month in Daegu, with lots of festivals to enjoy. Also it's a month when we celebrate the Birth of Buddha. Buddha, also known as Sakyamuni had his birthday celebration on 14th of May 2016.
There were celebrations in various parts of Daegu. Our Red Writers Team decided to visit one of the amazing temples of Daegu which boast of lighting 15000 lights to celebrate the birth of Buddha. The name of the temple is Dongdaesa Temple.
The temple is situated around 15 minutes walk (700m) from Damti Station(담티역) in Daegu subway line no 2.
We were guided by a line of pretty lanterns hanging like this. They were of different colours with the name of the temple written on them.
So if you don't know how to reach the temple, then just follow the line like we did.
Many of the lanterns carried the message of world peace.
After a while we came across an agriculture field where there were lots of vegetables planted.
Then after a little more walking we reached the Dongdaesa temple.
Two of my good friends from Ghana and Sri-Lanka were very excited to see the temple.
We could see lots of lanterns hanging inside the temple lawn.
I could not help myself from not taking a picture in front of those pretty lanterns. :) You can see how excited I am even before entering the temple.
This is my friend JoJo from Ghana~ He likes to be photographed. He loved the place too.
That's a very well maintained lawn where we could see the tents prepared to welcome visitors.
When you come across this signboard with the temples name on it, you can see a short path going inside the temple. Take that short path.
While you take that short path you can see this amazing pond decorated with lanterns and lights and floating balls.
Then we walked towards the temple. We were greeted very kindly by the organizers.
Some of the members of the temple were making Tteok (Rice cake, one of the special dishes of Korea prepared on special days)
It looked so delicious.
I really enjoyed it a lot. :) It was soft and tasty~ The powder which covered the Tteok made it more tasty. As a matter of fact the same is available in my country India. We call it “Saatu” in Hindi Language or “Chatua” in Odia Language. So I too started having a homely feeling.
The temple staffs gave us tasty Sikkhe. (its a Korean traditional sweet drink with rice in it). With the temperature soaring in Daegu, it is one of the cold and sweet drinks to look forward to.
The temple staffs then gave us fruits to eat. We were so mesmerized by their kindness towards us.
And the fruits were a combination of grapes, bananas, tomatoes (Koreans prefer tomatoes in their salads) and tasted real nice with yogurt on top.
In the front side of the lawn, a small statue of Buddha was kept. Devotees were pouring water on the small statues. That is one of the Buddhist rituals. I also did the same.
Then we went inside the temple to offer our prayers to Buddha. Actually Buddhism is divided into two type, one is Hirayana and the other is Mahayana Buddhism. Korea has mainly Mahayana Buddhism(대승 불교) where they worship the statue of Buddha. This is the photo we took inside the temple.
After the prayer we were offered Bibimbap. Yet another food of Korea in which rice is mixed with vegetables.
This is how they served us and other visitors.
The Bibimbap looked like this. The vegetables were not purchased but self grown by the temple staffs. So the taste was unique.
You normally mix your Bibimbap just like this. I took some time in mixing it properly before eating.
Then we went outside to explore the place. It looked so beautiful. It was also getting darker.
We took some pictures while sitting on the lawn under the lanterns. :)
Then we went near the dragons at the other corner of the field. They were two equal dragons. Some of the technicians were working on the fire discharging machine installed on the dragons.
My friend was also excited. He also played football with the kids.
We also went around the pond area to explore the natural scenery around the temple.
We saw a natural river flowing there. We also saw some people fishing there.
There was also a road for hiking on the mountain nearby. We wanted to explore that too but we didn’t have the hiking shoes. So we decided to return back to the temple.
By that time the lights were starting to glow. We could see the name of Dongdaesa temple from the lawn.
I was pretty much interested in taking a picture of myself standing in front of it. :)
The dragons were also glowing with different colours of light.
They started yielding smokes and fire, just like the mythical dragons which we know about.
I was very attracted by the blue dragon. It may be because of my favorite colour being blue but anyone can agree to me about the beauty of it.
People were also sending the Lamps to the sky.
We really wanted to be at that place for some more time but we were already getting late for another appointment. So we decided to leave the place but taking away the incredible memories with us.
Thank you Buddha for making our day.
If you happen to be in Daegu and want to experience the temple culture, then do visit Dongdaesa temple. Hope Team Red Writers was able to inform you about a new and exciting place to visit.
So with this we are signing off. See you again very soon with another exciting thing about COLOURFUL DAEGU.
※ Location : 15min walk from Damti Subway Station
664, Gomo-dong, Suseong-gu, Daegu
