Taejongdae Park

Today we visited Taejongdae Park at the southernmost tip of Busan. It was somewhat of an adventure getting there due to some confusion with the bus system, and even more of an adventure getting back due to the fact that we thought we had figured the bus system out. We spent the afternoon walking around on a lovely path in the park, which was beautiful yet filled with snack bars. We resisted the snacks at the park, but once we got home we made a trip to the bakery to reward ourselves.

This dracula cookie is the closest to Halloween we'll get, unless we carve some Kimchi.

This was part of the vegetable garden near the monastery. In South Korea there is so little arable land that every available inch is used. Small plots of vegetables are often seen growing on the side of the road in the city.

A bell outside the temple.

A Buddhist statue in the garden outside of a small shrine. In the background is the famous curmudgeonly-looking Korean monk with the name we can't pronounce or spell right. We'll get back to you on this one. Update: his name is Dalma.

A bust of Buddha covered in moss and spiderwebs in the garden.

A statue guarding the path to a temple cemetery. Several memorial markers are visible in the background.

A small Buddhist temple.

In Buddhism, fierce-looking protectors guard the entrances to sacred spaces. Even though they often look evil, they are actually benevolent spirits who have taken on an evil aspect in order to scare away real evil. This one is ready to punch someone out.

And if the first protector doesn't get you, this guy will happily crush you with a boulder.

Three representations of San-Shin, the Korean mountain god, and his tiger companion. When Buddhism came to Korea, San-Shin was the most important god in the pre-existing indigineous shamanistic tradition. Buddhism absorbed many of the Korean shamanistic beliefs and today there are shrines to San-Shin next to all Buddhist temples.