Jongmyo — temple
João Trindade · CC BY 2.0

Jongmyo

  • 2 min read
  • 37.575° N 126.994° E

Interesting facts

  • The ritual and its court music, Jongmyo jerye and jeryeak, were proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001.
  • In Joseon times the ancestral rites were held in the middle of the night by torchlight and candlelight; today's ceremony takes place by day.
  • A king's spirit tablet was enshrined only after the three-year mourning period for him had ended.
  • The tablets of two Joseon kings were never admitted to the shrine at all.
  • The most recent enshrinements took place in 1973 and 1991, for Crown Prince Euimin and his wife, Crown Princess Bangja.
  • The second hall, Yeongnyeongjeon, arose when officials refused to bury the tablet of an old ancestor; following a Song Chinese precedent, they built a separate shrine for it instead.
  • A square pond dug in 1443 holds a round island, echoing the belief that heaven is round and earth square, and is planted with junipers instead of pines.
  • Ritual officials purify themselves for seven days before the great rite, and other participants for three days.
  • Following a Goryeo custom, the shrine also honours meritorious officials who served the Joseon kings, in a hall of their own.
  • In the 2020s workers found a document of 1726, recording an extension of the main hall, folded and tucked onto its ridge beam.

Why it is worth it

Jongmyo, the royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon dynasty in Seoul, is architecture of almost severe restraint: a single low timber hall under one long tiled roof, stretched across the end of a vast courtyard. Its main hall, Jeongjeon, is the longest building of traditional design in Korea, and UNESCO, which inscribed the shrine on the World Heritage List in 1995, describes it as the oldest preserved royal Confucian shrine, where rituals continue a tradition going back to the 14th century.

The shrine was built in 1394, when Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty, moved his capital to Hanseong, today's Seoul. At first Jeongjeon had seven chambers, each holding the spirit tablets of a king and his queens; King Sejong in the 15th century added a second hall, Yeongnyeongjeon, and the main hall was lengthened eastward over the centuries as more tablets needed room, eventually reaching 19 chambers. During the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598 the complex was burned, though the original tablets survived hidden in a commoner's house; the shrine was rebuilt in 1601, and that is the building that stands today. Jeongjeon now holds the tablets of 19 kings and 30 queens, and Yeongnyeongjeon those of 16 kings and 18 queens. In front of the main hall lies the Woldae courtyard, about 150 metres by 100.

Jongmyo was laid out by Confucian rule: seen from the throne hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace, it lay to the king's left and the Sajik altar to his right. The south gate was reserved for the spirits, the east gate for the king and the west gate for ritual performers. Every year, on the first Sunday in May, descendants of the royal family hold the Jongmyo Daeje, the great ancestral rite, accompanied by Jongmyo jeryeak, Joseon court music to which King Sejong composed new pieces, played by the national court orchestra with ritual dancers. Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung palaces adjoin the shrine to the north; a road that cut them off from it from 1932 was moved into a tunnel in 2019, reuniting the grounds.

Getting there

Jongmyo lies in Jongno District in central Seoul, South Korea, under 2 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Gimpo International Airport (GMP), about 18 km to the west.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in South Korea 21The Most Beautiful Temples 95The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

Jongmyo (Korean: 종묘) is a Confucian royal ancestral shrine in the Jongno District of Seoul, South Korea. It was originally built during the Joseon period (1392–1897) for memorial services for deceased kings and queens. According to UNESCO, the shrine is the oldest royal Confucian shrine preserved and the ritual ceremonies continue a tradition established in the 14th century. Such shrines existed during the Three Kingdoms of Korea period (57–668), but these have not survived. The Jongmyo Shrine was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1995.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

37.57472, 126.99361per Wikidata