| Cheongju City's U-am-san: by the Lake |
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| U-am-san is a low, broad mountain that rises dramatically on the eastern side of Cheongju City, capital of North Chung-cheong Province. It has been regarded as the sacred guardian of the city since its foundation. The name means "Cow-crags Mountain", as people thought that it looked like a female ox benevolently laying across the horizon. It contains a wide variety of interesting temples, which I explored with some friends in July 2001. The photos on this page are from temples near the large reservoir that has been built on the mountain's northeastern slope. |
| ABOVE: within that painting, San-shin is shown with his tiger -- I have never seen this in a Shin-jung taeng-hwa before! He wears a flowing white cloth cap in the style of a Daoist hermit, and a mantle of leaves echoing King Dan-gun and Fuxi. He holds both Yeongji-beoseot (bullo-cho) and ginseng, as a doubled emphasis of healing powers and as a Yin-yang symbol of balance. |
| ABOVE: the "Assembly of the Guardian Spirits" painting (see pages 113-115) of Dae-seong-sa [Great Sage Temple] has a San-shin statue in front of it. |
| These are excellent examples of Shamanic icons; San-shin with a Boddhisattva statue in front, and the Yong-wang [Dragon King of the waters]. From Chil-seong-sa [Seven Stars Temple], a small Shaman's dang up the slope. |
| These paintings from Pung-ju-sa are unusual for their details. The San-shin on the left includes the Moon instead of the usual (red) Sun -- a careless mistake or intending to mean...? The Deok-seong features a unique teapot, brown with a strange texture, driping from downturned spout into a matching bowl. |
| ABOVE: the Shin-jung altar-painting of the small Yong-ho-sa has a unique statue in front -- a boy-attendant with multi-colored wings, like a western angel or a Native-American totem. LEFT: within that icon, San-shin holds both a feather-fan and two multi-colored sprigs of bullo-cho. |