Doseon Sa Tour Part 2 - Entrance to the Temple

So, today we continue with the Doseon Sa tour.

Today I will explain the entrance to Doseon Sa Temple

One interesting thing is that the temple entrance is also an entrance to the Bukhansan National Park.

Bukhansan National Park holds the Guinness World Record for the most visit park in the world!

This place is visited by 6 million people per year!

Most of these are Koreans who want to hike at the Bukhansan Mountain or the Dobongsan Mountain.

In Korea, Hiking is the number 1 sport or, hobby, here… they love it!

In Dubai, on the other hand, my number 1 hobby was to eat fast food and watch 4 Simpsons episodes re-runs every weekend… :-D

However, for some reason I gain a little bit over 10 kgs in the last year alone (D’oh!)

I look forward to shed some weight here… maybe I’ll give this hiking thing a try sometime…

So, anyways, this is a map to the park in general (we are at the lower right):

Overhere, you can see the gate, guarded by four gods, representing the four directions.

The north and the south gods: To the right is the north god (the symbol of death) and to the left is the south god, holding the peril of wisdom:

They were portrayed after the scariest thing an 8th century  man could imagine……… A MOGUL COMMANDER!!

Yes… the Mogul were true to their reputation  at that time too.

And below are the gods of east and west…  Now, imagine you’re a simple farmer living in the 8th century and you see the scene those part-of-four coming to the temple...????

This was supposed to make you “good” once you reach the inside…

 

Of course, try THAT with a kid today who has seen Saw I, II and III before he is even 10… ! 

I doubt even such a 3D effect might work on him!

Kids today…