Swine Flu Update: Korea

According to the Korea Herald (watch out--that site's a popup monster), there have been three cases of swine flu in South Korea so far, all with clear ties to the first case in Korea, a missionary who had just returned from Mexico.

As you can imagine, the response here has been entirely level-headed.

Honestly, we've already seen:

1. A parent pull her child out of a school trip to China because of the swine flu. (Current reported cases in Korea: 3-4. Current reported cases in China: 0.)

2. A temporary ban on all pork products from the US or Mexico. (It's not possible to catch the bug from cooked meat.)

3. No fewer than four students, with no direct or indirect connection to any of the infected, who have asked me if their typical spring allergy symptoms were a sign of swine flu.

I've sent them to doihavpigflu.com (via BoingBoing) to "check their symptoms," then seized the teachable moment to explain how and why the media blow everything out of proportion.

Singapore Museums

Dateline Singapore. 23 March, 2009.

Two nerds.

Three days.

Four museums.

Bring it on.

The Battle Box,

Not quite as good as London's Cabinet War Rooms, a museum of a similar type (wow, do I sound like a jerk, or what?) but still very interesting and well-executed. Also much cheaper. The Battle Box, which is dug into the Fort Canning hillside next to the National Museum, was the command center for the British during the Japanese march down the Malayan peninsula from Dec. 1941-Feb. 1942. The rooms have been refurnished with period items and they have good audio reenactments of the discussions that might have taken place around the decision to surrender Singapore. That decision, made by General Percival, turned out to be the largest surrender in the entire history of the British Empire. It's definitely worth visiting, especially on a hot day or a bad rainy day, since the underground complex is both cool and dry.

Justin's flash was busted, so we didn't really get good pictures, but here's a blurry one to give you an idea of what you'll see there:


And here's me on the hillside after touring.


And from thence we proceeded to the....

National Museum of Singapore

This is a great museum, one which, if you're profoundly nerdy like us, will keep you sucked in to the point of serious physical discomfort from standing so long. The museum is HUGE. Some of our favorite parts:

Singapore Living Galleries - Street Food

A great little peek into the history of street food vending in Singapore (and yes, we did make note of some dishes to try). I particularly enjoyed the short film about a cute romance between a girl ordering noodles and the noodle delivery boy. They also had a room where you could smell various spices used in Southeast Asian cooking.

Singapore Living Galleries - Fashion.

Interesting to me, because that's what I'll be doing next year (Material and Visual Cultures of the Past, at University of Edinburgh - wheee!). A wonderful exhibit tracking style changes in vintage fashion among Singapore's different ethnic groups, including clothing, hairstyles, makeup, and footwear.

Interesting to Justin, because he's patient with me, and because they featured a section on vintage Singapore local bands. Two of our favorites were The Cyclones and The Straydogs. They were not just good 60s pop bands, but they had very interesting psychedelic influences. We tried to find them on CD in Singapore, but apparently there's no demand for them these days. The good news is that Youtube has some. Perhaps digital downloads, someday?

The Cyclones: Roll Over Beethoven, "The Dew"
The Straydogs: "Freedom" Makes me think of Hendrix. Justin says I should write that it's more like the Yardbirds, except he doesn't want people to think he's a tool. In a blog post boasting about the number of museums we went to on a trip to the tropics, I think it's way too late to worry about that.

While looking for these guys, I also came across The Quests: "Mustapha" (instrumental), and, AWESOMELY, a cover of Hava Nagila. Yes. Go listen to it. Now. You have not lived until you've heard a psychedelic Chinese Singaporean 60s pop band cover of Hava Nagila. I want to get married all over again and play this at my reception.

This museum also contains, underground, a wonderful history exhibit with some execution flaws. The biggest difficulty is information overload. They designed the exhibit to have a "people path," where you go and do personal/material culture history, and an "events path," where you read about major events, but the overall flow felt confused and frustrating. I felt like I'd missed something on the other path, so I kept backtracking. Overall, the people path is stronger.

