Exhibition of Traditional Lanterns:
Bongeun-sa Temple Buddha's 2549th Birthday Celebration (2005)
The tiger painted on it was very neat looking too. |
I actually came to the exhibit twice. The first time, I came I snapped most of these photos. This is a lantern that they had not yet set up in the exhibit the first time I was there. It was still on the truck. |
Here it is lit up, when I returned to this place a week later. The little "petals" they scattered around and put in his hand were a nice touch. |
Here is another baby Buddha lantern. |
Here is a large lantern of the Buddha giving the sermon in the deer park. |
There were lanterns outside too. They had a lot of trucks delivering things outside. So, unfortuantely, they are in my picture too. |
Here are a couple more crane lanters. |
During the Buddha's birthday festivities, people will come to the temples and hang lanters for their families. Some are hung around the grounds like these, and some are hung up high in a large canopy and actually light up. I imagine they make donations to have one of the lit ones dedicated to their family. But as fas as I know, anyone who wants to can hang a non-lit lantern here for their families. |
This giant Buddha statue was really impressive. |
This area was so quiet. You could hear the bells ringing at the top of the statue. It was really peaceful. |
This plaque explains the hanging board on this building at the temple. |
here is the building in question. It's very old looking. They are actually building some new buildings for this temple. I have a few pictures of those too. They are not yet painted. |
Here are some of the paintings on that building. |
And here is the hanging board. |
Here is a view a bit further back so you can see the doors. |
There is a door cut into a small hillside here. I'm not sure what it's for, but I saw several others around the temple area. |
Here is another view of the building. |
There is a bell housed in this small structure here. |
Here are some of the lanterns all hung up for the fetival. This weekend marked the beginning of the festival so they were not completely set up yet. These lanterns lit up. They were actually plastic at this temple, and hung on a big string like Christmas lights. The tags hanging off of them have different family names on them. |
Here are some more lanterns. Some are very pretty. |
Here is a slightly closer view of the lanterns. These are more fancy than others. I imagine they are more expensive. |
This is one of the new buildings for the temple. It is not yet painted, but had some lines drawn on it for paint. |
Inside this building is a large drum and a big bell. The drum has a really nice painting of a dragon on it. I have more pictures of the temple that I took the following weekend in another section. |