Baekyangsa, Baegamsan

Quick facts

Address

1239 Baegyang-ro, Bukha-myeon, Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do

About this place

Baekyangsa stands on Baegamsan in Bukha-myeon, Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, and is the head temple of the eighteenth district of the Jogye Order. In the Silla period an extraordinary monk first built a temple here and lived in it, calling it Baegamsa. The temple appears in the records under the names Baegamsa and Jeongtosa. In 1574, while Hwanyang was resident and reciting the Lotus Sutra daily, white sheep often gathered on hearing the sound of the reading, and for this the temple was renamed Baekyangsa. In the later eighteenth century Yangak Gyeseon, a disciple of Yeondam Yuil who had inherited Jian’s dharma lineage, greatly built up the lecture hall of Baekyangsa. In 1911 it was designated one of the thirty head temples under the temple ordinance enforced by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and in 1917 Manam Jongheon rebuilt it.

Origin and history

In the Silla period an extraordinary monk first built a temple here and lived in it, calling it Baegamsa. The temple appears in the records under the names Baegamsa and Jeongtosa.

In 1574, while Hwanyang was resident and reciting the Lotus Sutra daily, white sheep often gathered on hearing the sound of the reading, and for this the temple was renamed Baekyangsa.

In the later eighteenth century Yangak Gyeseon, a disciple of Yeondam Yuil who had inherited Jian’s dharma lineage, greatly built up the lecture hall of Baekyangsa.

In 1911 it was designated one of the thirty head temples under the temple ordinance enforced by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and in 1917 Manam Jongheon rebuilt it.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  White sheep at the sound of the reading

  In 1574, while Hwanyang was resident and reciting the Lotus Sutra daily, white sheep often gathered on hearing the sound, and the temple was renamed Baekyangsa.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  A founder with no name

  In the Silla period an extraordinary monk first built a temple here and lived in it, calling it Baegamsa.

  documented history

• What people do here

  Yangak Gyeseon and the lecture hall

  In the later eighteenth century Yangak Gyeseon, a disciple of Yeondam Yuil, greatly built up the lecture hall of Baekyangsa.

  documented history

This temple’s name came from animals that arrived at a sound. In 1574, while Hwanyang was resident and reciting the Lotus Sutra daily, white sheep often gathered on hearing it, and the temple was renamed Baekyangsa. The monk’s name is written with the characters for calling and for sheep; the record sets his name and the gathering sheep down side by side without saying that either is the reason for the other, and neither does this page.

The temple has changed names more than once. It was Baegamsa first, and it appears in the records as Baegamsa and as Jeongtosa. The present name is the third.

No name survives for its founder. It is written only that in the Silla period an extraordinary monk first built a temple here and lived in it. That is a different footing from the old temples of Gyeongsang, which come down attached to Uisang or Ado or Wonhyo.

There are recent records as well. In 1911 it was designated one of the thirty head temples under the temple ordinance enforced by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and in 1917 Manam Jongheon rebuilt it.

Related guides

• How to visit a Korean templeHands together and hands folded, how the bows work, and what to do at the threshold of a hall. Starting with what is different from visiting a Japanese shrine.
• The small hall behind the main one — sansingak and samseonggakUphill from the main hall of a Korean temple stands a smaller one, and inside it an old man with a tiger. This is where the indigenous religion sits, inside the Buddhist institution.
• Templestay — a night at a templeA programme that puts you inside a temple’s own timetable for a day or two. What you do, which type to book, and what to be ready for.
• Prayer sites and the one wishThe three great Gwaneum sites, the five relic halls, and the crowds before the entrance exam. Where the saying about one wish comes from, and where the record stops.

Sources

1. 백암산 백양사(白巖山 白羊寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)