The biggest difficulty, though, is that they give you these electronic audio boxes to wear around your neck, and you can use them to play recordings as you pass different exhibits. Most of them are really great (the American voice actress in the Opium Den, however, royally sucks) but all of them are TOO LONG, and you can't fast-forward. What I really wanted was for the screen on the box to give me a transcript of the material in the audio recording, because I can read much faster than I can listen, and I got tired of standing in front of the same painting for three minutes waiting for the guide to finish telling me about it. Carrying that heavy box around and then feeling frustratingly unable to have listened to all of it soured me on that part of the exhibition. If I had it to do over, I'd just refuse to take a box at all. There's plenty to look at without it.

Chinatown Heritage Centre

If you decide to see only one museum in Singapore... well, you're going to miss out on a lot. But I suppose if I had to pick, I'd send you to this one. Maybe it's because I'm a China buff (although I'm a military buff, too...) but this was a tremendously unique, detailed, and Singapore-specific museum about daily life in the old Chinatown district of Singapore. Fun fact: Chinatown Singapore is not called Chinatown in Chinese, but rather "牛车水," or "Ox Cart Water," for the fact that in ye olden times you'd buy your water off a dude schlepping it around in a cart. The subway station today is "Chinatown" in English but remains "牛车水" in Chinese characters.

The museum, housed in two old shophouses, has many exhibits on the everyday lives of Chinese people in the 150 or so years of Chinatown's distinct history, and also features a replica of shophouse residences fronted by a replica tailor shop (complete with an artificial replica cockroach in the kitchen!).

Tailor shop, circa, I think, 1930

Take your children to work day!

No, I didn't use the replica toilet, which is nothing more than an elevated platform with a hole in it and a bucket underneath. My heart goes out to the people who lived around these in Singapore's tropical climate. Sometimes, it's amazing that there weren't MORE plagues.


Asian Civilisations Museum

We took the free English tour and had a really great guide. And then, being us, we went back through the museum again (at this point, somewhat sore from all the walking and standing). Highlights include a great jewelry exhibit and textile exhibit, as well as exhibits on all the major contributers to modern Singaporean culture (India, China, Malay, and multinational Islam). Before going there, I had no idea how batik fabric was made (by putting wax on the fabric to block the dye, then boiling the wax off, and rewaxing for other layers of color - massively labor intensive and very difficult-looking). I recommend the museum highly.


So. Not only did we meet our Four Museums quota (plus a bonus museum, if you count the Botanical Gardens as a museum), but we lived to tell about it. And then I lived THROUGH telling about it. But did you live through reading about it?

DISCLAIMER: Justin and Nana are trained professionals in nerding. Do NOT attempt this type of nerding at home. Prior to nerding, stretch your brain by reading the entire guidebook, including the sections on culture and history that everybody skips. Stay hydrated. In the event of a museum visit lasting more than four hours, consult with your physician.

300th Post - A Worthy Topic

I was visiting coworker Tammi's room last night to discuss enforcing the school's English Only Policy (ugh) and stopped to read some projects on the back wall. The students had made posters translating Korean proverbs: "A dragon comes from a small pond," which means great things can come from humble beginnings, and the like.

Then I stopped on this one:

"Someone who farted becomes angry."

The meaning of this Korean proverb, as explained by the student to Tammi? "When you're in a large group, and somebody farts, that person makes a big deal about it to cover up the fact that they're the ones who farted."

There you have it, folks: There is, in fact, a Korean equivalent for "He who smelt it dealt it." It's nice to know that no matter how many things feel foreign here, some human experiences are universal.

Lotus Lantern Festival (Buddha's Birthday)

(The Lotus Lantern Festival, in honor of Buddha's birthday, will be on May 23 this year. It's a wonderful chance to finally visit all those temples you've been meaning to! Below is a re-issue of our post on the Festival last year.)

Part One: The Holiday

Monday was Buddha's Birthday, a public holiday here in Korea (as in much of East Asia). Not only did Nana and I get the day off, we also joined a Royal Asiatic Society tour of the local festivities, centered on five local temples we hadn't yet seen. This post will deal with the holiday and its traditions (and images) in general; a second post will provide some details about the temples themselves.

