Tongdosa = salvation of the world through mastery of truth.

Tongdosa Temple is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. This temple dates back to 646 CE, and the monk responsible for it’s start is Jajang. This temple plays an important role to the Buddhism influence on the Silla Dynasty.

We packed up and headed on the motorbike leaving Busan in the late afternoon. The weather in Busan has been extremely hot for mid September. After a nice cool wave, no one has welcomed the humidity & heat back. Thankfully for our adventure the weather held it’s self together for one more cool day.

It was over 40 km from the outskirts of the city to the temple grounds.

Our plan was to go behind the temple area and find a place to camp. Friends had told us it was super beautiful back there and we could renegade camp beside the river.

Motorbikes were not allowed inside the grounds. We had to walk about 2 miles past everything, and at that point we were quite hungry and eager to build a fire. We found a spot just off the road, but somehow surrounded by dense woods. We had the creek at our backs and plenty of rocks to build a nice fire pit. After a day of rain I was amazed at the fire that ensued.

There was a strong magical presence in this part of the woods.

We took a late night walk after a delicious curry & rice + hotdogs & the fixings. This walk didn’t seem real. The moon was intensely bright, and lite the way. We discovered fields of kimchi pots, and some caged peacocks. We walked around in a Korean traditional complex. This was magical because normally you would be with others admiring it’s structure, but at the hour and environment in which we found ourselves, we were alone. We managed to do all this without waking the monks.

[the magic also took over my camera, and produced these eerie and beautiful photos]