Gopanhwa Museum, Year of the Rooster

Even though I visited the Gopanhwa Museum just six months ago, this time I was surprised to find that the museum was totally different. Three times a year, every four months, the museum is totally overhauled and the displays completely changed. And because 2017 is Year of the Rooster, the first display for this year are select woodblocks and prints featuring roosters.

Japanese 19th century woodblock print

Surprisingly many woodblocks and prints contain chickens and roosters in them - a very common background or theme, so every woodblock and woodblock print featured poultry, revealing many uses for those two-legged ground-scratchers. Chickens and roosters were raised for their meat and eggs; they were symbols of fertility, and as such played a part in wedding ceremonies and were embroidered or painted on screens and paintings. And of course they are one of the Chinese zodiac animals. While featured in many backgrounds to create a picture that would tell a story, they were also the focal point of the woodblock art. Director Han arranged his poultry blocks and prints to tell a story as he progressed through the museum -- the story of various countries that imprinted with the birds, the styles of carving and/or usage of colors while printing, the dates and influences of the era had on the rendition. A historical journey. A particularly humorous display in the museum (at least to us) was a 10-screen folding screen panel. However, Director Han only had six screens on display -- the others were folded behind because they didn't feature any chickens or roosters. 

The highlight of the tour culminated in the glass-encased room housing a large portion of the director's glorious woodblocks -- each woodblock representing some time in history; some of them dating back five or six centuries. Director Han was in a huge story-telling mood and he proceeded to pull woodblocks out of his room and tell the stories about their usage or maybe some tell-tale detail about their symbolism.

This is a tiny portion of one wall within the glass-encased woodblock room.
In total Director Han has about 4,300 woodblocks and woodblock prints!

woodblocks from five countries: China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Tibet

Director Han enthusiastically tell us about a few of his amazing woodblocks!

This woodblock wasn't intended for printing at all but was created to be a cover of a book.
I'm not sure which country this book cover represents, but it's amazingly intricate and has been stained to give it more aesthetic appeal.

My friend had commissioned me to ask for a woodblock with a dragon in it. I told the director and he immediately picked up this one and pointed to the dragon(s) around the Buddha, or is it the bodhisattva? Not so clear to see or take a picture so he quickly produced some more woodblocks featuring dragons.

This is a multiple woodblock set (red, yellow, green, black and seems there were a couple more woodblocks in the set). The woodblocks are all carved individually for stamping with a specific color. The stamping of one picture could take a couple of hours ... as the ink must set before stamping with the next color. Aligning is done with great care; if one woodblock is incorrectly aligned, the whole picture would be ruined. Absolute precision work. The Japanese were marvels at multi-colored printing with woodblocks!

A roller woodblock for printing letter paper. I thought the smaller roller might be used for inking the larger roller for a more sustained use, but since both rollers are carved, I'm clueless to the smaller one's use.

A very large Korean carved woodblock with double dragons carved in circles among the infinite knots featured in many Confucian (and Buddhist) patterns. 

Director Han explained a unique feature about dragons in iconography: if a dragon has:
5 toes - it represents the emperor
4 toes - it represents the king (here)
3 toes - it represents the royal family

A print made by Director Han of a 4-toed dragon.
(from a 17th century Korean-carved woodblock)

This woodblock features a very common idiom - 개천에서 용난다, which translates as 'a dragon comes out of a stream', implying that someone of low social status/birth rises from his humble origin to that of a powerful dragon. Until recently this idiom implied that it WAS possible to rise about one's lowly birth/status circumstances, but now the idiom is used to state that it is NOT possible to rise above one's station in life. An example of this used in its original sense is the attorney Woo Byung-woo who was taken in with impeached President Park Geun Hye. He was a 개천에서 용난 case who came from a poor family but made it high in the government.
The idiom is still widely in use today, but nowadays is used to mean the opposite of its former meaning.

Before we left the museum, Director Han brought out one of his cherished woodblocks, a woodblock from Mongolia that was unbelievably smooth and silky. We were instructed to touch its cool perfect surface and by doing so, we would be imbued with its transmitted luck.

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Korean Temple Food

Characteristics of Korean Temple Food

Temple food refers to the food eaten daily at Buddhist temples. At Buddhist temples, everything is considered a part of practice. From growing vegetables to preparing the food, monks and nuns are directly involved in the whole process. Monastic practitioners make it a point to always be grateful for the efforts of all those involved in the preparation of food. They take only the amount needed for their physical sustenance, leaving no leftover food in their bowls. This distinctive approach to food preparation has been gradually shaped over many centuries, based on a foundation of Buddhist philosophy and practice. Temple food is natural, healthy and also a part of Buddhist life. Even today the 1700-year-old tradition is alive at Korean Buddhist temples.

Food as Practice

Korean temple food does not use any animal products except dairy products. Korean Buddhism forbids meat. The Buddha said in the Nirvana Sutra, "Eating meat extinguishes the seeds of compassion." Buddhism teaches that compassion means to embrace all living beings as oneself, and therefore, the dietary culture of Korean Buddhism has always held reverence for life. Korean temple food has also traditionally meant that monks and nuns do not use five pungent vegetables (onions, garlic, chives, green onion and leeks), these are called the "oshinchae", because they hinder spiritual practice. The prohibition of the five pungent vegetables is a preventative measure to guard Buddhist practitioners from possible distractions during meditation. In addition, the prohibition is also meant to prevent any attachment to the flavor of strong spices, which may also disturb practice.

