Monday, May 24, 2010

A Visit to Chungnyeolsa Shrine in Busan

Friday I headed over to Chungnyeolsa* Shrine in Busan.  According to the pamphlet I got:
This shrine is dedicated to those patriotic Korean fighters who died resisting the Japanese aggressors during the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-1599).  The Japanese Invasion was an aggressive war which was designed by Hideyosi Toyotomi, who had unified the feudal domains of Japan, to satisfy his desire for expansion of territory and stability of political regime.
When is war and invasion not an act of aggression? In any case, the people in what is now known as Busan got their asses thoroughly kicked. At the end, women were even throwing roofing tiles at the Japanese soldiers and everyone died anyways. 

On to the actual visit.  The shrine is really peaceful and beautifully maintained. The hike up to the remaining fortress wall was closed off but I'm not sure for what as the only words I understood on the sign were 'no' and 'closed.'

I think I could only be more Korean here if those shorts were a mini skirt instead. But I digress. Doesn't the architecture strike as having a rather Chinese influence? It reminded me of structures that I saw in Beijing (though of course I can't remember precisely which).
'Hear me roar!'
Pretty view of the city from behind one of the gates.
 Taking advantage of the shade.

For 200won (less than 20 cents American) it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour wandering around.

*'Sa' means temple but the translation says 'Chungnyeolsa (Shrine)' and it seemed more shrine like than temple like so maybe 'sa' sometimes means shrine?


4 comments:

Kyle Crum said...

I know there is more than one Korean word for "temple", so maybe "sa" designates a certain type of temple?

Alex said...

That would make sense only I've seen 'sa' used for all of the traditional style temples. Maybe it just has two meanings depending on the context?

Rachel S said...

My favorite picture is of the men playing chess and the way that the picture tells a story.

Alex said...

Agreed. I took a bunch of pictures of them and loved them all.