Maitreya Buddha in Mitasa Temple and Tragic Story of Korean War near Mitasa

It was not easy to get to the Mitasa Temple which was located in north west of Seoul in Korea. The Road to Mitasa Temple was so slippery due to the snow fallen the day before.

The Maitreya Stone Buddha in Mitasa Temple is so unique in it’s history.
The Maitreya Buddha is a future Buddha having a meaning of the savior.
The reason why we dropped by was this Buddha statue had been buried for long time, we could estimate at least more than several hundred years.

This Buddha was found at the early age of 1920s under the ground.
It is believed that the style of this Buddha was similar to that of Koryeo Dynasty.
But it was not certain when this statue had been built.

Even though this statue had been buried for a long time, the status of the statue was very nice. Nothing was broken or damaged.

I looked around the statue. It’s height was about 3.2 M and leaning forward slightly.

When checking the statue, an oldman came to us and asked what brought us here.
And he continued to explaining his work relating to the Korean War memorial monument near Mitasa temple.

And he guided us the place where the construction for the monument was undergoing.
Actually this was an extending work for the monument.

According to his explanation, there was a serious combat action in this mountain and more than thousand South Korean solders had been killed in action by North Korean Army.

The oldman said that he was a witness of that combat.
He explained that one commander of South Korea Army committed suicide with his pistol after the defeat in the combat.
And his assistant continued to attack to North Korea Army which seized the only airport near Seoul. It was said that that officer had rode a military car with machine gun to the enemy alone.
It was a counter attack. But this counter attack failed and he was shot to death

At the war memorial monument, I could see the airport, the name of KimPo airport.

The story of suicide and counter attack would reminded me of a scene of cinema.

But Alas. After the combat, the bodies of South Korean solders were left out on the mountain.
He said that they could not have buried the bodies for several months.
Because South Korean Army retreated far way, so they could not be able to collect and bury the bodies. People near the combat place were afraid to be harmed by the North Korean Army, so they could not take care the bodies.

He told me after building a war memorial monument here, there would have not occurred some bad things.

Below was an original monument.

Korea is a small country. I didn’t know before there were so much tragic history in this small country. The oldman was a former city congressman and invited us in next years ceremony.

I don’t know it is coincidence that the combat place and Maitreya Buddha were in same place.

What did Maitreya Buddha think when they killed each other ?