"Daeheungsa temple stay" by Christianzagar

i was fortunate enough to do a temple stay at this wonderful temple. It was a very beautiful spot. This temple is famous mainly because of a priest who led a group of warrior monks against the invading Japanese. Many important Zen monks have lived at this temple at one point or another, and there are many relics and stupas devoted to them.

There is also a green tea plantation on the premises. Unfortunately due to the rain we weren't able to pick our own tea leaves. But the monk had already picked them for us. We watched the whole process minus the actual picking of the leaves. It was a cool experience. the monk in the photo is frying the leaves in the traditional style... we got to take turns squeezing the leaves after... The monk told us that people who make green tea whether they are monks at a temple or work in a factory, feel good about themselves. Its good for your skin and people's hand area always very soft and healthy!

and of course we got to drink lots of green tea. in the tea set picture you can see the table cloth towel with Chinese characters. It's a poem written by a famous writer who visited Daeheungsa a few hundred years back. He was friendly with the head monk and they used to write to eachother. He used to love the taste of Daeheungsa green tea, so when he was banished to Jeju island, he would write the head monk and ask him to send it to him... anyways the title of the poem is "tea is zen and zen is tea" Most monks agree. Green Tea supposedly cures over 200 sicknesses, so it can't be that bad...