Show written fortha paper COREAN BUDDHISM copyrighted by frank G Ca carpenter menter 1895 SPENT A nig night lit last spring in the biggest buddhist monastery of corea it w was as founded eleven h u n dred years ago and corea had B bu u d d h i s in while J a pan p an was still worshiping the sun goddess of shintoism the fact is that japanese buddhism came from corea this was about five hundred years be fore christ when one of the corean kings gave gave a golden buddha to the mikado he popularized the religion and japan was soon filled with buddhists monks and nuns the religion became popular and today japan is one of the great buddhist countries of the world corea on the other hand has sunken into barbarism it is the land of infidels and superstitions the buddhist religion which was waa so strong in the past has fallen into disgrace and until lately the priests were not allowed to come in in to the city of seoul there are no buddhist temples in seoul and there are not a great many over the country the chief center of religion is in the eastern part of the peninsula and the monastery which I 1 visited is one of the richest and largest in the world it had hundreds ot of acres of forests connected with it it owned vast estates and it had buildings or temples which made me think of those of japan it was made the imperial monastery about one hundred years before the discovery of america the founder of the present corean dynasty was born near it and was taught by one of its priests the result was that when he became king about five hundred bears years ago he favored this monastery he gave it imperial rank and its priests have been getting fat off of presents ever since this man ma planted some trees along the road which which leads to the temple and I 1 rode through these on my way to the monastery they are immense immense pines almost two hundred feet in height and opposite them stand stone tablets commemorating ina this great monarch there is an ol 01 old prophecy in corea which states that the present dynasty will be destroyed in the five hundredth year ef cf its age it was just five hundred years ago that this king lived and the corean rebels who have tried to break in the government this year believe that they are carrying out this prophecy and that the present king will be the last of his line HUNDREDS OF PRIESTS I 1 found the country surrounding the monastery filled with priests they line the roads they are at work in the fields you see them loafing in the woods and they fairly swarm about the temples they wear yellow gowns and their hats are much like inverted butter bowls they come down over their heads so that you see only their noses and their chins and they all walk with long staves they do not get much attention from the people and they are not respected as they are in other buddhist countries those I 1 met were densely ignorant and it seemed to me they knew very little about their religion they are very superstitious and I 1 saw signs of this everywhere at the en tr nce ance to the monastery there was a big gate and on each side of this stood a row of f totem sticks carved with hideous faces like those which you find outside of each corean village these are supposed to be guard against evil spirits and they aid buddha in protecting his own we passed through them and went for several miles along a well kept road through a beautiful pine forest the grass of which was studded with flowers along one side of the road a mountain torrent rushed over a ragged rock singing the praises of buddha as it pushed its way toward the pacific ocean on the other side hills rose almost like mountains and the ride was one of the most picturesque that I 1 found in corea the forests belonging to the establishment are beautifully kept and some parts of the grounds make you think of an english park rather than one ot of the wildest sections of one of the most backward countries on the globe there were rustic bridges in temple like resting places here and there on the way now and then we passed a cemetery filled with tablets in memory of the holiest hollest monks of the past and all of ous our surroundings were filled with the beauties of nature SLEEPING WITH THE MONKS some of the gorgeous priests in their butter bowl hats hais met my party atthe at the gate and general pak my interpreter sent our servant along in advance with my letter of introduction from the king of corea with orders to the chief priest to prepare a proper entertainment lor for me when we arrived at the temples however pak found they were going to put us in a small room this did not suit him at all and he led me through court after court until we came to the biggest temple of all ht he stalked with stately tread right into this and spoke in grandiloquent tones to the crowd of priests lying about he scattered them this way and that and we soon had a hundred monks flying about trying to fix up the place for my recep tion the room was one hundred feet square and among those in it at the time we came were fifty priests who were eating their supper general pak moved them all to one side and then pointed to a place near the wall he fie told me that it was there that I 1 was to spend the night my resting place was right under a big golden statue of buddha in front ot of