Korea
Korea's sacred places put Buddhist monasteries and shamanic shrines side by side, often on the same mountain. The places here span five areas, from shrines on Seoul's mountainsides to island hermitages on the south coast.
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Places in this collection
TempleHaeinsa
- Protection & Safety
The temple holding the Tripitaka Koreana, cut out of a national wish to repel the Mongols, and the hall that has kept it.
TempleSeokguram
- Family & Home
A stone grotto begun in 751 by Kim Dae-seong for his parents in a former life, paired with Bulguksa, which he built for his parents in this one.
TempleTongdosa
- Protection & Safety
The first of the five relic sanctuaries, whose main hall enshrines no buddha because it faces the relics behind it.
TempleBulguksa, Tohamsan
One man built this for the parents of this life, and Seokguram for the parents of a former one.
TempleSonggwangsa
The temple called the Sangha Jewel because so many great masters came from it, completing the trio with Tongdosa and Haeinsa.
TempleBeopjusa
- Miscellaneous
Founded in 553 and grown into the centre of Maitreya devotion, holding the only wooden pagoda in Korea.
TempleBuseoksa, Bonghwangsan
Built where a woman turned dragon turned rock, and hung in the air until five hundred bandits left.
TempleJogyesa
- Exams & Study
The head temple of the Jogye Order, in the middle of downtown Seoul, where a prayer for children ends the day before the national entrance exam each year.
TempleBongeunsa
- Family & Home
Founded by a widow to pray for her dead husband’s repose, and later made head temple of the Seon school.
TempleMagoksa
A thousand-year-old temple on Taehwasan said to have been founded by Jajang, where two main halls stand one behind the other up the slope.
TempleBeomeosa, Geumjeongsan
A golden fish came down out of the sky, and both the mountain and the temple were named after it.
TempleHwaeomsa
A temple whose great hall took the name Gakhwangjeon after King Sukjong sent down a board he had written himself.
TempleBongjeongsa, Cheondeungsan
The temple where the oldest wooden building in Korea stands.
TempleBunhwangsa
- Health & Healing
The temple that held the image a blind child’s mother prayed to, after which he saw.
TempleDaeheungsa, Duryunsan
The temple that came to receive state rites because it held the bowl and robe of the master Seosan.
TempleSeonunsa, Dosolsan
A temple paid in salt, because it had taught the coast how to make it.
TempleSsanggyesa, Jirisan
The ground a tiger led them to, after a search for a place with snow and flowers at once.
TempleWoljeongsa, Odaesan
Head temple of the fourth Jogye district, begun where its founder tried to see Manjushri in the flesh and did not.
TempleGeumsansa
The temple where Jinpyo enshrined a colossal Maitreya, whose three-storey hall stands for the three assemblies Maitreya will preach.
TempleHaedong Yonggungsa
- Wish Fulfillment
One of Korea’s three great Avalokitesvara sites, standing right on the sea.
TempleJikjisa, Hwangaksan
Named because Ado, standing at another temple, pointed his finger at this mountain.
TempleSeonamsa, Jogyesan
A temple whose record sets two founding accounts side by side and says which it trusts more.
TempleSinheungsa, Seoraksan
A temple that changed its name three times, and moved its ground each time it did.
TempleSudeoksa, Deoksungsan
A temple whose main hall is one of the oldest buildings in Korea whose date of construction is certainly known.
TempleBaekyangsa, Baegamsan
Renamed because white sheep kept coming to the sound of a sutra being read.
TempleGuinsa
The head temple of the Cheontae Order, founded in 1945, with a five-storey concrete hall that seats ten thousand.
TempleNaksansa
Burned four times and rebuilt each time; the 2005 wildfire took even its bronze bell, a Treasure whose designation was then revoked.
TempleSilsangsa, Jirisan
Founded at the moment the Silsang school, one of the Nine Mountain Seon schools, was opened.
TempleUnmunsa, Hogeosan
The temple where the line begins that ends with Wongwang writing the five worldly precepts.
TempleBaengnyeonsa, Mandeoksan
Where an association was formed that stood level with the one at Songgwangsa.
TempleBongseonsa, Unaksan
Rebuilt at eighty-nine kan by a queen, to guard the tomb of the king she had lost.
