Jeju island, located in the South of South Korea itself was formed due to a volcanic activity. The Sanbangsan Mountain, located in the South West corner of the island, was formed some 800,000 years ago with the cooling down of viscous lava from the volcanic eruption. I loved the unique, almost flaky texture and interesting patterns in the mountain.

Mount Sanbangsan

Having had an eyeful of the beautiful natural formations, we head up a few steps to the two Buddhist temples- the Sangbangsan Temple, which houses the huge  golden Buddha and the Bomunsa Temple which houses the Buddhist relics. There is also a grotto which houses another beautiful Buddha statue called the Sanbanggulsa grotto which is located even higher into the mountain than the other temples. There is no fee to visit the temples but there is a few thousand wons entrance fee for the trek up the grotto. This place was just perfect with very less crowd when we visited in late March and was just perfectly situated to gaze at the sea from atop the mountain with a rich surrounding.

Bomunsa Temple

The Gong in the temple

The Smiling Buddha

Golden Buddha of the Sanbangsan temple

The Golden Buddha

Golden Prayer Wheels

So many greenish Buddha statues

Beautiful scenery while driving towards the temple

Thursday Challenge -"RICH" (Money, Gold, Wealth, Expensive Things,...) :Golden Buddha