The Holiday

Buddha's Birthday celebrates the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the founding figure of the Buddhist religion. Buddhists believe that Gautama, who was the prince of a small kingdom in northern India around 400 BC, sprung from his mother's side (often interpreted as a kind of Sanskrit c-section, in keeping with ancient Indian beliefs that traditional birth was somehow impure) able to walk and talk immediately upon his birth.

Images of Buddha's birth are common in Buddhist temples here in Korea. Below you can see the prelude to Gautama's conception (by a three-tusked white elephant who visited his mother in a dream), the birth itself (with Gautama emerging from his mother's sleeve), and Buddha's first steps and first words shortly thereafter (he points to the earth and the sky and says he has been sent to save all who dwell there).




The Lotus Lantern
In Korea, Buddha's Birthday is commonly referred to as the Festival of the Lotus Lantern, a nod to the most visible symbol of the holiday here.

The lotus lamp has its roots in the belief that, when Buddha took his first steps, a lotus flower sprouted at his feet. During the run-up to Buddha's Birthday, Buddhists adorn their temples with hundreds of these lanterns, which are also trailed off through the main gate and down the surrounding streets.

The Lotus Lanterns come in many shapes and colors. The simplest and most common are bright paper deals with an image of the baby Buddha screened on the side. (Notice the baby Buddha dance--one finger to the ground, one to the sky.)

Others are a little more subtle, such as these black-and-white lamps with simple hangeul script.
A third class is very stylized, in polygon form.
And a final class strives for realism with its plastic blossom shape.
Of course, no matter what kind of Lotus Lantern, the true effect can only be seen at night.



A final note: the papers you see hanging from the lanterns are prayers or dedications written by the folks who purchased the lamps.

Bathing the Baby Buddha

One cute little tradition surrounding Buddha's Birthday is the act of bathing the baby Buddha (or a statue of him, at least) by pouring a simple dipper of water over his head.

All visitors, regardless of religion, are invited to give the baby Buddha a dousing--and since the visitors seem to come in droves on these days, you can imagine the little guy gets pretty darn clean.



Traditional Performances

During our day out, Nana and I also had the chance to witness two traditional Buddha's Birthday performances. Here are a few shots of one of the shows (involving a chorus, dancers, a ritual offering of gifts, and a Buddhist nun rocking the point-and-shoot camera).





A second performance included a much more elaborate (and more traditional) band.

The History of Buddha's Birthday in Korea

Given all the traditions piled up around the day, you might think that Buddha's Birthday has a long history as a Korean national holiday. However, Buddhism as a whole fell hugely out of favor during the Joseon Dynasty period after, according to the neo-Confucian philosophers of the time, clerical excesses corrupted the previous regime. In fact, when the capital was moved to Seoul, the king decreed that no monks would be allowed to pass the city gates, and even today, all the historical temples of Seoul are well outside the limits of the old city walls. Only in the last 75-odd years has Buddhism seen a revival in Korea, and only in the past decade or so has Buddha's Birthday become a major event on the Korean calendar.

Part Two: The Temples

(Note: Much of the information below is owed to our RAS tour guide and the very detailed info packet he provided us all. If you're interested in any of Prof. David Mason's work, you can find more information on his website.)

Bomunsa and Mitasa

Our Buddha's Birthday temple tour started in our neck of the woods, at Bomunsa and neighboring Mitasa, in the Bomun neighborhood northeast of the city center. Bomunsa is the home temple of the Bomun order of Buddhist nuns and is the largest convent in the Seoul metropolitan area.


In keeping with traditional Korean geomancy, Bomunsa occupies an auspicious site at the steep head of a small, narrow valley, though the lower reaches of the valley (and the crown of the hill above) have since been consumed by high-rises and busy streets. Still, behind Bomunsa's walls is a quiet oasis, growing and green, where it's easy to forget that you're in one of the biggest cities in the world. (Traveler's note: The grounds of the old Buddhist temples are some of the best photo spots in Korea. Those old monks sure knew their real estate!)

