For the last several years, my Dharma brothers have been working on building a new Dharma Hall. I’m quite proud of them both because they’ve been doing such an incredible job, and because they’ve been waiting untill they have all of the money necessary before starting each phase. (No borrowing money!) It’s taken seven or eight years now, (I can’t remember), but the work is nearing completion. They’re just finishing the painting and artwork, and the next step will be installing the flooring and then the Buddha statue. Here are some photos I took yesterday; click on the images to see a larger version.
Wake Up and Laugh! 
Looks pretty impressive, especially the finely detailed artwork.
I love the artwork and the “Dan-chung”. They used a much more subtle set of colors than is usual, and instead of doing all of the wood in bright red, they used a paint/stain that resembles the wood’s original color. So for the most part, where you see wood in these paintings, that’s the finished color.
Check out the fifth photo. There’s a golden bat in the painting. It turns out that bats have traditionally been regarded as Dharma protectors in Korea. I’m suddenly feeling proud of have been a Batman fan when I was a kid!
Wow, it’s really a beautiful hall, Sunim. Thank you for the pics!
It is a gorgeous building. They are using the money to hire professionals right? Or buying supplies and doing the work themselves?
What city/town is this located?
Hi Gerald,
Yes, most of the work is done by professionals. We’ve done some stuff ourselves in the past, but, umm, the difference is quite clear!! With the heavy stuff, professionals do the work much quicker and safer(!), and the artwork and creativity of the designs really are high-level art. There’s an amazing amount of subtle know-how involved in even the seemingly obivous parts.
I understand the concept of Dharma roughly, but what exactly is the significance of a Dharma Hall?