Admittedly, this was a tough day. We got up early just to immediately bus out an hour to the Seoul KTX (Korean Train Express) Station where we spent another two hours on the train, after which we spent another two hours bussing to Golgulsa Temple. It was rough on all of us, and unfortunately, not everyone on the trip is used to travel times this long. By the time we made it to the temple, many of us were miserable and those that weren’t quickly had their moods brought down by the general negativity hanging about the group.
Finally arriving at the temple, we began our first activity, which consisted of sitting still for an extended period of time while watching the Temple Monks demonstrate Sunmudo. Because naturally, the best thing for a group of 22 cranky teenagers over 10,000 miles from home to do after 5 hours in transit is to immediately sit still for another hour watching people do (really cool) contortion acts and martial arts for another hour without complaining. Spoiler: there was a lot of complaining.
That’s not to say the experience wasn’t interesting, however. As one of the lucky(?) few who’ve made similar trips many times in the past, the whole transit experience didn’t affect me too much and I truly enjoyed today’s experience. The Sunmudo demonstration was extremely fascinating for me. One of my closest friends in high school competed in Karate tournaments at the international level, so I’ve seen many different kata and demonstrations, and I found the comparison between the different martial arts interesting.
After the demonstration, one of the temple’s monks walked onto the stage and began a series of stretches that bordered on calisthenic exercises. A majority of the stretches had the monk either folding herself into a pretzel or completely lifting herself off the ground in a handstand while contorting her body every which way. It was a seriously impressive display of both strength and flexibility as she made every gravity-defying feat look easier than breathing.
After the demonstration ended, we were all given half an hour to move into our accommodations and attempt to freshen up before participating in our own Sunmudo training with one of the temple assistants. The entire experience was very entertaining. Having the chance to participate in the historical culture of Korea firsthand was a wonderful experience, allowing us a rare opportunity to experience a new culture and its origins for ourselves. I loved the experience, and I will admit that I’ve never felt as limber as I did after our Sunmudo training session (no matter how sore my joints are, now).
Finally, we ended the day with a special demonstration the temple prepared for the two tour groups passing through wherein three of the temple staffers performed three different traditional performances: a drum dance, song on strings and vocals, and a fan dance. Attached beneath are photos of all three. I loved the entire experience, and I’m excited for the next day’s events!
Oh yeah, there were also wild boars in the mountains, so there’s that. Long story short, we couldn’t go out at night and sightsee at risk of being gored by boars, so seeing the stone Buddha at the peaks will be a tomorrow activity.