I finally made a trip out to the temple yesterday. The site is fairly large, and is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. I copied some of my original write-up and paired it with a small profile on Omcheonsa, another temple in Gangjin that I'll be blogging about shortly, for the upcoming issue of Gwangju News.
Nammireuksa is out in the middle of nowhere. Here's the street leading up to it (facing the other way). There is a small village next to the temple, but I didn't wander through it.
Buses do go toward Nammireuksa from the terminal in Gangjin-eup. They are bound for some of the tiny villages in eastern Gangjin county and will drop you off at an intersection 700 meters away from the temple. The site is kind of split into two sections: there's the half with the huge statue and the two large pagodas, and then there's the half with the various prayer halls. After you pass the elephant statues at the gate, walk down the path and bear right to visit the various halls. There are hundreds of small stone deities along the way, and another few hundred elsewhere around the site. Practicially everything on the grounds is brand new, which gives it a kind of tacky look, as if they went out to one of the stone masons you'll see out in the country and just bought one of everything. The stupa and statues are shiny and white, and the paint on the halls is colorful and vibrant. Inside the halls the decorations are a bit gaudy compared to what you typically find in Korean temples. There are tons of gilded dieties, and the main hall (대웅전) has a fairly large (gilded) reclining Buddha, a (gilded) multi-headed deity, and a (gilded) mural along one wall. There are also protuding dragon heads along the ceiling. So it does look a bit . . . much, and defies the Western stereotype we have of the unassuming, self-sacrificing Buddhist. As if any temple that builds a 36-meter-high Buddha would be confused with austere. But, hey, foreigners who visit temples in Asia aren't really looking for austere, and it should be said that at least the stuff at Nammireuksa is sort of unique, and doesn't resemble every other temple in the country.
The area leading up to the statue.
I'm not just saying this to cover my inadequacies, but I don't think it's a site that photographs well. The placement of the trees, buildings, stupa, and statues means it's hard to get a decent shot. Trying to photograph an entire building or statue, for example, meant backing up into some immovable object or other.
The area between the two halves of the site was filled with crumbling bulidings, boulders, building materials, and . . . trash. It was very strange. The statue is huge, as 36-meter-high statues are wont to be, and is lined along the bottom with prayer wheels and reliefs. There are statues popping up all over the place, and there are mantras (I'm assuming) carved alongside the stairs. There are two giant pagodas in front of the statue.
They pipe Buddhist music into the gates and halls, but other than that I didn't see or hear any evidence of inhabitation until I was just about to leave. One of the residents chatted with me a little and gave me two free calendars. As I was leaving I did see another interesting site: two caged turkeys.
Original post:
I'm in the process of profiling some of Gangjin's notable people and places. Earlier entries were on "Gangjin: Its People and Their Places" and "Gangjin's temples, part 1: Baekryeonsa, Okcheonsa, Yongmunsa."
Seated Buddha at Nammireuksa, April 2007 (stolen from here).
One of the more interesting places is Nammireuksa (남미륵사, 南彌勒寺, map) in Gundong-myeon. It has what is among the largest sitting-Buddha statues in the world. At 36 meters high and weighing 670 kilograms, the statue is the largest Buddha in Korea. It is 3 meters taller than Beopjusa’s standing Buddha, and 6 meters taller than the figure of Jesus standing over Rio de Janeiro, though roughly half the size of the Leshan Buddha in China, and a mere toddler next to the 152-meter-high bronze Maitreya planned for Kushinagar, India. You’ll see Nammireuksa’s statue from the highway on your left if you head from Gangjin to points east, like Jangheung, Boseong, Suncheon, and Yeosu.
Brass Seated Buddha (stolen from here).
As the statue was finished in 2006, Nammireuksa is still off the beaten path. Few foreigners know about it, even fewer have been there, and it doesn’t even have an encyclopedia entry on Naver. The temple's head priest has high hopes for it, though, saying that the statue will make the temple one of the region's representative tourist spots, and will revitalize the area and its people. Others have told me, though, that people sneer at the expensive (10 billion won) and gaudy donation magnet.
The statue depicts Amitabha (아미타), "the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia," according to Wikipedia.
(Stolen from here.)
Photos of the statue’s construction are available here, and there are a bunch of photo albums available through a Naver search, including this and this.
Other points of interest at the temple are prayer wheels, pagodas, stone elephants, and springtime flowers.
Pagodas in front of the large seated Buddha (stolen from here).
Elephant statues at the gate (stolen from here).
It is, according to Naver, a little over 11 kilometers away from Gangjin-eup, the main town in the county, and a taxi there will cost a little over 8,000 won. The telephone number, should you need it, is 061-433-6460.
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