Browsing the archives for the martial arts tag
The official start of fall is less than a week away, meaning it’s time again for some of the best weather in Korea and its accompanying frenzy of festivals. Here in Gyeongju we can look forward to a few old favorites plus some changes and special events. First off, both vegetarians and Buddhist culture aficionados [...]
My apologies for being a bit slow in getting caught up from our vacation. As always, there have been some cool things happening in Gyeongju this summer, so here’s a belated rundown of some of the highlights: The time has come around again for the triennial Gyeongju World Culture ExpoZ. The fun kicked off on [...]
It’s been a while since I’ve done any “Top 10″ and since I’ve been busy with final exams and grades, I don’t have any proper articles ready to go this week. Instead, I figured I’d post on the 10 best YouTube videos I could find about Gyeongju. Believe me, it was a lot harder than [...]
Last Sunday we decided to brave the yellow sand and head down to Hwangseong Park to check out the first day of the World Teakwondo Championships. The atmosphere was festive and park was packed with locals and visiting athletes. There were hundreds of tents strewn about hawking everything from teakwondo gear, sports jerseys and Nike [...]
Spring is a busy time in Gyeongju, so there are few more things happening around town that I thought I’d mention. May 5th – 7th (Thursday through Saturday) the Gyeongju City Government is hosting a free opera performance out at Bomun Lake titled “The River Flows to the Sea.” The opera is a drama based [...]
It’s finally beginning to feel a bit like spring around Gyeongju, which means we’re just days away from that magical season when the cherry trees begin to bud and then blossom. Entire streets in Gyeongju turn into marshmallow wonderlands and romantic couples stroll through flurries of pink petals. I already posted last spring on some [...]
Recent visitors to Gyeongju might be a bit befuddled by the flashy banners hung all over town proclaiming “2011 Gyeongju WTF!” No, this is not another misguided English marketing slogan sponsored by the Gyeongju Tourism Board (“Historopia” anyone?). And if you stop sniggering for a minute, I’ll be happy to explain. This spring Gyeongju is [...]
In Korean Seon (선) Buddhism (Ch. “Chan”, Jap. “Zen”) practitioners often meditate on paradoxical or nonsensical riddles known as koans (공안 or “ kong-an” in Korean) to gain insight into the nature of thought, perception and reality. One of the most famous of these riddles is “Why did the Bodhidharma (Kr. “Dalma” or달마) come from [...]
If you’ve not seen the signs around town recently, Golgulsa Temple (골굴사) has started hosting daily demonstrations of Seonmudo (선무도), or “Zen Martial Arts.” Golgulsa has been the center of a Seonmudo revival over the last few decades, so the demos are free and are scheduled for both 11 am and 3 pm every day [...]
Bomun Resort G20 Summit This weekend is going to be a bit crazy around Gyeongju. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and some of it sounds pretty cool (and some of it not really). For starters, we’ve all heard about the G20 kicking off in Seoul, but you might not know that there’s [...]
