We spent the night at Golgulsa, a Korean Buddhist temple in Gyeongju.

In the summer of 2024, I received the Critical Language Scholarship to study Korean in Busan, South Korea. This was a full scholarship that paid all of my expenses while I was abroad in Korea, and I knew that this was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

We had field trips as a part of our program, and so in July 2024 we all boarded a bus and headed to Gyeongju. The first part of our field trip is that we were coming to learn about the Silla period at the Gyeongju Museum, which is a national museum in Korea and free to enter if you’re around! Definitely go there.

But in the second part of our trip, the program had booked us a stay at the Buddhist temple Golgulsa. Located by a mountain in Gyeongju, we came into this experience not knowing what to expect. Some of us truly hated. Others were indifferent. I kind of enjoyed it, but found it to be painful in other aspects.

Note that I was not involved in any of the booking or logistics of this trip. So, for example, I have no idea what the lodging looks like for others. All of the girls in my program, all 21 of us, were put in a single massive room with metal bunk beds.

I slept decent in there, but it sucked when we were trying to nap sometimes and people were being loud. We also had to make a massive shower schedule because of how the showers were communal, and a lot of people did not want to shower together.

Here’s the overall experience!

On the first day, we watched performances, meditated, and walked around the grounds.

We arrived at the temple around 1 PM, and were immediately given the clothes to change into. At this temple, and many others, you have to wear simple attire. This means a short sleeve shirt, an orange vest with pockets, and wrap around pants. In the summer, these pants are really hot, so stay hydrated—I was starting to die when it came to the heat and how heavy these clothes were.

This seemed to be a tourist-heavy temple. Lots of foreigners here, and even a group of American high school students. There were some Korean families, but it seemed like to me that this was geared more towards tourism, especially considering the staff spoke quite of bit of English when introducing the concepts.

The first event on our itinerary was a series of performances by those involved with the temple. There were martial arts, as this temple is famous for its Seonmudo form of martial arts, live instruments, and singing. I tried not to record because it was a Buddhist temple and that felt a little disrespectful, but all in all that was cool to see.

Then, it was time for meditations. We did all of the stretches, exercises, and meditations with the monk, and then came time for the 108 bows. This is a classic standard with temples, and they did give us the option to not do it if you want. I think I made it through about 90 bows before I had to give up—I kind of wish I didn’t do it because my body hurt for days afterward.

We were allowed to eat dinner at the cafeteria later, which is all vegetarian food. You’re not allowed to speak in there, and must eat everything that’s on your plate. You cannot leave a single grain of rice behind.

After eating out all summer, as we didn’t have access to the Pusan National University cafeterias, this was incredible food. I’d come to this temple just to eat the grandmothers’ food again, I loved it.

There was free time in the evening, so we wandered the grounds. There’s a Buddha carved into the side of the mountain you can climb up to, but I saw that and decided to go back to the room before everyone else did because my body hurt so much. Good thing I did, as a lot of people said that it was a painful hike.

After a 5 AM wake up call, we meditated some more and went to a beach.

I woke up at 5 AM on the dot. As soon as it hits 5, a monk goes onto the loudspeakers and starts chanting, and the closer you get to 5:30, the louder the chant becomes. We all got dressed and then went to the main hall. A female monk was waiting for us, her form still and serene.

When the time came to begin, we all sat on our mats and did the stretches. The sun slowly rose as she went through her chants and prayers, and we all stayed dead silent to appreciate what she had to show us about the world she lived inside of. I studied Buddhism, specifically the Tibetan and Himalayan branches, so this was a fascinating experience for me.

We were then led outside by one of the martial arts instructors after doing some stretches. He had us walk through the grounds in lines, and then we got in a massive circle and stretched with each other some more. After that, we were allowed to do what we wanted—but first breakfast!

It was more classic Korean fare with some Western options for the foreigners. Again, it was delicious, and I loaded up on the fresh fruit and some water. After that though I went straight back to my bunk bed and passed out until 9 AM.

At 9 AM, we all loaded up onto a bus and went to the beaches of Gyeongju. We were allowed to walk around this area with shops and a free lookout tower, which had a nice view of the seashore and the city in the distance. Then we got on the bus again and went to another beach, where a different martial arts instructor had us do stretches on the beach.

Now, this sounds great if it weren’t summer and this beach wasn’t full of sharp rocks. They burned and hurt, and I found myself not wanting to do some of the stretches. They also said they could let us go in the water, but when I took my shoes off, the rocks in the water straight up felt like acupuncture. It’d be nicer if it wasn’t summer and this didn’t hurt that much.

We went back to the cafeteria after that for lunch, then headed home to Busan. All in all, I enjoyed this experience, but I don’t know if I would do it again. Maybe at a less touristy one that doesn’t focus on martial arts? I study Buddhism, and appreciate and want to implement a lot of its ways of living, but the martial arts is what did me in.

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