So you have a college application due or an important exam, what do you do? Assuming you’ve studied well, the next stop is hiking to Palgongsan Gatbawi to make a prayer.
This Buddha located atop a peak on the Palgongsan mountain range, has become famous for it’s head piece that resembles a graduation cap. This head piece has made it the go to spot for Daegu’s Buddhists to pray for their children or their own academic success.
If you wish to just see the Buddha, it’s a steep 1.2km ‘hike’ – it’s completely stairs – from the parking lot next to the Seonbongsa Temple (선봉사) to this mountaintop temple.
This is the recommended starting point as it is the most developed (with cafes) and is directly connected to Hayang and Gyeongsan by bus #803 or by transferring at Daegu’s green line/line 2 from Yeongnamdae station (영남대역), you can reach here from Daegu. The bus comes fairly often about once every 25 minutes.
If you want to make the trek, I would recommend going on a Saturday. It’s the day of prayer so large crowds gather and chanting can be heard from a distance. There is a cafe in this Buddhist temple that offers a wide variety of iced and hot drinks.
Flowers are put out on Saturdays as offerings. For those participating in the prayer, after the service they give away fruit and other snacks.
While the Buddha and temple is a special experience especially on Saturday, chances are this will require a 3 hour round trip bus ride. With that in mind, I don’t think just going to the buddha is worth that much effort. Therefore, I suggest including a 2km round trip hiking detour from the buddha to see the Yongjuam Temple (용주암). By adding this temple you can turn this trip into a truly a special day.
The Yongjuam Temple grounds has a raised mountaintop temple platform, from which there are sweeping mountain views and various landmarks like the Buddha temple can be seen. A beautiful site to see the Temple among the trees.
It appears that the traditional temple’s paint have been well maintained or recently redone, as the color is sharp. This is an excellent lunch spot with a small pond containing koi fish with seating.
It isn’t an easy 2km, it’s quiet steep but worth it. But I won’t advise going much further than the temple. I know this because I hiked from the east to the Buddha and I would not recommend this hike to my readers.
I started along the road that bus #803 drives on and traveled through Yongjuam Temple (smiling bear) to Gatbawi (dinosaur) and then down the mountain to the Seonbongsa Temple.
The trail is poorly maintained and its not often hiked, I took a wrong turn two times. Both of which required some backtracking. That signifiant tip in my elevation at around 3km, is one such backtracking event. I was not a happy camper – the lack of views throughout and an abundance of mosquitos at the start did not help my mood.
But it wasn’t all bad. I always love to be outside when the weather is nice. There were a couple nice views but I don’t think it’s worth adding an eastern component to your hike.
Gatbawi and Yongjuam are peaking through the forest foliage
I’m not a huge fan of the greater Palgongsan ridge in part because there’s a significant need for trail maintenance and updated sign posts throughout. But the Gatbawi section of this range has received special attention and is in excellent condition.
My verdict
Its a must see for Daegu residents, but if you are only here for the weekend or a short while I’m not sure it worth taking up a better part of the day to see this site. If you do decide to make sure journey, I hope you consider checking out Yongjuam Temple as well.