TempleDonghwasa
A temple on Palgongsan founded by Simji, renamed Donghwasa because paulownia bloomed all around it.
TempleEunhaesa, Palgongsan
The temple took its present name in the year it was made keeper of a king’s placenta shrine.
TempleGounsa, Deungunsan
A temple whose name kept its sound but changed its characters, to hold one man’s pen name.
TempleJeondeungsa, Jeongjoksan
A temple renamed because of a single jade lamp given by a queen consort.
TempleMihwangsa, Dalmasan
Built where an ox last stopped, and named for the sound the ox made.
TempleNaesosa, Neungasan
A temple that knows neither when it was founded nor when its name changed.
TemplePyochungsa, Jaeyaksan
Named when the character for shrine in its name gave way to the character for temple.
TempleBaekdamsa, Seoraksan
Built where a count of the pools from Cheongbong down to the temple came to a hundred, and named for that number.
TempleBulgapsa, Moaksan
A temple said to be Baekje’s first — a claim its own encyclopaedia declines to accept.
TempleDogapsa, Wolchulsan
Rebuilt at nine hundred and sixty-six kan by a monk who had left home at this very temple.
TempleDorisa, Naengsan
Founded, the account says, because flowers were in full bloom here in winter — and handed down as the first temple in Silla.
TempleGirimsa, Hamwolsan
Founded by a monk from India, and renamed later by Wonhyo.
TempleGwanchoksa, Banyasan
Where a stone Maitreya took thirty-seven years to carve and could not be stood up until someone watched two children playing in mud.
TempleJingwansa, Bukhansan
The temple where a Korean flag was found inside a wall.
Historic SiteTomb of King Munmu
- Protection & Safety
The tomb of King Munmu of Silla, set on a rock in the sea because he willed to become a dragon and guard the East Sea.
TempleMuwisa, Wolchulsan
A temple where the wall painting records the year it was painted.
TempleSilleuksa, Bongmisan
The temple where the only surviving Goryeo brick pagoda in Korea stands.
TempleSsangbongsa, Gyedangsan
The only building that carried the form of a three-storey wooden pagoda, lost to a candle.
TempleBogyeongsa, Naeyeonsan
A temple that takes its name from a mirror buried beneath it.
TempleBongwonsa, Ansan
The temple where the leaders of the 1884 coup learned the reformist thought behind it.
TempleGapsa, Gyeryongsan
A Three Kingdoms temple with three separate accounts of its founding, and where Yeonggyu took ordination.
TempleGatbawi
- Exams & Study
- Wish Fulfillment
A Unified Silla stone Buddha seated on the summit of Gwanbong on Palgongsan, and the busiest prayer site in the country in the weeks before the university entrance exam.
TempleGolgulsa
A temple of twelve stone caves worked out of natural hollows.
TempleGwallyongsa, Gwallyongsan
Nine dragons went up, and one sighting named both the temple and the mountain.
TempleGwaneumsa, Hallasan
- Protection & Safety
The head temple of the Jogye Order’s 23rd district, on the slope of Hallasan, founded in the spring of 1909 by the nun Bongnyeogwan.
TempleJeongamsa
- Protection & Safety
A relic sanctuary where Jajang is said to have enshrined the Buddha’s skull bone, a tooth and a hundred relics, with a National Treasure stupa on the slope behind.
TemplePagyesa, Palgongsan
The temple where a king’s robe came out of an Avalokitesvara statue.
TempleTaeansa, Dongnisan
The central temple of the Dongni school, one of the Nine Mountain Seon schools.
TempleUnjusa
- Protection & Safety
The temple where Doseon is said to have raised a thousand buddhas and pagodas in a day and a night, to stop the country from listing.
TempleYongmunsa, Yongmunsan
The temple whose courtyard ginkgo was granted an office by King Sejong of Joseon.
TempleBoriam
- Wish Fulfillment
An Avalokiteśvara prayer site on the slope of Geumsan, counted with Hongryeonam and Bomunsa among Korea’s three great sites.
TempleChiljangsa, Chilhyeonsan
- Exams & Study
The mountain and the temple are both named for seven robbers who became seven sages.
TempleDaewonsa, Jirisan
Counted among the country’s leading meditation halls for women in the monastic life.
