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4 Seasons of Mt. Gazi |
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| Intorduction |
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As there are many mountains near Mt. Gaji that are also more than 1,000 m height, the surroundings are beautiful, and in particular, exceptional in the fall.
Famous as the mountain where you can see the sunrise at the earliest than on any other mountain in Korea, Mt. Gaji boasts of many fantastic rocks, including Ssalbawi, which is known for a legend that it gives out grains of rice, attracting many tourists. |
One of the 100 noted mountains in Korea, as designated by the Korea Forest Service, Mt. Gaji is abundant in cliffs and peaks that are made of rocks in the area of Ssalbawi, falls, and the famous Eoreumgol, as well as Seoknamsa, a Buddhist temple where Buddhist nuns study.
Not only acting as a fence for Ulsan, Mt. Gaji is also the origin of the Taehwa River, the lifeline of Ulsan. It is not too much to say that Mt. Gaji made Ulsan. |
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| Origin and legend |
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On top of Mt. Gaji in Sangbuk-myeon is a big rock called Ssalbawi.
Long time ago, there was a Buddhist monk who built a humble, small temple under Ssalbawi, and learned about discipline. Once every few days, he would go to the towns, beg for food, and come back to his temple. Life could not be more difficult for him.
Buddha must have felt sorry for this monk, and a miracle occurred.
One day he was praying to Amida Buddha, he looked at the crevice of the rock without thinking, and found there was rice enough for one person piling up. From that day on, strangely enough, rice for one person would come out from the rock as if a drop of water would fall down.
Therefore, the monk did not need to go down to beg for food any more. After some time passed, a great idea hit him.
He was thinking, this rice coming out from the rock was too small to stock, there must have been a way to get it to come out in greater quantity. Then, he thought that if he made the hole, where rice was coming out, bigger, then he could get more rice.
So he made a bigger hole, thinking that he could get more rice with it, so that he could get a bigger temple and a better career. He was so happy thinking that he could succeed. However, after he made a bigger hole, there was no more rice coming out. Only water would drop where rice used to come out.
Since then, people called the rock Ssalbawi (Rock of Rice).
This story tells us to live within our means.
Another reason the rock got its name may have come from the idea of homonyms. In the old days, water used to be called the same homophone for rice. People used to say, take a maeppab or ring maeppab on the table they used to call rice mae. |
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| Location |
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| (689-823) Deokhyeon-ri, Sangbuk-myeon, Ulju-Gun, Ulsan |
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| Climbing course |
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| Seoknamsa and Unmunnyeong -> Gwibawi -> Ssalbawi -> Mt. Gaji -> Ssalbawi -> Gwibawi -> Seoknamsa |
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4 Seasons of Mt. Gazi
