 |
| At this time, locals of Sicheon-myeon District of Mountain-Azure County [San-cheong-gun] with all their hearts have produced this new statue of our Holy Mother here in Center-of-Mountains Village [Jung-san-ri], bigger than the original one. They installed it in the present location on August 6th, 2000, and established it as a monument of our wish for re-unification, defense of the fatherland and national prosperity." {translation by Lim Jeong-suk, with stylistic corrections by myself}. |
| Jiri-san is frequently said to have eum [feminine] type of earth-energy due to its gentle rounded shape, as opposed to more yang [masculine] sharp & craggy mountains such as Sorak-san. However, the shape or appearance of a mountain does not determine the gender of its San-shin in any simple way -- witness Kye-ryong-san (named for its resemblance to a cockscomb atop a winding dragon), which is as sharp and craggy as any mountain anywhere, yet is also widely believed to have a female San-shin. Everyone that I have spoken to on several visits there agrees that the Kye-ryong-san-shin is female, but many of the San-shin taeng-hwa I photographed there depicted it as the usual old man. This is not really surprising, and is not a contradiction for the traditional Korean mind. |
 |
| Above: the uncarved granite statue found after a dream by the Master of the Three Sages Palace, and enshrined as their San-shin icon. |
 |
| The eastern side of Jiri-san, seen from Highway 20 in 1998. |
 |
 |
| Above: Jiri-san's Cheon-hwang-bong, viewed from Beob-gye-sa Trailhead area to the southeast. At 1915 meters, this is the highest peak in mainland South Korea. |
| Right: the San-shin painting at Yaksu-sa [Healing Waters Temple] another small, strange place in the Beob-gye-sa Ipgu area. Note the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues in front of it! It's fairly normal, except for the *5* attendants -- 4 boys up front and a white-robed girl in the bushes behind -- never seen that before, and not sure who she is supposed to be. |
| Left: the southern face of Cheon-hwang-bong seen from the hiking trail. Beob-gye-sa Temple, one of the top-three highest-elevation Buddhist complexes in South Korea, can be seen to the lower-right. |
| More photos of this amazing place and its Goddess will be posted someday... |