Positive Places, Experiences and Practices
  • Home
  • About us
    • MD People
    • Catherine GERMIER-HAMEL
  • Our solutions
    • Training and capacity-building
    • Herost
    • Millennium Hikers
  • Clients & Partners
    • Projects & References
  • Sustainable Tourism
  • MD Stories
  • Contact us

Millennium Villages as Tourism Destinations Project International Workshop on Health Issues and Tourism in Africa - Seoul, Republic of Korea

10/31/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Catherine Germier-Hamel, Millennium Destinations, with Dr. Joanna Rubinstein, Chief of Staff, the Earth Institute and Mr. Ellis Rubinstein, President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences
Within the framework of its Millennium Villages as Tourism Destinations Project, UNWTO ST-EP Foundation hosted an International Workshop on Health Issues and Tourism in Africa on Oct. 31st, 2014, at the Foundation's headquarters in Seoul, Rep. of Korea, with Dr. Joanna Rubinstein, Chief of Staff and Director of the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, as keynote speaker, and Ms. Catherine Hamel, Sustainable Tourism Expert, as moderator. 

Participants of the workshop included the five Master’s students of Park Chung-hee School of Policy and Saemaul in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, from Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Sudan, and Tanzania.

In her presentation, Dr. Rubinstein introduced the Millennium Villages Project and its achievements since 2005, particularly regarding health and innovation. The workshop was followed by a working luncheon focusing on the negative impact of Ebola outbreak on the whole tourism industry in Africa, and the challenges and obstacles related to the fear of travelling to Africa due to safety and health issues. All participants shared their personal ideas and stories to improve the image of African destinations. 
Picture
With Amb. Dho Young-shim, Chairperson of UNWTO ST-EP Foundation, Dr. Rubinstein, Mr. Rubinstein, Mr. Eric Park (3rd from left), Director of International Tourism Division, Korean Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Tourism, ST-EP Foundation’s staff, and the five students at Yeungnam University in North Gyeongsang Province from Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Sudan, and Tanzania.
0 Comments

Spiritual Tourism: Group works to establish Korea’s first sustainable pilgrimage trail to honor Wonhyo, historic, beloved monk

10/23/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureTony Mc Gregor (right)

A plan to establish a sustainable trans-peninsula pilgrimage trail to honor Korea’ most beloved and controversial monk took a step forward recently as project supporters mapped out the trail, met with government officials and added partners to the project.

The Wonhyo Trail Committee spent the last week of November 2014 travelling through the mountains, meeting with abbots of temples and mapping the trail. The trail is expected to run from Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, to Wonhyo’s cave near Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. It is planned to link into the worldwide, growing trend for pilgrimages and spiritual journeys, and to offer Korea an opportunity for local development in rural areas.
Tony Mc Gregor (right), Chair, The Wonhyo Trail Committee“The monks and abbots are almost universally enthusiastic about the trail,” said Tony MacGregor, a Canadian and chair of the Wonhyo Trail Committee. “It’s a question of harnessing the enthusiasm to make the trail a reality. It’s amazing that Wonhyo is still such a reality to many people more than 1,300 years after he lived.”

McGregor said that the Wonhyo Trail Committee is growing in influence and strength with the addition of new individuals organizations, including the Seoul-based Millennium Destinations, which specializes in sustainable tourism development and promotion. He added that the committee had talked to government officials and were developing a plan to involve local governments, particularly the provinces through which the trail passes, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as well as national and international organizations interested in supporting the initiative

Korea’s Jogye Order is helping with the project with planning and organizing and providing accommodation for the trail planners. MacGregor said the impetus for the project, which began in 2007, came from the impression Wonhyo created on foreigners who read his works and studied him.

Wonhyo (617 – 686), an eccentric and rebel, Korea’s most beloved and controversial monk, was a great scholar with more than 80 commentaries and essays to his credit. Born into a simple family in the Silla Kingdom, Wonhyo, a monk for many years, renounced the formal religious life to teach ordinary people. He was known to beat a gourd while dancing and singing in the village streets, encouraging people to chant and recite the Buddha’s name. He called himself “ooae-Gursah” (unhindered practitioner). He is sometimes called the laughing monk. He had a son while he was a monk, generating intense controversy that continues today.

MacGregor said Wonhyo’s philosophy centered on oneness or Ekayana, the interrelatedness of everything in the universe. Legend has it that this view arose from an even that took place while he was attempting to travel to China. That event is the focus of the pilgrimage.

“He still has a tremendous appeal on a personal level as well as through his writings,” said MacGregor. “In fact, I would say his he is better known today for his actions – the stories that are told about him - than for his teachings.” 

One of the stories is about his enlightenment. To reach China, Wonhyo journeyed with his friend Uisang across the Korean Peninsula to the port of Danjugye, a city no longer in existence near-present-day Incheon. Legend has it that on a dark night a storm drove Wonhyo and Uisang into a cave for shelter near Dangjugye. During the night Wonhyo was overcome with thirst and searched in the dark for something to drink. On the cave floor, he found what he thought to be a gourd filled with cool water and lifting it to his lips drank deeply from its refreshing contents. In the morning when he awoke, he looked for the vessel and was shocked.

The delicious, thirst-quenching water of the previous night was dirty rainwater swarming with maggots that had collected in a rotten skull-cap. He fell to his knees and vomited and experienced deep inner enlightenment. He realized that truth is created by the mind.

MacGregor said the Wonhyo Trail enthusiasts had made two pilgrimages. They made a film of the second pilgrimage. The ceremony at the end of the trips at Wonhyo’s cave involved drinking clean water from containers to emulate Wonhyo’s actions more than 1,300 years ago. He said the pilgrimages were the first real attempt to emulate Wonhyo’s journey in 1,300 years. “Our hope is that the trail will develop and grow into a Korean version of Spain’s famous Camino de Santiago, offering pilgrims an opportunity to explore themselves as they travel by foot across the Korean peninsula,” he said.

“Our pilgrimage took us 500 kilometers on tracks and unknown by-ways, while leading us to mountain monasteries. We spent many hours with the monks who inhabit the monasteries, talking to them about their experiences, enlightenment and true happiness. It was a unique experience and I hope many people will be able to experience it,” he said.

0 Comments

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014


CONTACT US
ABOUT US
OUR SOLUTIONS
​PROJECTS AND REFERENCES
CLIENTS AND PARTNERS
France - Cambodia
Promoting Positive Places, Experiences and Practices​
Icons by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
  • Home
  • About us
    • MD People
    • Catherine GERMIER-HAMEL
  • Our solutions
    • Training and capacity-building
    • Herost
    • Millennium Hikers
  • Clients & Partners
    • Projects & References
  • Sustainable Tourism
  • MD Stories
  • Contact us