Buseoksa
Interesting facts
- According to temple legend, the dragon Seonmyo lies buried beneath Muryangsujeon, and a small shrine behind the hall, Seonmyogak, is dedicated to her.
- A shrub outside Josadang known as Seonbihwa is said, according to legend, to have grown from Uisang's walking stick more than 1,300 years ago.
- The temple rises through nine stone terraces linked by flights of stairs, often read as the nine levels of the Pure Land paradise.
- When Muryangsujeon was dismantled for repair in 1916, workers found a written record inside dating from the reign of the Joseon king Gwanghaegun.
- Josadang, the Founder's Hall dedicated to Uisang, dates from 1377, and its wall paintings are a separate National Treasure.
- Besides its five National Treasures, Buseoksa holds eight further state-designated Treasures, among them Goryeo-period woodblocks of the Flower Garland Sutra.
- Uisang founded the monastery in 676 under a royal decree from King Munmu of Silla.
- A three-storey stone pagoda from the Silla period stands on the terrace east of the main hall.
Why it is worth it
Buseoksa climbs the flank of Bonghwangsan in a series of stone-walled terraces, so that every gate and courtyard opens onto a wider view of the ranges of North Gyeongsang until, at the top, the old wooden hall of Muryangsujeon looks out over ridge after ridge of mountains. The temple was founded in 676 by the monk Uisang, who had studied in Tang China and made Buseoksa the centre of the Korean Hwaeom (Huayan) school, so closely that the school itself came to be called after it.
The name means "floating stone", and it comes from a story recorded in the Samguk yusa. According to the legend, a Chinese woman named Seonmyo who admired Uisang during his studies turned herself into a dragon to guard his voyage home to Silla; when bandits blocked the building of the temple, she became a great rock and hovered over them until they fled, then settled behind the main hall. A boulder carved with the characters for "floating stone" still lies beside Muryangsujeon. The temple's founding also had a political side: after the unification of the peninsula under Silla, Hwaeom monasteries were established in each region as spiritual anchors for a newly united realm.
Muryangsujeon, the Hall of Infinite Life, enshrines Amitabha and is, together with the Geungnakjeon of Bongjeongsa, one of the two oldest wooden buildings in Korea. An earlier hall burned in 1358, and the present one was rebuilt in 1376 under the Goryeo dynasty. Five bays wide and three deep under a hipped-and-gabled roof, it is regarded as the clearest example of the jusimpo bracketing system, in which brackets sit only on top of the columns, and its builders used subtle refinements — columns that swell slightly in the middle, corners raised and posts leaning inward — to counter optical distortion. Unusually, the clay Amitabha, itself a National Treasure, sits at the side of the hall rather than facing the entrance. In front stands an ancient stone lantern, and higher up the Josadang shrine of 1377 preserves Buddhist wall paintings; in all, five National Treasures belong to the temple. In 2018 Buseoksa was inscribed on the World Heritage List as one of the seven Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea.
Getting there
Buseoksa is in Buseok-myeon, about 20 km from the city of Yeongju in North Gyeongsang Province; Yeongju Station is on the Jungang Line. The nearest airport is Wonju Airport (WJU), about 81 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Buseoksa is a Buddhist temple located near the mountain Bonghwangsan in Buseok-myeon, Yeongju, South Korea. It was founded by the prominent scholar-monk Uisang in 676.
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