I was suprised to see in several temples in Korea a table for visitors with several black tiles that were used by locals to write some inscriptions.
At first, I didn’t really understand the reason of such practice, but it quickly appeared that these tiles would be used later on for repairing the roof of the temple. Korean temples have most of the time a traditional architecture, and the roofs are mainly composed by thousands of tiles that can be damaged or destroyed with the time.
By buying new tiles to the temple, visitors can financially support the monks but also write down their wishes or messages that will be litteraly slot in the temple. With time flying, the message will slowly disapear and the tile will appear as in its original state.
As I was walking back from a river to Beopjusa temple, I saw in the forest hundreds of tiles standing in the shadow of the trees, each of them having a wish or a message carefully written on it. Yet, vegetation was slowly eating them, as if all these wishes were sent to the forest, and not to the sky as it was originaly supposed to be.
Travels And Pictures 