Paper Lanterns of Korea

Yay, Korea photos at last. There were so many pretty and interesting things we saw and took pictures of (I already shared the flowers here), some of them more exotic and new than others. Several people I shared my photo album with and who have not been in any Far Eastern country before were really impressed by my pictures of temples. To be honest, they weren't such a novelty for me as they reminded me of Japanese ones. Had this been my first exposure to this type of architecture, I definitely would have been less blasé, but of course they were still very impressive. One of the things I really loved and had not seen in this form or quantity before were paper lanters put up for the celebrations of Buddha's Birthday. In addition to traditionally (well, for me anyway) shaped lanterns there were others in the shape of animals of the Chinese zodiac, etc. On our domestic flight from Jeju island to Seoul I read in the magazine of Korean Air that this traditional art of paper-lantern-making was only revived quite recently.

Here are some photos to give you an idea. Pretty, eh?