When I planned my trip to South Korea, I decided to create the whole plan around one experience: a one-night templestay experience in a Buddhist temple. I found out I could actually stay at Haeinsa, a UNESCO Heritage listed site, which made the experience even more special. This way I managed to get a behind-the-screen peek of the UNESCO site most people can only see from the outside, while experiencing the Buddhist lifestyle.

Haeinsa – A UNESCO Site

Haeinsa is located in the South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. It can be reached within approximately two hours by bus from Daegu. Daegu is the closest big city, which goes to show how beautifully remote this temple is.

The temple is placed on the UNESCO Heritage list because of the unique building which houses the Tripitaka Koreana. The building is unique in that no other historical structure was specifically dedicated to the preservation of artifacts and the techniques used were particularly ingenious. Don’t ask me what these ingenious techniques were; all I know is that it’s magical to walk around this facility in the early morning, especially since I visited an area which is restricted to regular tourists.

I, and the other templestayers, explored the inside of the facility, but not the inside of the buildings. This could endanger the Tripitaka Koreana. I was more than happy to wander around all the different buildings and see the blocks from up close. The Tripitaka Koreana is the world’s most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Hanja script. In total, there are 81,258 wooden printing blocks.

Haeinsa – A Templestay Experience

The above paragraph describes one reason I really wanted to visit this temple. The most important reason, of course, was the fact that it offers a one-night templestay program. You can’t influence the weather and the only two rainy days I saw during my stay in South Korea, were during the templestay. In a way, I think it gave the whole experience something more magical. Who doesn’t like a secluded temple in the mountains covered by a shroud of mist?

I arrived at the temple around 1pm. I took a taxi from the bus stop, because even though the surroundings are beautiful – I did go on foot on the way down – on a rainy day it’s no pleasure lugging a suitcase up the hill.

I went into the reception where I received my temple clothes. Then I was shown into the shared female bedroom. It’s basically a big room with floor heating, where one blanket can be placed on the floor and one blanket can be used to cover yourself. These rooms get warm, so don’t worry when it’s a cold day outside, I can guarantee you won’t be cold at night.

After a few hours of rest the templestay program started.

Templestay Program

Temple Manners
It all started off with a short video about temple manners. Visiting a Buddhist temple in such a way is completely new to me, so I tried my very best to comply with rules. I did my hapjangs, half bows & prostrations to the best of my abilities. I was also very aware of the position of my hands during walking. I notice that even today I hold my hands in front of my body when I’m walking.

Dinner
Dinner is supposed to be done in complete silence. It’s a very peaceful way to eat a meal. You can eat as much as you want, but you have to eat everything on your plate. I’m happy to say I managed this but that was mostly because everything is not too spicy and vegetarian, so I didn’t run into any strange meat dishes.

Evening Ceremony
Obviously, the most special thing about experiencing the templestay is to witness the evening and morning ceremony. It’s something you don’t often see when visiting a temple as a toursit. The ceremony starts with three monks beating a big drum.

Then we made our way to the temple along with the other monks to pray. We performed the half bows to the beat of the instruments. I’m not the fastest learner, especially when it comes to moving at a rhythm, but after a while I got used to the beat and managed to make the movements on my own. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the words so I couldn’t follow along with the chanting but even that was mesmerizing.

Making Beads
In the evening we sat down for an hour to make our prayer beads, which we could hold during the prostrations. There are 108 prayer beads on the chain, which is the same as the number of prostrations.

Bed Time
It was bed time at 9pm….

Morning Ceremony
… which wasn’t so crazy since it was time to wake up at 2:45am. The evening and morning ceremony are actually the same apart from the fact that the morning ceremony is incredible early. I can’t describe how special it is to see the dark sky turn into an early morning mist while the monks are drumming and chanting.

Prostrations
After the ceremony it was time for the much-dreaded 108 prostrations. I was struggling with the first thirty half bows, but then I got in a sort of flow. The monk had turned on a YouTube video which showed the sayings to which Buddhist perform the bows; after a while I got so used to watching the video and bowing down that I was actually surprised we reached 108 already.

Breakfast
Same as dinner, done in silence.

Temple Tour
The temple tour was the moment we went to the buildings housing the Tripitaka Koreana. How often does it happen that a monk shows you around a temple complex? Not to mention that it’s still early morning, and there are no tourists in the whole complex!

The monk didn’t speak english, neither did our translator to be honest, but it was so peaceful to walk through the temple area following a monk.

Tea Ceremony with a Monk
When the tour ended and we had said goodbye to the monk who had showed us around for the two day, we had tea with the head monk of Haeinsa temple. He spoke english very well, so it was the best time to ask questions regarding meditation and Buddhism.

That wrapped up the two-day templestay experience!

Conclusion

Most destinations have a few worthwhile experiences which you won’t be able to ever forget. For me some of the highlights were: Hiking the Great Wall of China; jumping off the highest bungee bridge in the world in South Africa; snorkelling with hundreds of fish on Bonaire; and visiting Meteora in Greece. This templestay can easily be added to the list. What a wonderful and special experience. I’ve heard that you can do it in Japan as well, so I’ll be sure to do it again when I get the chance!