As I understand it, the little (or sometimes not-so-little) piles of rocks and stones that you see at Buddhist temples and along hiking trails are prayer rocks, or wishing stones. A pile is built to represent a prayer or wish, and is often added to by other people as they pass by and add their own rocks, along with their own prayers and wishes. A random website I found says this:
Along the trails in Korea you see piles of rocks. A prayer will be said as the rock is put on the pile. By attaching a stone to another rock’s surface is a better chance of having your prayer answered. The stack of rocks can become very high.
I saw many of these prayer rocks while I was in Korea, and am posting this picture to share my wishes for fellow Korean adoptee blogger Julia (Julia’s JAM), who is battling leukemia.
Julia, I wish you health, and a long and happy life — because I know that you’re simply not done.
Also, if you are reading this and are of Asian descent, please consider joining me in registering to be a bone marrow/stem cell donor through the Asian American Donor Program; you could help save a life.
prayer rocks at Bongeun Temple; photograph (c) Sang-Shil Kim
13 responses so far ↓
justenjoyhim // May 13, 2008 at 10:15 pm |
I love this. What a beautiful idea.
My prayers go to Julia as well.
Margie // May 13, 2008 at 11:17 pm |
I remember these from the temples in Korea, and will think of them and the prayers they represent every time I see a stone or pebble. It’s lovely, and turns every walk outside into a prayer for Julia – and you too, Judy.
Thanks, Sang-Shil.
briko158 // May 14, 2008 at 9:29 am |
This is brilliant SS. Thanks for putting out the call to other Asian Americans to join the donor program. And as always thanks for praying for Julia.
Julia // May 14, 2008 at 10:18 am |
I love temples. I love prayer piles. I love you.
Thank you, so very very much.
Jen // May 14, 2008 at 3:22 pm |
Thank you for posting this. I saw some of these prayer rocks while in Korea. We’re praying for Julia here.
junemoon // May 14, 2008 at 9:49 pm |
Sang-Shil ~ Thank you for sharing about the prayer rocks. I absolutely believe in rituals and in their collective power and strength. junemoon
imtina // May 15, 2008 at 2:25 pm |
Oh, I love this too. Thank you for sharing the understanding of this ritual.
happybell // May 15, 2008 at 3:29 pm |
It scares me to think how hard is for K-Americans to find a donnor when there´s such a large Asian community over there; it scares me to think that if it were me, if none of the family is a match, there are only a handful of Asians here to turn to… Praying that Julia finds her match.
Sara_2 // May 17, 2008 at 9:22 pm |
hi, this is a beautiful tribute. Hope it is ok for me to post something here sort of in answer to happybell. A couple of years ago I did a websearch and emailed some doctors in Korea about whether adopted persons here could use the Korean marrow registries. The answer was yes (and for any person of Korean descent in the US, the Korean registries are hooked into the US NMDP ) . Also — for any person of Korean descent, the chance of a *perfect* match seems like about 50%, a “good-enough” match is 70-80%. Below is a quote from one of those emails –
-
> In Korea, there are two donor registries that your coordinator can contact.
>
> The one is Korean Marrow Donor Program and the phone no. is 82-2-752-6961;
email
> is kmdp@kmdp.or.kr; fax is 82-2-752-9428.
>
> I believe when you contact the above program, they will search for both
> registries for the patient.
>
> The registies are fairely of large size and we can find molecularly matched
> donor in about half the times. Obviously, if you allow one or two mismatches,
> the chances go up to 70-80%.
>
Bongeun Temple « Land of the Not-So-Calm // May 18, 2008 at 12:04 pm |
[...] addition to the picture of the prayer rocks that I posted earlier, there were also tiny statues sitting in seemingly random locations. I like [...]
happybell // May 19, 2008 at 12:31 pm |
Sara_2,
It’s good to know what you just wrote, it offers hope to many. However that would not apply to me since I am not an adoptee nor do I am an US citizen or live in the US.
I am of mixed race and live in South America, in a country where 5-6% is of African descent or Mulato, 1-2% is of Asian descent -mainly from Lebanon, Siria, China or Japan-, and the rest descend from European Caucasians. If I were in need and did not find a match within my mother’s family (caucasian) the chances of finding one within the donnors list would be very slim due to the breif list that exists and the lack of minorities .
But, like I said, it’s good to know what you posted, and I sincerely hope that as many people as possible can benefit from that possibility.
Sara_2 // May 19, 2008 at 10:38 pm |
Happybell, I do not think at all that this option is for US residents only or adoptees only, rather that the people who run the Korean marrow banks are happy to help anyone anywhere who is Korean – at least that was my impression from the emails. But of course the Korean registry will be useful mostly to people of Korean ethnic background. I think even in the US marrow banks it is true that not many people are multiracial, but if you were ever in need, at least it would be worthwhile to see if your doctors could access the bank in the US. Hopefully it would be allowed. Good luck and good health to you, and may few of us ever need this information.
Julia « Land of the Not-So-Calm // June 1, 2008 at 7:00 pm |
[...] Like these towers of prayer rocks, [...]