Departing Seoul and Last Reflections

The last day in Seoul! I spent my last day in South Korea experiencing the things that most Korean girls would experience on a Saturday away from school. I got up early and packed things ready to leave for the next day. The flight was going to be long; my in-flight bag was broken and decided to buy things to keep me entertained for the flight. I went and had breakfast in a cafe just around the corner. I desperately needed a new bag for the flight. I went to Myeongdong to buy a bag. Once I finished shopping, I had the last Korean Meal in a self-service restaurant in the centre of Myeongdong. I was quite sad that it was probably the last chance to ever experience Korean food, and made the most of it by eating quite a lot!

After the meal went to the cinema to watch Inception. As a cinema employee it was almost a nice bridge between being in Korea and being at home. The cinema was very big (6 floors) and the cinema screens were very big. The Inception was screened in English with Korean subtitles.

After the film was over, I grabbed some snack foods for dinner and headed back to the guesthouse. With my team, I discussed how the trip had gone, sitting in the park just behind the guesthouse. We all had really enjoyed this once in a lifetime opportunity. We felt we had experienced a lot of different aspects of Korean life. Although stressful at times, the experience taught us a lot about the Eastern culture and its values. If we had another opportunity we would have gone again and may have done things differently. We would not give up a chance to explore South Korea once more.

Commentary by Lydia Braisby
3rd Year Study of Religions

Shamanism at Work: Women in Trance

August 2010, Gyeongju, South Korea
While we were in the British Council funded education abroad programme in South Korea, our team spent nearly a week outside Seoul in the ancient capital Gyeongju and stayed at the Dongguk University's sister campus. Because of a friendship developed with Dr. Deegalle, Mr. Truman Kim, a professional tourist guide, guided us through beautiful spots in Gyeongju and surrounding areas for a few days.

Mr. Kim showed us many great places in the coastal areas of Gyeongju. On one of our short trips we went to visit the beautiful traditional temple of Shilla on Ham Wol Mountain called Ki Rim Sa. The drive up to the temple was long serpentine road curving through the beautiful, rugged forest hills. Once we had finally reached the top we were up for another climb by foot. Finally we reached the top and a beautiful area unfolded in front of us. We walked around admiring the architecture of the area, its beautiful gardens and ancient buildings. The temple there grows vegetables and tea. We were offered tea that was prepared and served in traditional Korean way.

After the visit to the temple Mr. Kim took us to a beach by the sea of Japan. This beach was rather quiet. We witnessed Shamanist women performing Shamanist rituals. That beach is known for such Shamanist practices. Some of them were very close to the shore line sitting on a blanket and others a bit further away on an elevated platform. They were all facing towards the sea, in pairs or alone with plenty of different kind of offerings (fruits, sweets, fish, etc.) scattered around them. They were playing drums and chanting continuously. It was fascinating to watch their trance like state into which they seemed to have got in successfully.

Commentary and Photos by Maija Rautemaa
3rd Year Media Communications and Creative Writing

Aromatic Korean Dishes

Before leaving Korea, Min Ju, my host family guide, gave me a couple of very easy Korean recipes to try at home. (a) One of the recipes was for making the Korean ravioli also known as Man-doo-guk. Man-doo-guk is popular as a New Year’s Day food. It is served with rice cakes.

(b) I learnt to make Bi-Bim-Bop. To make Bi-Bim-Bop, one needs rice, vegetables, beef or chicken (can be Vegetarian also), sesame oil and red pepper paste (Go-chu-ang). They can be mixed in a hot bowl. This was one of my favourite dishes in Korea along with the South Korean barbeque.

(c) I also received a recipe to make ‘Baek-suk,’ a well seasoned Korean-style chicken soup. For this a whole chicken is stuffed with ginseng, milk and Chinese Pearl Barley. It can be seasoned if desired. It needs to be boiled for 50 minutes until chicken is cooked and becomes tender. It can be served with plain rice. The water used for cooking the chicken becomes the soup. It can be seasoned with salt and pepper.

Commentary by Zaina Budaly, 2nd Year Creative Writing
Photos by Dr Mahinda Deegalle

Our Visit of Korean Churches in Seoul

I was lucky to receive the British Council Grant and be part of the Bath Spa team that visited Dongguk University for studies in Summer 2010. I took the opportunity to do things that I liked to do in Korea.

Before my arrival in Seoul, I expected to see a completely different form of Christianity. To my surprise, there were only very few and minor differences. Though Christianity is newer to South Korea, the tradition still remains the same. To a greater extent, it exists in harmony with Buddhism.

On 27th July, some of us visited several churches. Our first destination was Myeong-dong Catholic Cathedral. The cathedral was situated at the top of a small hill in the middle of the city, amongst busy shops and restaurants. An English speaking Korean woman, who was handing out leaflets about the service we wanted to attend, greeted us. An Irish priest led the mass in English. The church was so big. There were plasma TVs mounted on pillars for all to see the service. Once the service was over we were able to take photos of the Cathedral and walk around. We didn’t have long time as people were beginning to fill the church ready for the next service.