which bowls of incense were burning the room was twenty feet in height aud great lanterns hung from the ceiling there were drums and gongs here and there for the waking up upa of the gods before praying to them and there were mats scattered about upon which the priests slept later on i A TALK WITH THE CHIEF PRIEST while we were getting dinner the chief priest the highest buddhist in corea came down to see me he was a man about fifty with a head as bald as bald as a billiard ball and a complexion like that of a well beaten drum head he was withered and wrinkled but his little black eyes twinkled out 1 of I f their buttonhole slits and he was affable and pleasant he squatted on his heels on the floor for a time and then chev upon my asking him to take dinner with me he sat down cross legged and we dis cussed matters while our aged rooster was cooking I 1 had a good variety of wines with me and I 1 offered the chief priest a glass of champagne at first he refused but upon general pak telling him it was not like corean liquor he gulped down great swallows rubbing his stomach the while as the spark ling liquid sent a warm glow through his veins the truth is h he e finished the bottle right there and general pak made him a present of it there is no glass in corea and the chief priest considered this a magnificent gift lie he bumped his head on the mats before me in response to it and after this there was nothing in the whole establishment which he did not offer to us I 1 asked him some questions about his religion he t told old me that buddhism came into corea from china and that about years after christ the first buddhist monks came from that country I 1 spoke to him about the revival of his religion in japan and of the movement which is there on loot foot to send buddhist missionaries to corea in order to bring back the country to its old faith but he did not seem to have much interest in the matter and he was more intent upon watching the getting ot of the dinner than in in talking ot of buddha he ate with wooden chopstick sand he seemed to like my aly rice and chi chicken cicen soup very much As soon as we were through as politely as possible pos I 1 signified to him that I 1 would like to lie down and be at rest I 1 had been riding since six in the morning on a razor backed pony over a very rough road and I 1 was almost tir tired out the comeans do not use beds night clothes are practically unknown and the most of the people sleep on th the bare floors which are as hard as stone general pak had however a lot of old rice bags brought into the temple and spread out on the floor I 1 supposed they would clean out the hundred odd monks who were in the temple and give me a chance to sleep alone and I 1 waited some time for them to move they gave no signs of doing so and at last in despair I 1 asked general pak for a screen he brought half a dozen and with these we made a little fence about my rice bags and undressing I 1 wrap ped myself in my blanket and soon god dropped off to sleep A MIDNIGHT SERENADE about midnight I 1 was awake awakened ned by bv a horrible horlib e din A hundred gongs were sounded two score of bells were ringing and there were the beating of drums and the clapping of hands and a pounding of one piece ot of wood upon another I 1 rose to my feet and looked over the screen about thirty monks were still sleeping and forty others were trotting here and there through the temple on their way to prayers A brawne priest was pounding on a gong near my head and another w was as ringing a bell it at the foot of my bed I 1 stood and looked on for there was no use trying to sleep amid such a noise this lasted nearly an hour and then the priests slowly resumed their cuddled positions on the floor and the corean snore up took the place ot of the gongs and the bells I went back to my rice bags and had ju just lie 1 dropped off to sleep when the gongs and bells began again I 1 looked at my watch it il was 4 a in and the day was just dawning the morning prayers had just begun and this effectually effectual iv stopped further rest AMONG THE NUNS after br breakfast I 1 took a walk over the and I 1 met a number of the mon toon estry buddhist nuns these were the liest women I 1 have their heads are shaved ever seen and the women I 1 saw had faces as wrinkled as the leather ot of an allega alligator or satchel and they neade made me think 0 ot t the he idiots I 1 have seen in our state asylums they live apart from the monks in quarters of their own and they are little respected by the re people ople I 1 found none class comeans had much to oi of the high do with the monks or the priests and they hey were looked upon more as a set of ignorant drones than anything else the monasteries are travel resorts of the people and many excursions are taken to visit them more to admire the beautiful scenery by which they are arehur sur rounded than anything else the comeans are fond of the beauties of nature and on every fine day you may see scores of them wandering through the hills about the corean capital and writing verses and poetry inspired by the sight when the trees are in flower they have picnics under them and the beautiful parks of the country are as well known as those of switzerland are known to europe the gentlemen often have