These characteristics of temple food show how monastic meals are a means through which Buddhist monks and nuns realize the interdependence of all lives and that they must strive to establish a world where all live together in harmony.

Natural Food

Instead of artificial flavors, Korean temple food uses a variety of mountain herbs and wild greens, which has led to the development of a vegetarian tradition. As most Korean temples are located in the mountains, providing easy access to wild roots, stems, leaves, fruits and flowers, monks and nuns have naturally become leaders in shaping vegetarian culture. Also, natural seasonings and flavor enhancers have been developed. Examples of common natural seasonings used in temples are: mushroom power, kelp powder, jaepi powder, perilla seed powder, and uncooked bean powder. These seasonings are used when making soup stock, kimchi and vegetable dishes, correcting nutritional imbalance and enhancing flavor. Having been used in temples since ancient times, these natural seasonings are emerging in modern times as a powerful alternative to artificial flavorings which may be harmful to one's health.

Preserved Food

Korea has four distinct seasons, and all kinds of vegetables and plants are available beginning in the spring. To keep these vegetables and plants for the winter, monks and nuns developed various techniques for food preservation. Besides the well-known kimchi and jang, other preserved foods include: jangajji, vegetables preserved in soy sauce, red pepper paste and soybean paste; vegetables preserved in salt. The advantage of these preserved foods is that they can be stored for long periods of time with no loss of nutritional value. They also supply nutrients that may be lacking in vegetables.

Fermented Food

A variety of fermented food is made at Korean Buddhist temples. If cheese, yogurt and wine are typical fermented food in the West, those in Korea are kimchi, soy sauce, soybean paste, red pepper paste, rice punch, and pine needle tea.

The various nutritive elements produced through fermentation not only add a savory flavor to the food but also lower the level of cholesterol, have cancer-inhibiting qualities, and guard the human body from many age-related illnesses.

Eco-friendly Health Food

The assorted vegetables and greens used in temple food contain abundant natural fiber as well as carbohydrates and protein. Korean temple food is rich in various nutrients but low in cholesterol. Although strictly vegetarian, temple food lacks nothing in nutrition. It is advisable for anyone to use any or all of the ingredients of temple cuisine in everyday life for healthier lives and to prevent age-related health problems. The popularization of temple food would contribute to a healthier dietary life for Koreans as well as global citizens.

BARU GONGYANG

The Spirit of Baru Gongyang

In Korean Buddhism, formal meals are referred to as "gongyang", which literally means "offering". A meal is not only the eating of food, it is a sacred ritual through which we reaffirm our intentions and vows to live a Bodhisattva's life and to reflect on the Buddha's teaching and the work and blessings of all Bodhisattvas, nature, and all sentient beings. Therefore, eating meals is a form of Buddhist practice. Accordingly, meals are carried out in silence and humility.

Baru bongyang is a formal monastic meal in which people eat from a baru (wooden bowl). After the Buddha attained awakening, two lay Buddhists offered him his first meal. At that time, each of the four heavenly kings offered a stone bowl [sic] to the Buddha, from which the Buddha ate and then stacked together. Following this example, disciples of the Buddha also began using four bowls for their meals, creating a tradition that is still practiced today.

Temple meals are carried out in an orderly manner. They are an important part of monastic practice. The meaning contained in baru gongyang is well represented in the verses chanted at each stage of the meal.

• Participants pay homage to the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas and the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

• Participants hold their bowls in both hand and chant: "Through this meal offering may all sentient beings regard the joy of Seon (Zen) practice as their food and be filled with the joy of the Dharma."

• Participants chant the "Pre-meal Chant": "We reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it came to us. We reflect on our virtue and practices and whether we are worthy of this offering. We regard greed, anger and ignorance as obstacles to freedom of mind. We regard this meal as medicine to sustain our lives. For the sake of enlightenment we now receive this food." [Verses may vary depending on temple and region but the core remains the same.]

The spirit embodied in baru gongyang has five aspects:

1. It embodies the spirit of equality. Regardless of one's social or monastic standing, all participants sit together and share the food without any class distinctions, representing the equality of all people.
2. It embodies the spirit of cleanliness. Each person serves him or herself, therefore, ensuring proper sanitation.
3. It embodies the spirit of frugality. Each person only takes what he/she can eat and therefore there is no waste. Even after eating, water is used to clean the bowl and then drunk ensuring not a grain of rice or a fleck of pepper powder is wasted. 
4. It embodies the spirit of community. All monastic food comes from the same pot and is served at the same time, and therefore is eaten together, ensuring a feeling of harmony and solidarity.
5. It embodies the spirit of merit. As participants are thankful for their health and for the efforts in preparing the healthy food, their eating gives further vow to fulfill their responsibilities and fulfillment of merit for everything in the universe.