Bongwon-sa Temple In The Rain, Seoul, Korea

The final course my friend guided me was the Bongwon-sa temple.
Bongwon-sa temple is little bit different from other ordinary Buddhist temple.

There are lots of kinds of Buddhist orders in Korea.
One of the largest order is Jogyeo order.They never marry.
Once monks or nuns don’t keep the principle of single life, they must be ousted from the temple.
Celibacy is very strict principle in Jogyeo order.

Unlike Jogyeo order, there exist Buddhist orders permit the marriage.
One of the most representative order is the Taego order.

Bongwon-sa temple is the headquarter of the Taego order.
Actually Korean Buddhism had been very strict in the marriage.

But during the Japanese colonial rule, Japanese Buddhism had influenced on Korean Buddhism.
So korean Buddhism should accept the marriage system by force of Japanese imperial rule.
In Japan, monk was a kind of the family business. Sons of Monks should be a Monk.
Sons had to succeed his fathers occupation.
It was an order of Japanese society.

But in Korea, Monk never have been a job, being a monk or a nun means throwing away all of personal relationship.
After the liberation from Japanese imperial rule, Korean Buddhism changed into the traditional Buddhism system.

But in some case, it was not easy to return to the traditional Buddhism system.
Some Monks had their families already.
They could not abandon their family.
So some orders in Korean Buddhism continued the marriage principle

Bongwon-sa is very old temple
It had been built for more than 1000 years ago. But it had been destroyed several times through history.

When we stopped by Bongwon-sa, it was rainy day.

The scenery of Bongwon-sa was exceptionally beautiful.
What I saw the first feature was the stupas of the venerable monks near the entrance of the temple.