In this project I want to discuss the recently emerging phenomenon of temple stay, which is a cultural experience program that has been steadily gaining popularity among tourists as well as foreigners living in South Korea and even Koreans themselves. It has been designed to offer curious participants the opportunity to spend a night or more in a Buddhist temple, and, in doing so, to experience the life of monks at first-hand, while gaining a better understanding of Korean Buddhism in general.

In addition to that there are temples offering special experiences in certain forms of meditation. One of them is the Golgulsa temple, where monks and temple stay participants practice seonmudo, a kind of dynamic meditation through movements which combine yoga, qi gong and traditional Korean martial arts on the corporeal level, while cultivating breathing techniques with the purpose of calming the mind and deepening one’s awareness. In one tourist advertisement seonmudo has been described as belonging to an esoteric tradition passed down through the centuries, even though it has only been revived and practiced since 1980. The meaning of the word seonmudo is “the way of martial Zen”, while the enacted movements represent embodiment of the Eightfold path along with insights into the Four noble truths as the elementary teaching of Buddha’s dharma.

Starting with the mystification, inventing of tradition, and numerous other ambivalencies concerning seonmudo, I want to take a critical stance towards the phenomenon itself and its translation into various bodily disciplines supposedly leading to the clearing of the mind. According to the self-presentation of temple administrators, this newly created fusion is a genuine source of knowledge and practice for some truth seekers who are looking for transformational experiences during the few days of their temple stay.