poetry parties at which they compete with each other in writing verses on the spur of the moment on certain subjects and they are very strict in matters ot 0 etiquette more ot of them believe in confucius Con lucius luclus than in anything ing else and their culture you know all comes from china just outside of seoul there is a massive buddha carved t of stone with a little temple above H but it has few worshipers and the aly temples in the corean capital are confucian QUEER COREAN superstitions I 1 found the coreana superstitions in the extreme and I 1 met evidences of this everywhere the trees which we passed at the loot foot of the mountains had piles of stone about them and general pak always picked up another stone and threw it on the pile he told me that in those trees lived the gods of mountains and that if we did not do them honor by giving them a stone they would work us great harm nearly every house had a magic charm tied about it in in order to keep out the spirits and professional sorcerers are called in in at funerals to drive oft off the demons these are usually old women who have a very curious curious dance and who whirl about in the street tor for hours in order to keep off the evil ones I 1 saw several table rocks on my trip across the coun try which are used for sacrifices in in times of epidemics and one immense stone of this kind about twenty feet square I 1 was told saved the country irom from smallpox the comeans believe in in astrology they have their lucky days and their unlucky days and they think that the spirits hover about them and work them good or evil at the crossroads cross roads I 1 often saw straw effigies effi gies which I 1 was told has been made by men as a guard against evil diseases in such straw men are hidden pieces of money and the party who make them sey say a prayer over them asking that they be delivered from all diseases and misfortunes for the next twelve mon hs they then give them to the boys who tear them to pieces to find the money the more the figure is torn the greater the efficacy of the charm the comeans consider nine to be a lucky number and they have all kinds of ram rain prophets and dream signs COREAN CHILDREN I 1 found many boys im m this big corean monastery mona mon siry astry they were studying to be priests and the chiet chief priest took four of them and p posed 0 sed them in order that I 1 might have their pictures taken they were bright little lel lows and they went over the prayers ot of buddha quite glibly not knowing what whal they mean the children lorm form one of the most interesting features of corea they are bright and good natured and very polite they tagged at my heels wherever I 1 went and gave the chief amusing features ot of the whole trip in summer children under six wear little mure mura than a little jacket which comes just down below the armpits arm pits they eat great quantities of raw turnips and pumpkins and the whole of baby corea may be said to be potbellied pot bellied the children have all kinds games and they delight in in the flying of kites their kites kite are made differently from ours they are square in shape with a hole as big around as a tin cap in tae middle they let out the string by a reel and they have kite fights they use great skill in this amu amusement bement and two rival kites will fight like live things hundreds ot of leet feet in the air air each one of the fighters tries to entangle the other kites to 10 break their string and crag a rag them down to the ground the greatest time is during the new year holidays and the men as well as the boys have their kites GAMBLING IN COREA the comeans are fond of gambling but the laws provide that t there here shall be no gambling except at funerals lune rals and then only among the friends ot of t the e de ceased I 1 his makes the dead man very popular and all who have any claim whatever to friendship or relationship with him appear at the funeral the ceremony usually lasts for days and is a kind of a cross be the african hoodoo show and an irish wake COREAN GRAVES graves in corea are quite as important as they are in china every family has its burying ground and the dead are carried for miles in order that they may be laid with their kind the monuments are usually round mounds of earth and the bigger the man the bigger the mound A rich man will often taki take a whole hill to himself and the demetries cem etries are usually located on the sides ot of hills when a man dies hired mourners are called in and these wall wail as they burn the clothing of the dead they do clo this at night in the street in the front of the door the funerals of seoul have to pass out of certain gates of the city and must go through just at dusk the result is that they go to the grave on a run for if ahey do no not t arrive there in time they will have to squat down and wait till the gates open in the morning such funerals are always accompanied compa nied by men and there is dancing and merrymaking merry making on the way I 1 saw a number during my stay in seoul and there seemed to be more rejoicing than grief my next letter will be the last on corea it will describe my trip to the harbor of bensan whence I 1 went to siberia and will show some queer unknown features of the hermit kingdom 11 V r |