TempleDonghaksa, Gyeryongsan
Where rites were held to summon the spirits of the six martyred ministers and of King Danjong, and where one of Korea’s foremost seminaries for nuns stands.
TempleBomunsa
- Wish Fulfillment
Counted with Boriam and Hongryeonam among Korea’s three great Avalokiteśvara sites, with a stone chamber holding figures said to have come up in a fisherman’s net.
TempleHeungcheonsa, Samgaksan
A temple of more than a hundred and seventy kan, raised beside a queen’s tomb by the king who had lost her.
Historic SiteHoeamsa Temple Site, Cheonbosan
The site of a temple of two hundred and sixty-six kan, modelled on Nalanda and long since abandoned.
TempleHongryeonam
- Wish Fulfillment
A hermitage built where Uisang is said to have met Avalokiteśvara, its hall raised so the sea can be seen moving beneath the floor.
TempleSangwonsa
- Health & Healing
A temple on Odaesan founded in 705, at the centre of the mountain’s Manjushri devotion, and known for the story that King Sejo met the bodhisattva here as a boy and was healed.
TempleBuinsa, Palgongsan
Where the woodblocks of the first Tripitaka, brought here for safety, were entirely destroyed in the Mongol invasion of 1232.
TempleCheongpyeongsa, Obongsan
A temple whose Goryeo garden is the listed monument, and where a son rebuilding his father’s work renamed the mountain as well.
TempleHyangiram
- Wish Fulfillment
One of the country’s four sea-facing Avalokiteshvara prayer halls, named "facing the sun" for the sunrise seen from it.
TempleMuryangsa, Mansusan
The temple where Kim Si-seup spent his last years and died.
TempleSujongsa, Ungilsan
Named because what a king took for a bell in the night turned out to be dripping water in a cave.
TempleYongjusa
- Family & Home
The temple King Jeongjo refounded beside his father’s grave, holding the woodblocks of the sutra on what children owe their parents.
TempleBogwangsa, Goryeongsan
- Family & Home
The temple King Yeongjo attached to the tomb of the woman who bore him.
TempleHwagyesa, Samgaksan
A temple paid for by two men holding the same title, two hundred and fifty years apart.
CaveSanbanggulsa
A Buddha image set in a cave in the south cliff of Sanbangsan, where the water falling from the ceiling is called a goddess’s tears.
TempleYongyeonsa, Biseulsan
Where a portion of Tongdosa’s Buddha relics, evacuated during the Imjin War, was taken in on the journey back.
TempleGaesimsa, Sangwangsan
A temple whose founding record holds two incompatible dates inside a single sentence, so that its year cannot be established.
TempleJeongsusa, Manisan
A temple renamed for clear water someone saw rising to the west of its hall.
TempleSeunggasa, Bukhansan
A temple holding a stone portrait of an Indian monk who went to Tang China.
ShrineSongdang Bonhyangdang
- Protection & Safety
The shrine of the parent gods of Jeju’s village guardian deities, whose children, the myth says, scattered across the island and became its shrine gods.
TempleBongjeongam
- Protection & Safety
A hermitage on Sosecheongbong in Seoraksan, one of the five relic sanctuaries, holding relics Jajang is said to have brought back.
TempleDaegyeonsa, Biseulsan
A site that went to ruin in 1917 and became a temple again in 2014.
TempleGuryongsa, Chiaksan
A temple whose founding legend has a single written charm dry up the pool where nine dragons lived.
Historic SiteSancheondan
The altar to which Hallasan’s mountain-god rite was moved down from the summit, after islanders froze to death on the way to it.
TempleYonggungsa, Baegunsan
- Fertility & Children
A temple renamed by the Heungseon Daewongun, with two zelkovas reckoned at about 1,300 years.
TempleEunjeoksa, Apsan
Built at the cave where Wang Geon hid for three days, and named with the characters for hiding and for traces.
ShrineNami Janggun Shrine
- Health & Healing
- Protection & Safety
A shrine raised to console the wronged spirit of a general beheaded at twenty-seven.
Sacred MountainTaebaeksan Cheonjedan
- Miscellaneous
A stone altar for heaven rites on the summit, where a rite is offered each National Foundation Day and where the state has sacrificed since Silla.
TempleYakcheonsa
- Health & Healing
A temple in Daepo-dong, Seogwipo, whose name means the temple where medicinal spring water flows.