After the lunch break we visited the Seoul Anglican Cathedral. The architecture of the building was very Romanesque and grand. The service that was going on inside the church had been recorded and played on loudspeakers. Although the service that we attended was conducted in Korean, we learnt from one of the regular churchgoers that there was an English mass every Sunday morning.

We finished our day of exploration by visiting the Catholic Martyr Museum. We expected to see a building full of information about the numerous Martyrs who died during the times when Christianity was introduced to Korea. To our surprise, the museum in fact turned out to be mainly a shrine. There was a large and beautifully kept garden full of statues and pictures of Korean and European Martyrs. At the centre, there was a monument, which we could climb in order to get a closer view of the river running by just the other side of the road.

Lydia Braisby
3rd Year, Study of Religions
8th April 2011

Students Encountering War

In Seoul, we visited many places. Our visit to Seodaemon Prison stands out as a powerful experience. We learnt about the history of war in Korea; we heard a lot of narratives of innocent being imprisoned. We saw prison cells and their reconstructions. The atmosphere was sad but full of admiration for those who suffered.
Commentary by Caroline Quin, Year 2, Study of Religions
Saturday, 25 July 2009
We visited War Museum and looked the war memorial and were really taken aback. We could not believe how many soldiers (USA/UK) died helping Korea. It was really shocking to see the names up there. Commonwealth countries and neighbors had helped fight against the North. We were stunned by the names of Koreans who died; the names just did not end; it was frightening.

There were huge statues of brothers hugging; apparently one was from the North and the other was from the South. It was sad to look up at their embrace and imagine how war can tear families against one another.
Commentary by Angharad John, Year 2, Philosophy and Ethics
Photos by Dr. M. Deegalle

Bulguksa, Seokguram and Gyeongju: A Student's View

20 July 2009

We spent two nights in Busan. Then we travelled to Gyeongju, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, known as "the museum without walls," which is my favourite part of the trip away so far.

The landscape was beautiful, for starters there are no skyscrapers and all the buildings reflect a traditional Korean style. Roofs of the buildings are similar to the ones in temples and palaces. The rest of the landscape is paddy fields and other agriculture set against a backdrop of mountains. I will definitely come back again; it was the kind of landscape I had been hoping to see. The area holds a lot of sites of historical or religious importance.

We visited Bulguksa temple here which was great before heading up the mountain (in a car) to see the famous Seokguram Grotto which holds one of the national treasures, the Sakyamuni Buddha statue (mid-8th century CE) within a cave. This was indeed beautiful.

From the car park, we took a short walk through the forest before heading up to the Grotto. First we reached a small temple on the way. As you look up from there, you can see the temple style entrance to the cave nestled in the mountain. On our way up it was pretty misty so it looks really mysterious and extremely atmospheric. The statue I expected to be bigger in some ways and it was protected behind glass, but I can easily imagine being there with no tourists and nothing covering the entrance of the cave and just sitting next to the Buddha watching out over the mountainside!

Commentary by Helena Stokes, Year 3, Creative Writing and Media Communications
Photos by Dr. M. Deegalle

Temple Stay in Angharad's Eyes

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Ding, ding, ding, BANG BANG BANG, BOOOOOSSSSHHHHH

That is what woke me up at 2.30 a.m. A monk was going round temple buildings with a bell, chanting Buddhist sutras and playing a wooden ritual instrument. My three-hour sleep was bizarre mainly due to the fact that we were sleeping in a temple, on the floor in Korean temple style. Everyone was getting up. I put my stuff away into the locker and went to the main temple with other girls and started our prostrations and prayers. We had done mantras and full prayer prostrations for about 20+ times. Then we were ushered out into the courtyard. We were arranged into pairs and one by one went up to the temple bell tower. We were given the opportunity to slam a huge piece of wood into a massive bell. It was really quite loud and meant to call the monks and nuns to prayer. I tried to bang it as loud as I could but the piece of wood took me with it and my attempt was quite feeble. I walked with the others up to main temple and we began to recite mantras and prayers again. I felt really faint as this was about 5 a.m.; we had not eaten or drunk; we had to keep getting up and down. This was for an hour or so; we were lucky as we had a nun in front of us; we just imitated her the entire time.

After morning prayers we got back to the main hall; we were greeted by the most awesome monk ever who had this tinkle in his eye. He taught us this really fun meditation; he spoke in such a way that we did not need a translator. We were shown some Buddhist self-defence using the international guy as 'a bad man'. We also did some crazy exercises that made everyone laugh, like swinging our arms, doing some sort of Judo-Ballet combination; it was just too funny. I wish we had filmed it. Afterwards he let us meditate' by lying on the floor and closing our eyes. We did this novel meditation practice for an hour; we had free time afterwards.

The big dong rang again for breakfast; we all hurried to find...Babimbap. I had some rice; I was told it was bad to waste any. It was really annoying as it had these horrible beans in it. I also had some water and tea. Caroline had the same; afterwards we washed our plates out the back and said thank you for the meal.

Commentary by Angharad John, Year 2, Philosophy and Ethics
Photo by Dr. M. Deegalle