Category: Uncategorized

St Columba, Osan-Semadae

Sun 25 Sep 2022, Day 13/61. St Columba, Osan-Semadae is unusual in the Korean Anglican Church. Sunday services are eucharists, with robes, authorised liturgy & familiar ritual. But their prayer meetings are full of the sound of praying and singing in tongues.

Doing things differently

Sat 24 Sep 2022, Day 12/61. People might be surprised by the amount of time taken up in some English parishes managing the proper burial of ashes (or ‘cremated remains’). A short tour of the Anglican church in Suwon revealed a rather different approach.

Thomas Tallis sung in Korean

Sat 24 Sep 2022, Day 12/61. I couldn’t miss this. Thomas Tallis – and others – sung in Korean at Choral Evensong in Suwon’s Anglican Church.

View from the top of the hill fortress

Fri 23 Sep, Day 11/61.. A great panoramic view from the top of the hill of several nearby cities, including Osan, Suwon and Dongtan.

A video showing the view of local cities from the top of the hill fortress

Bojeoksa Buddhist Temple

Fri 23 Sep, Day 11/61. The Fortress is also the location of the Bojeoksa Buddhist Temple. We were offered refreshments as we arrived.

Inside Bojeoksa Buddhist Temple
Inside Bojeoksa Buddhist Temple

Semadae: ‘A place for washing horses‘

Fri 23 Sep, Day 11/61. The historic hill fortress, Doksanseong, & its Command Post ‘Semadae’ (‘a place for washing horses’): invading Japanese were apparently fooled into thinking defending troops had plenty of water when they poured rice over their horses.

Korea’s dolmens

Thu 22 Sep 2022, Day 10/61. 40% of the dolmens (single-chamber megalithic tombs) in the world are on the Korean peninsular. I visited nearby examples in Osan. They’re mostly underground, so also here is a picture (by Taewangkorea) of one at Ganghwa Island.

Photo by Taewangkorea of a dolmen on Ganghwa Island. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Like 4.0 International Licence.

King Sejong & Chojeong spring water

Wed 21 Sep 2022, Day 9/61. Whilst King Sejong was still creating the new alphabet, he developed an eye infection and so stayed at the Chojeong mineral spring, which we also visited. The most refreshing spring water I’ve ever tasted.

Unbo, King Sejong & the 10,000 won note

Wed 21 Sep 2022, Day 9/61. Unbo’s image of the country’s most revered King, Sejong, 세종 (1418-50), is used on the 10,000 won note (around £6.50). Sejong the Great, as he is known, created the Korean alphabet, Hanguel, and his statue is in the heart of Seoul .