The Last Korean Road Trip: Celebrating Buddha’s Birthday in Busan

Welcome to the LAST leg of our final road trip! To recap: with a year to spend in South Korea, our goal was to see as much of the country as possible. We planned our last big road trip for the major holiday week of Buddha’s birthday. Making several stops, we covered some well-known sites we hadn’t visited yet: Songnisan National Park, Andong Hahoe Folk Village, and Busan, South Korea’s second largest city.

The weather during this trip unfortunately was not on our side. Indeed, this was hands-down the rainiest vacation we have ever taken, with significant rainfall on six out of seven days of traveling. However, our desire to see something in every major region of South Korea prevailed, and even when we were soggy we kept going! In our previous post, we visited many famous neighborhoods and sites in Busan. In this post, we visit temples of Busan, the perfect activity for Buddha’s birthday week. Each of these temples is accessible by Busan’s public transportation system.

Buddha’s Birthday

Buddha’s birthday is an important festival celebrated in most of Asia, remembering the birth of the historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha later became the Gautama Buddha and is considered the founder of Buddhism. In Korea, the celebration is called seokga tansinil (석가탄신일), meaning “Buddha’s birthday” or bucheonim osin nal (부처님 오신 날), “the day when the Buddha came,” and is both a religious and a public holiday. The day is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month of the Lunar calendar, so the date changes but typically falls somewhere in May.

The week leading up to seokga tansinil typically includes celebrations at Buddhist temples and the appearance of lotus lanterns all over many Korean cities. One of the largest events is the lotus lantern festival in Seoul called Yeon Deung Hoe (연등회). Unfortunately, for the past two years these activities have been dramatically scaled back due to COVID-19 concerns. Because we would not be able to see the lantern festival this year in Seoul anyway, we visited Busan and one of the most impressive temple lotus lantern displays in the country.

A Brief History of Buddhism in Korea

Buddhism originated in India and was introduced to China via the Silk Road in the 1st century CE. It then spread to the Korean Peninsula and subsequently to Japan. The religion first was introduced to the Korean peninsula in 372 CE, about 800 years after the death of the historical Buddha. It was not seen as a threat to the indigenous shamanistic religions in the region and in its early years was often blended with shamanist practices.

Korean Buddhism is a distinct branch in the Mahayana tradition, having developed its own line of thought distinct from the ideas that originally traveled from India. The Jogye and Taego Orders represent most of Korean Buddhism. Many Buddhist practices in South Korea focus on meditative prayer.

With the rise of Confucianism during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910 CE), Buddhist practices were outlawed in the cities and driven into the mountains. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to spend any length of time on or near Korean mountains without stumbling across a Buddhist shrine or temple. Only after many Korean Buddhist monks helped to end Japanese colonialism in the 20th century were Buddhists allowed to practice freely again.

These days, Buddhism is widely practiced in South Korea. According to the 2015 national census, at least 16% of South Koreans call themselves Buddhist. Countless more Koreans are influenced by the Buddhist philosophies and traditions that are deeply imbedded in Korean culture.

Beomeosa and Geumjeongsan

Established in 678 CE, Beomeosa (범어사) is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Buddhism in Busan. We were lucky enough to visit on the day before Buddha’s birthday, when colorful lotus lanterns decorated numerous areas of the temple, allowing visitors the opportunity to write a wish or a prayer that is then hung from a lantern. Practitioners also can give money to the temple to request that the monks say special prayers on their behalf. Often, offerings of coins, rice, fruit, wine, and even bottles of water are left at the temple shrines by those who have come to pray.

As is so often the case with Korean temples, Beomeosa is located on a mountain: Geumjeongsan. Legend has it that a golden fish descended from heaven and frolicked in a well on this mountaintop. Thus, the mountain was named Geumjeongsan, literally ‘Golden Well Mountain’, and the temple built on it was named Beomeosa, literally ‘Spiritual Fish Temple.’

Despite the rainy day and the resulting lack of views from the top of the mountain, we complemented our trip to Beomeosa by hiking Geumjeongsan. The mountain was eerily beautiful when shrouded in mist, making it worth our while to continue even as the rain soaked us through.

We were rewarded toward the end of the hike with a view of a unique site, Cheongnyeonam (‘Blue Lotus’) Hermitage. Its distinctive ring of bronze statues surrounding a golden Buddha invite worshipers to walking meditation on this quiet, wooded mountainside.

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Intrigued? You can see more photos of Beomeosa and Geumjeongsan here.

Samgwangsa Lantern Festival

The day of Buddha’s birthday dawned bright and sunny, so we got started early and headed straight to Samgwangsa (삼광사), right in Busan’s city center. Established in 1983 as part of the Cheontae-jong Order of Buddhism, Samgwangsa is a young temple by Korean standards. It is dedicated to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Gwanseeum-bosal, and is perhaps best known for having one of the most extravagant lotus lantern displays in the country for Buddha’s birthday.

With over 40,000 lotus lanterns hung throughout the temple grounds, the temple attracts many visitors during this important holiday week. The number and types of lanterns to see is so vast, it’s very hard to take it in, especially since the temple grounds are bustling with visitors and worshipers. We discovered that if you want to take a bus to Samgwangsa for the lantern festival, you must choose your stop and timing carefully. Even though we left early in the morning, we stood in a long line and were crammed onto a small bus trying to convey as many people as possible to the site. But wow – seeing this festival is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to get there!

Love this festival? You can see more photos of Samgwangsa here.

Haedong Yonggungsa, the “Temple by the Sea”

To see Haedong Yonggungsa (해동 용궁사), billed as one of the most beautiful temples in South Korea, you must travel to the outskirts of Busan on its northeast coast. Though this temple has about a 600-year history, it was renamed Haedong Yonggungsa, ‘Korean Dragon Palace Temple,’ only in 1974, when its head monk had a vision of the Goddess of Mercy riding on a golden dragon.

Situated between the mountains and Busan’s rocky coastline, it’s easy to understand why this temple is thought to be one of South Korea’s most beautiful. We must admit that on an epically rainy day, we were less than enamored with its charms. However, if you are able to catch a sunny day for your visit, we’re sure you’ll be more impressed!

Digging a rainy day? You can see more photos of Haedong Yonggungsa here.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations! You have completed our last Korean road trip. If you’ve been with us since last summer, you’ve made it all the way through our adventures in South Korea! While it’s possible we’ll decide to add to our adventures at some point, for now this is likely to be The Chemist and the Counselor’s last blog post.

We want to thank you all most sincerely for making this journey with us. Your companionship buoyed our spirits at times when we felt homesick or wondered why in the world we were spending all this time working on a blogsite? We have truly appreciated your encouragement for this project and your enthusiasm for learning more about Korea.

Our hope is that other travelers will continue to use this site as a resource for visiting or living in South Korea. Please don’t be a stranger. We’d love to hear from you and will be monitoring the comments on the site for a long while to come.

Happy trails to you, and here’s to many more adventures!