A Korean friend told me about 쳔불쳔탑 Cheonbulcheontap at the foot of Heogulsan Mountain in Hwangmaesan, which is not far from us. Her pictures of the stone towers looked amazing, and I knew I had to go. What I didn't know at the time was that there is a Cheonbulcheontap that is a well known temple a bit farther away. It took some serious internet sleuthing and a lot of Google translating to find information about the Cheonbulcheontap that I visited and not the more famous Chennbulcheontap that I didn't visit.
The small side road up to the area is a one-laner, so we parked on the bigger road and walked up.
The word cheon /chone/ means thousand, bul /bull/ means Buddha, and tap /top/ means pagoda. Hence the name Cheonbulcheontap means a thousand buddhas and a thousand pagodas. Immediately you can tell why the name was chosen. I'm not sure why the guy picked a name that had already been used for a famous site, but it makes sense why he picked it. I didn't count to make sure there were 1000, but there were *a lot* of stone towers and Buddhas.
Perhaps the reason he used the same name is because the complete name is longer: Yongtap Rock for the Achievement of Wishes for Cheonbulcheontap.
A monk named Yongtap is bringing his vision to life with the creation of Cheonbulcheontap. Much like Tapsa Temple was created by a single man, this area is, as well. This is a fairly new creation, I think just a few years old, so Yongtap has had the advantage of using large machines to help him create the pagodas, unlike the monk at Tapsa. However, these stones are too big for people to lift, and the towers are much taller. It is pretty amazing how big they are and how they are precariously balanced and how many there are. I do not know how long Yongtap has been working on this, but it is still a work in progress. One website site stated that people came here to pray-in the New Year in 2019, so maybe that was the first New Years that it was up? Apparently there are plans to build a temple once the stone pagodas are completed.
Look how big these things are.
Quite often temples and other sites will have natural streams with cups for visitors to drink from. People used to share these cups and have a cold drink, but, Covid.
You can see cute little windows in most of the pagodas. Inside most of the windows sit little Buddhas.
There are several chestnut trees along the path. Here are the green nuts, freshly fallen. The brown shell has had time to die, and that is what the nuts look like inside. The shells are very prickly and pokey to touch.
This is a little wishing pond with lots of coins at the bottom.
Prayers were written on these when they were first added, but the elements have faded them. The color of ribbon is determined by your wish category: business achievement, health, good luck, love, money, family reconciliation, marriage, promotion, exams, depression resolution, rebirth paradise. A sign says if you save your dragon wish on your phone, when you look at it from time to time the bad energy will drop and you will be given good energy and strength to defend yourself.
This little purple flower was growing out of a large rock.
The stone-lined road resembles a dragon, or a yong, from the sky, as demonstrated on the sign. As I mentioned earlier, the monk creating this is called Yongtap. Yong translates to dragon and tap translates to pagoda; I don't know if monks get to choose their own name, but it would be a weird coincidence if that is his actual name.
This is called Wish Fulfillment Road. There is a box to leave a donation for your ribbon.
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| Ashlee, Linda, Trish, Laura |
Google translate wasn't totally clear, but one translation said this is Elephant Rock.
Here it is, shaped a bit like a triangle.
There were several coins people had stuck to the rock. Once again, the intent is that your wish will come true if you leave a coin in the rock.
Guanyin Bodhisattva is looking at Yongbawi Rock. This Buddhist bodhisattva is associated with compassion. "While practicing prayers at Heogulsan Mountain for many years, the Bodhisattva Gwaneum received a dream come true on the spiritual Yongbawi Rock which held all the energy of Heogulsan Mountain."
용바위 Yongbawi Rock, or Dragon Rock, is that large stone located on the right between the two prayer ribbons. It is believed if you touch Dragon Rock, it will bring blessings. First you pay a donation, and then you receive the energy from the rock as you touch it. After making a wish, you are to go home and correct your mindset by doing good deeds for a week. If you see a dragon in your dreams within a week, your wish will come true.
"It is the will of the Buddha to save others by building a thousand pagodas and connecting Buddhists who are related to each other who can enshrine the Buddha in the stone towers."
While I did not say prayers to Buddha nor add prayer ribbons, I did appreciate the hard work, skill and creativity of the Thousand Buddhas and Thousand Pagodas.
[ September 13]
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