Buddha Land

Here is a famous Buddha statue in Cheonan.  We went mountain climbing Saturday and accidentally ran across a Buddhist service in progress.  It will be Buddha's birthday in a few days, and I think this service was for getting the statue ready for the big day.

I am no student of Buddhism, so, I can only guess what was happening.  After much chanting and bowing, monks started to be lifted up to the face by a lift truck.  They then began spraying water over it.  The lift bucket could only hold a few monks at a time so it made several trips to the top so all monks could participate in the washing.

In the meantime we walked up the mountain hearing the chanting the whole time.  When we came back down the "worshipers" were walking around the statue splashing water on it then bowing.
I was happy we ran across this since it was my first time at a Buddhist service.  Many were taking pictures so we joined in without disturbing anything.

I do not know the significance of the 3 fingers erected with the middle finger and thumb touching.  Nor do I understand the purpose of washing Buddha in some sort of baptism ritual.  Ironically, just as the monks began washing the face a rainbow suddenly appeared around the sun.  Awesome.  I can only imagine what the monks thought when they all looked up and saw the rainbow at that exact moment.  I am sure they must have seen it as a blessing from Buddha on such an occasion.  I thought little of it since I suspected it was only moisture in the high atmosphere creating the common effect (I doubt divine intervention from either side).  The timing could not have been more awesome for them I am sure.

This was my 3rd mountain to climb!  Our daughters, Jennifer and Julie, climbed this one when they visited a year ago.  This was an easy one compared to the other 2.  I climbed with 1 Vietnamese girl and one African girl from the Congo who speaks very little English or Korean.  Bonnie stayed down with the brother of the African girl.  We picnicked and enjoyed the beautiful day and scenery, including the rainbow phenomenon.

To the right worshipers are getting water pales to splash water on the statue as they walk around it on a special made platform for the occasion.  There were around 100 lay people with several monks in the service. 

Our Congo friends are very lonely, KNU international students since they speak so little of the language here.  Phuong has befriended them, and we all had a great time.  It was fun having to grab the Africans on the bus so they would get off with us at the stop!  Their names are very long and difficult to spell so I haven't tried in this blog.