TempleBukjijangsa, Palgongsan
A temple where a building’s true name lay in its own ridge-beam record for more than two hundred and fifty years before a repair uncovered it.
TempleBultapsa
- Fertility & Children
A temple on the site of Wondangsa, which Empress Gi is said to have built and sent an envoy to pray at, in order to obtain a son.
TempleTapsa, Maisan
- Protection & Safety
A temple among stone towers raised by one man over a lifetime, of which about eighty of the original hundred and eight still stand.
TempleManggyeongsa, Taebaeksan
Built to house a stone image of Manjushri that its founder came here because he had heard it had appeared.
Historic SiteChamseongdan, Manisan
- Miscellaneous
A stone altar said to have been raised by Dangun for rites to heaven, used for state sacrifices under Goryeo and Joseon, and the site of a rite held every National Foundation Day.
TempleSangwonsa, Chiaksan
The temple whose bell a pheasant struck three times, and whose mountain was renamed for it.
TempleBaeknyeonsa, Goryeosan
The temple named for the place a white lotus came down.
ShrineGwenegitdang
The shrine of the sixth son of Songdang Bonhyangdang, where a whole pig has been offered each year.
TempleJeongmyeol-bogung, Odaesan
- Protection & Safety
A relic hall on the middle terrace of Odaesan with no buddha image inside, because the Buddha’s own relics are enshrined there.
ShrineHaesindang
- Protection & Safety
A village shrine raised to settle the grievance of a young woman drowned at sea, where carved wooden phalluses have been offered.
TempleNamjijangsa, Choejeongsan
Called south because it stands opposite Bukjijangsa on Palgongsan.
ShrineWaheul Bonhyangdang
A shrine holding the eleventh son of the Songdang deity together with a goddess who, estranged from him, sits apart in one corner.
TempleBeophwasa
The site of a large temple that flourished on Jeju from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, burned in the early eighteenth and rebuilt in 1987.
ShrineGuksadang, Inwangsan
- Fertility & Children
- Health & Healing
- Protection & Safety
A shaman shrine moved from Namsan to the slope of Inwangsan in 1925 under Japanese pressure, where roughly a hundred gut rites are still held each year.
Historic SiteHyeonchungsa
A shrine raised in 1706 to honour Admiral Yi Sun-sin, left to decay under colonial rule and rebuilt in 1932 by public subscription.
TempleDoseonsa
- Wish Fulfillment
Founded by Doseon in 862, with a rock-carved Avalokiteshvara he is said to have split the stone by hand to cut, and a stream of people who come to pray.
Historic SiteMungyeong Saejae
- Exams & Study
The highest and hardest pass on the road from the southeast to the capital, with three gates strung along six and a half kilometres.
TempleJungakdan, Sinwonsa
- Wish Fulfillment
The only survivor of the three royal mountain-god altars of Joseon stands in the grounds of Sinwonsa on Gyeryongsan.
TempleYeonjudae
A hermitage at the cliff edge on Gwanaksan, named for men who climbed here to look toward the fallen capital and weep.
ShrineDaegwallyeong Seonghwangsa and Sansingak
- Health & Healing
- Protection & Safety
A mountain-god shrine at the top of the Daegwallyeong pass, whose deity is recorded as presiding over farming, illness, drought and the road.
ShrineDonggwanwangmyo
- Protection & Safety
A shrine to Guan Yu raised after the Imjin War, the only one of Seoul’s four such shrines still standing.
TempleGanwolam
The hermitage where Muhak Daesa is said to have awakened on seeing the moon, cut off by the tide and reachable again when it falls.
Natural SiteHahoe Samsindang Tree
- Family & Home
A zelkova over six hundred years old at the centre of Hahoe village, the shrine of Samsin, the deity who grants children.
TempleDosolam
A hermitage of Seonunsa, with a seated Buddha thirteen metres high cut into the cliff and a gilt bronze Ksitigarbha inside.
TempleGoransa
A temple rebuilt by Baekje’s descendants after the kingdom fell, named for the rare fern growing on the cliff behind it.
Sacred MountainNogodan
The peak where rites to the Holy Mother of Jirisan began, before the rite moved to Namaksa and later to a hall beside Hwaeomsa.