At the end of a narrow, winding road in Munyang-ri, Seosan, sits a shaman’s hovel beside a small Dharma hall, with a sparse Mountain Spirit shrine behind it. But, unless you’re looking to have your fortune read or need a ritual performed, the attraction here is the standing stone Maitreya Buddha, out front.
Before there was a temple here, the hill was still wooded. Everyday, magpies flew into the pines to gather around this spot and cried out, loudly. Villagers below found this strange, so they dug around and found the Buddha, buried to its waist and covered in grass. They built the hall to enshrine it in and named it Magpie Temple, in honour of the magpies who helped discover it.
The stone Maitreya Buddha earned quite a reputation for itself when, during the Korean War, a soldier with the People’s Army (North Korean Army) struck the Buddha with an ax then promptly fell dead. So, if you do visit, at the very least, maybe refrain from attacking it with any deadly weapons. It’s not everyday that you meet a stone statue with a body count.
Somewhere in Dhamma 
Leave a comment