Baengnyeonsa, Mandeoksan

Quick facts

Address

145 Baengnyeonsa-gil, Doam-myeon, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do

About this place

Baengnyeonsa stands on Mandeoksan in Doam-myeon, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do. Muyeom founded it in 839. Yose was a monk of the Cheontae school who stayed at Songgwangsa in close friendship with the eminent monk Jinul, and in 1208 he attained the subtle meaning of the Cheontae teaching. In 1211 Yose rebuilt this temple on a large scale, and when the work was finished he opened a Samantabhadra practice hall and gathered practitioners centred on action into an association. This is the Baengnyeon association, which stood level with the Suseon association centred on Songgwangsa. Afterwards the temple produced eight national masters of Goryeo across a hundred and twenty years. Beside the temple is the camellia forest of Baengnyeonsa, designated a Natural Monument in 1962.

Origin and history

Muyeom founded Baengnyeonsa in 839.

Yose was a monk of the Cheontae school who stayed at Songgwangsa in close friendship with the eminent monk Jinul, and in 1208 he attained the subtle meaning of the Cheontae teaching.

In 1211 Yose rebuilt this temple on a large scale. When the work was finished he opened a Samantabhadra practice hall and gathered practitioners centred on action into an association — the Baengnyeon association, which stood level with the Suseon association centred on Songgwangsa.

Afterwards the temple produced eight national masters of Goryeo across a hundred and twenty years. Records of this temple appear in the Mandeoksaji of Jeong Yak-yong, among others.

Beside the temple is the camellia forest of Baengnyeonsa, designated a Natural Monument in 1962.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  An association level with Suseon

  After rebuilding the temple in 1211, Yose opened a Samantabhadra practice hall and gathered practitioners into the Baengnyeon association, which stood level with the Suseon association centred on Songgwangsa.

  documented history

• Origin

  Yose at Songgwangsa with Jinul

  Yose was a Cheontae monk who stayed at Songgwangsa in close friendship with Jinul, and in 1208 attained the subtle meaning of the Cheontae teaching.

  documented history

• What people do here

  A hundred and twenty years, eight national masters

  Afterwards the temple produced eight national masters of Goryeo across a hundred and twenty years.

  documented history

Both of Goryeo Buddhism’s great associations are on this site: the Suseon association centred on Songgwangsa, and the Baengnyeon association formed here. The record says the two stood level with each other.

The men who led them were not strangers, though. Yose stayed at Songgwangsa in close friendship with Jinul, attained the subtle meaning of the Cheontae teaching in 1208, and then rebuilt this temple in 1211 and opened a practice hall to form his association. This is a place that broke away and a place that had shared a roof.

What the temple produced is written down as a figure: eight national masters of Goryeo across a hundred and twenty years.

In late Joseon, Jeong Yak-yong, then living in exile at Gangjin, set down the temple’s record as the Mandeoksaji. He appears on this site as one of those who came to Sujongsa in Namyangju, and as the scholar whose influence lies behind the Daedunsaji compiled at Daeheungsa in Haenam.

The camellia forest beside the temple was designated a Natural Monument in 1962.

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. 만덕산 백련사(萬德山 白蓮寺) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)