During our visit, the lower levels of the temple were crowded with visitors watching the holiday performance, but the upper levels were much quieter and more serene
And as is common in the busier temples, there were statues everywhere, including some adorable little Buddhist nun figurines.
Bomunsa is also home to a huge a modern-era pagoda, seen below, and a modern-era "cave shrine" modeled after a Shilla-era shrine in Kyeongju.
And as a final note on Bomunsa, here is a roll of members of the Bomun order. Notice all the Kims! (Actually rarer than you might expect on this roll, since the Kim clan is generally fairly wealthy; most members of the Buddhist orders come from the lower classes.)
Next door to Bomunsa is the Mitasa hermitage, a small convent affiliated with the Jogye sect, which is Korea's dominant Buddhist sect.
The hermitage includes a very old (but small) Koryo-era pagoda next to a "sanshingak" or "mountain-spirit shrine" (with the mountain spirit represented here as a white tiger; elsewhere as an old man with a white tiger) a prime example of how Korean Buddhism has adpoted elements of the old shamanistic religions. In fact, the whole mountain-worship element is part of the reason why Buddhist temples tend to be found at the heads of mountain valleys or, as is the case with Shilleuksa in Yeoju, at the tail ends of important mountain ranges.

Unfortunately, lighting made it difficult to shoot either of these items. As a consolation, here's a shot of Nana with a new friend.
Side note: Mitasa is also home to the famous mural depicting Buddha's birth that appeared in our previous post on Buddha's Birtdhay.

Gaeunsa and Potasa

Potasa, a small seminary convent affiliated with Daegu's famous Haeinsa temple, featured the first of two White Buddha carvings of the day.

The White Buddha represents a later development in the history of Buddhism: it used to be believed that one could only achieve salvation through enlightenment, but later beliefs included the possibility of salvation through Buddha's mercy, embodied by the White Buddha--also known as the Goddess of Mercy, despite the moustache.


Gaeunsa is the larger temple down the street from Potasa. It is a seminary temple with modern facilities for about 160 monks plus several older structures. The highlight here was a giant paper lantern of the three-tusked white elephant who, according to the story of Buddha's birth, impregnated Buddha's mother in a dream.
Gaeunsa is also notable because it does not actually sit at the head of a valley, but atop a small, round hill.


Segom-dong

On our way to dinner, we stopped at a small shrine in Segom-dong, along a mountain stream just northwest of the city center. (Geographical note: There's a low but very rugged mountain range that runs down into the Seoul city center, which effectively splits the part of the city north of the Han River in half. The reason for this is that Gyeongbokgung, the main Joseon palace in Seoul was, surprise surprise, built at the tail end of that mountain range.)

The shrine featured the second White Buddha of the day.
Bongwonsa

Bongwonsa, our last stop of the day, is the main temple of the Taego sect, which is an unusual sect in that its monks and priests can marry. They're also filthy rich, sitting as they do on some prime real-estate; seriously, some of the monks drive Lotuses, and not just for the obvious pun.

Situated just north of Yonsei University, Bongwonsa is the closest of Seoul's traditional temples to the city center, and for that reason is the epicenter of Buddha's Birthday celebrations in Seoul. (Though I'm told the modern Jogyesa, in downtown Seoul, also had a big Buddha's Birthday bash.) The long path up to Bongwonsa is very developed and commercialized, including a 24-hour restaurant and "sauna" (bath house), plus several smaller eateries lining the road.

The hike was worth it, though, as the temple itself featured the best Lotus Lantern display in town.
Also worth the hike were the Candle Hall, the Hall of 1000 Buddhas, and a some really great examples of Buddhist statuary carving.

Well, that's it for the Buddha's Birthday tour. Expect slim pickins as far as posts go for the next couple weeks--we're into the final push at school AND we'll be moving to a new apartment partway through June. Of course, if anything ludicrous happens, you'll be the first to know.