Ganghwado (江華島) is the biggest island of the Ganghwa country (red) which is a part of the Incheon municipality (yellow). Previously I visited some parts of Incheon, including Yeongjongdo and Songdo. With area of 303 sq km, it is the 4th (among 3215) biggest island in South Korea. The population of the island is 65,000 people.
Ganghwado has a rich history, through thousands of years, carrying to us evidence of Korean culture. There are about 150 dolmen, a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or “table” ( the word dolmen is supposedly derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table).
The landscape here is flat making it exceptional because usually huge mountains showing up from everywhere, but here, the mountains are far away and hidden in the fog, making the whole picture like that of Ukrainian forest-steppe. I suppose these are the houses of the people who built dolmen.
Here is a dolmen, and a brain exploding theory about how could it be possible. The stones are really huge, but maybe these are light? Maybe, kimchi gives you power!
I am not sure about kimchi, but there are few plants associating exclusively with the island, for example, Ganghwa turnip, or yellow sweet potato. I must come back and try it.
The island is located close to the border to North Korea, the closest distance is 1.8 km. There is an observatory, Peace Observatory of Ganghwa, where one can observe North Korea. This, in general, seems strange to me, spying people like they are animals in a zoo.
The day I went there, the visibility was bad due to fog, so I didn’t see much North Korea.
The third biggest island in Ganghwa country is Seonmodo (43 sq km). The meaning of the islands name 席毛島 remains uncertain for me. I think the character 席 originally meant mat (a tight wicker rug made of straw, reeds, bast, etc.); then, this word became designating some places where the mat was lied, for example, a seat near a table (during dinner or a meeting), a place as a position of an officer, a banquet, a sail. The character 毛 means wool or feather. Then, considering two characters combined, 席毛 might mean mat’s wool. Actually, some “lumps of wool” met me near a convenience store. The cats were lying right on the tables and thinking “Why are you staring at me, I’m just sleeping here”.
One of the main attractions on Seonmodo is Bomunsa Temple 普門寺, located on Nakgasan Mountain 洛迦山 (267 m). The mountain is called after the Mount Potalaka (補陀洛伽山 or 普陀洛迦山), the mythical dwelling of the Avalokitesvara, said to exist in the seas south of India. Avalokitesvara, or Guanyin (Chinese tradition), is Buddhist Bodhisattva associated with compassion; another Avalokitesvara I have seen at Geumdangsa temple, Maisan, Jinan.
According to a legend, the Bomunsa Temple was founded in 635, during Silla. Once, a fisherman threw a net into the sea and caught 22 man-shaped rocks at once. The man was disappointed by the catch, he just threw the rocks into the sea. Then the man threw the net again, and the same rocks were caught, the man threw them into the sea again. After that, the man just went back home. That night, an old monk appeared in the man’s dream and said, that the rocks he caught are pieces of precious Buddha statue sent from the Kingdom of Heaven. The monk rebuked the fisherman that he threw the rocks in the sea, and begged him to bring the rocks to the sacred mountain tomorrow. The next day, the man picked up and moved the 22 (23) rocks to Nakgasan Mountain, as the old monk begged in the dream. When the man reached the Bomunsa Cave, the rocks suddenly became heavy and he could not move them anymore. Thus, the man thought that this is a spiritual place to enshrine Buddha.
Wabuljeon (臥佛殿), reclining Buddha, is an image that represents Buddha lying down. It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the parinirvana. The construction of this statue had begun in 1980 and was completed in 2009, the statue is 13.5 m in length and 2 m in height***.
The next destination is Ganghwa Jeonghab Resort, land luge track. Winding tracks lie on the hillside of the Gilsangsan mountain. Once you go up by a cable car, you can choose a track with different difficulty level to go down on a car. I am not used to the extreme, so, I was sliding down quite slowly comparing to other drivers who almost flew past me. I have tried two tracks and it was an exciting experience!
The next destination is Jeondeungsa (傳燈寺) temple. Jeondeng 傳燈 literally means to pass a lantern, which can be interpreted as to pass on the light of Buddha, or to pass the doctrinal torch from master to disciple. The temple proves the accordance of this name by an offer of Templestay programs for visitors to experience Buddhist culture. Even I got a chance to feel the culture, I was kindly invited to join a group of visitors to ring a bell during the evening mass.
It is believed that the temple was founded in 381, by a Buddist monk Ado (阿道) from Eastern Jin, who introduced Buddhism to Goguryeo. If it is true, then Jeondeungsa temple is the oldest temple in Korean Penisula.
Nearby the window of the temple, there is a poem written by a Chinese poet, musician, painter, and politician during the Tang dynasty, Wang Wei (王維, 699–759). It is hard for me to define the form of the calligraphy, because it differs from the small seal script (220 BC), at the same time, some of the characters have calligraphy similar to the calligraphy of Han Dynasty 漢隸, “無極山碑” (202 BC ~ 220 AD) and other are similar to the calligraphy of Qin State 秦系简牍文字 (897-206 BC). And again, just same as in the case with Deng Shiru 鄧石如 poem written in small seal script, the calligraphy style is much older than the common one used during the poet life (regular scrip). Nevertheless, with the help of the Internet, the characters were defined:
山河天眼裡 世界法身中
the homeland (mountains and rivers) in heaven’s gaze (heavenly eye), the world in Dharmakaya (one of the three bodies of Buddha).
One notable feature about the temple is a number of quite old trees. Some of them are 300, 400 or even 700 years old. Many generations of people were taking care of the trees to let us to feel the power of nature and reflect on fleeting human life.
It was a big trip around Ganghwa!
lezhok 